The Tigers face their toughest test of the season this weekend when they travel to Washington to take on the no.3 team in the nation the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Memphis (13-7, 6-3 American Athletic Conference) is coming off one of their best offense performances of the season against East Carolina (8-12, 1-6 AAC) on Wednesday night. The Tigers shot 54 percent from the field and only committed six turnovers en route to a 70-58 home win.
However, the Pirates are not the Bulldogs and Memphis whether it was lucky or not allowed ECU to shoot 13-27 from three in the game and allowed them to cut a 15-point halftime lead to four with 3:50 to go. If the Tigers want to stay in the game against the Bulldogs it will have to be a near-perfect 40-minute performance.
Gonzaga (20-1, 9-0 West Coast Conference) has gotten a lot better since their matchup against the Tigers last season and are now considered as a possible Final Four contender. In their matchup last season, Memphis then no.24 beat then no.23 Bulldogs 60-54 last year in a game that the Bulldogs led for most of the way, before a late Memphis rally gave the Tigers the win at FedEx Forum that night. This season, Gonzaga’s only loss came on the road at then no.3 Arizona in overtime 66-63 on Dec.6.
The Bulldogs are led by coach Mark Few who has coached Gonzaga since the 1999-00 season and has taken them to the NCAA Tournament every year in his reign and has taken them to the Sweet Sixteen on four different occasions with their last appearance coming in the 2008-09 season.
Memphis coach Josh Pastner in the press conference after the ECU win had nothing but praise for Few and Gonzaga but also said the Tigers are going there to win the game.
“Well it’s a great opportunity for us and obviously Gonzaga is a great team and a great program,” Pastner said. “Mark Few should already be in the Hall of Fame there is no reason to wait to put him in and they are (Gonzaga) a potential final four team. But we’re going there to win the game and we’re going to play great and we know we’re going to have to play great (to win) and Gonzaga is a big time team and this is why you come to Memphis to play in these type of games.”
Forward Shaq Goodwin who was supposed to start the game against ECU but sprained his ankle in the warm-up but will play against Gonzaga said that the Tigers are looking forward to the big game against the Bulldogs.
“It's an amazing opportunity to be there,” Goodwin said. “They are a top five team with one of the best coaches to coach the game. With their RPI and all of that stuff comes into play with this game. We are just looking forward to getting there and playing on Saturday night."
One of the things the Tigers will have to do to earn a marquee win against the Bulldogs is to play solid defense. Gonzaga has the 11th best scoring offense in the country scoring nearly 82 points a game and are also no.1 in field goal percentage in the country shooting an incredible 53 percent from the field and the Bulldogs also shoot an impressive 41 percent from three-point range.
Junior forward Kyle Wiltjer leads the Bulldogs in scoring as he averages 15.8 points a game on 54 percent shooting from the field and 43 percent from three-point range. The 6-foot-10 forward also averages 5.1 rebounds a game to go along with two assists.
The Tigers will also hope to contain senior guard Kevin Pangos who leads the Bulldogs in assists with nearly five per game (4.9) and also averages 12.4 points a game shooting 50 percent from the field and 47 percent from three.
In addition to having to play solid defense, the Tigers will also need to match Gonzaga’s firepower with some of their own. This means players like sophomore forward Austin Nichols will have to play at an even higher-level for the Tigers to remain competitive in this game.
Nichols is averaging 13.3 points on 52 percent shooting, 6.0 rebounds and 3.2 blocks a game this season. But he’ll probably have to match his game against Tulane on Jan.4 in which he had a career high 28 points, nine rebounds and four blocks in a Tigers 74-66 loss.
Others who will be asked to step up such as Goodwin who has a disappointing season only averaging 7.8 points and 5.5 rebounds, and has even reduced to a bench role at times, but Pastner said Saturday is a great opportunity for Goodwin to get back on track.
"There’s no doubt that Shaq is a big time part of what we're trying to accomplish,” Pastner said. “He's capable of being a big-time player. He's been a little up and down, but I believe he is going to break out of it. There couldn't be a better time for him to break out of it than this Saturday against Gonzaga.”
Memphis will take on Gonzaga on Saturday at 9 p.m. at the McCarthy Athletic Center in Spokane, Washington. ESPN2 will broadcast the game.
