Fri Mar 28 10:24:13 2008

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Spartans and Tigers meet in Sweet 16 clash in Houston

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Houston, TX (Sports Network) - The South Regional Semifinals of the 70th annual NCAA Tournament plays out tonight, as the Michigan State Spartans and the Memphis Tigers clash at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas.

The top-seeded Tigers continued their impressive season run by recording their 35th win in 36 attempts with a 77-74 win over Mississippi State in the second round of the tourney on Sunday in Little Rock, Arkansas. The victory was the ninth straight for Memphis, the team's only loss of the campaign coming against second-ranked Tennessee at home back on February 23rd. The team now has a total of 101 wins over the last three years, tying it for the fourth- most during a three-year period in NCAA Division I history. The squad is also one of two teams, the other being UCLA, that has reached the Sweet 16 in each of the last three seasons as well.

Meanwhile, the fifth-seeded Spartans are back in the round of 16 for the seventh time in the last 11 years. MSU, which has NCAA titles from both 1979 and 2000, is now 43-20 in the event all-time after defeating Pittsburgh last weekend by a score of 65-54. The win was the third in the last four outings for the Spartans who lost to Wisconsin during the Big Ten Conference Tournament in Indianapolis.

Memphis, which is 27-20 in the tournament all-time, won the only previous meeting between these programs with a 73-57 triumph more than four decades ago (December 30, 1967) in New Orleans. The winner of this bout heads to the Elite Eight this weekend versus the survivor of the Stanford/Texas contest for the right to move on to San Antonio and the Final Four.

Michigan State's defense was top-notch over the weekend versus Pittsburgh, limiting the Panthers to a mere 17-of-52 shooting from the field. Better yet, the perimeter presence by the Spartans was outstanding, holding the Panthers to just 2-of-17 from three-point range. Drew Neitzel, who knocked down 6-of-8 behind the three-point line, finished with a game-high 21 points and also accounted for four of the unit's 12 assists as well. Kalin Lucas contributed 19 points and Goran Suton tallied 14 points and a team-best nine rebounds. Raymar Morgan, who was limited to just four points in 20 minutes due to foul trouble, remains the team's top scorer with his 14.2 ppg, but Neitzel is hot on his heels with his 14.1 ppg. Neitzel, who produced a mere five points against Temple in the first round of the tournament and missed all but one of his eight three-point tries, is still one of the most accurate shooters from beyond the arc remaining in the tournament, having converted 95-of-237 this season alone. Suton (8.7 ppg) isn't looked to for his offense all that often, but it is nice to know that he can still produce from time to time to go along with his team-best 8.2 rpg.

The Tigers seemed to have the easy win all wrapped up against Mississippi State last weekend, up by 10 points with 24 seconds to play, but the opposition refused to go quietly. Before they knew it, the Tigers were holding on for the three-point win because of, yet again, poor free-throw shooting down the stretch. With several failed attempts at the stripe in the final moments, Memphis had to feel lucky to even convert 15-of-32 at the line in the contest. Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose both tallied 17 points and combined for 14 rebounds and 11 assists as well, while Joey Dorsey posted a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds to go with six blocked shots. The six rejections were the most for Dorsey since he opened the campaign with five against Oklahoma and gives him a total of 67 for the season. Dorsey has been able to fly under the radar a bit, averaging a team-best 9.7 rpg, because Douglas-Roberts (17.3 ppg) has been in the spotlight. Douglas-Roberts, a finalist for the Naismith Award, has done a bit of everything for the group this season with 4.2 rpg and 42.7 percent shooting behind the three-point line.