« MRI2006: Tournament Projection #2 | Main | MRI2006: Tournament Projection #3 »
February 5, 2007
MRI2006: Week 11 - Is Memphis For Real?
As the first week of February came to a close and interesting phenomenon of the last two years took place again. I am speaking of the emergence of Memphis into the top four in the MRI. Last season, the Tigers were one of the leaders throughout the season and entered the tournament as the #1 team in the MRI.
This was partially due to the exodus of their conference foes over the last ten years to the Big East. The departure of Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette, and to a lesser extent, DePaul, to the Big East (yes, and South Florida too) left a large void at the top of the conference. Memphis was the lone giant in a conference of schools which have been good at times, but haven't had recent sustained success.
And so the Tigers can beat up on the conference year after year, and this season, look as if they can make it through unscathed, something that wasn't possible just two seasons back. And as they rise in the standings, you have to wonder if they are for real.
Last year sure seemed like they were. They lost a very defensive game against UCLA in the tournament last year, and were seconds away from a berth in the Final Four. As we know now, UCLA went on to lose to the Florida onslaught in the championship game. So, Memphis definitely proved it could compete this year.
However, at #3, and with the biggest gain this week, albeit against Central Florida and SMU, it just doesn't look like this team has the drive of last year. There is only one test ahead on their schedule with Gonzaga, and the conference should prove no issue for them. Unlike last season when they had at least a little push from the rest of the league, Memphis is going to roll into the tournament with a less than battle hewn squad.
Keep an eye on the Tigers. They may just be a paper squad, and not a true warrior.
Check out all the rankings in Week 11 of the MRI.
| And Now the Rankings | |||||
| Teams Dropped From The Top 25: | |||||
| Maryland (LW #21, TW #27), Villanova (LW #23, TW #26), Providence (LW #24, TW #30) | |||||
| Other Teams People Might Care About | |||||
| Last Place this week: North Florida (0-21) at -96.34. 2nd week in a row. | |||||
| Biggest Gain this week: Memphis gained 16.18 points (Beat Central Florida and SMU) | |||||
| Biggest Loss this week: Princeton lost 20.93 points (Lost to Seton Hall, Yale, and Brown) | |||||
| Conference rankings this week: ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, PAC-10, MVC, Mountain West, C-USA, WAC, Atlantic 10 | |||||
The MRI Rankings are copyright 2007 by MRISports.com. Ben Miraski writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com
Posted by bmiraski at February 5, 2007 2:00 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mrisports.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/380