Penny for your thoughts, NCAA selection committee?
Because you done screwed this up. Royally. CSU took its absolutely criminal seeding — A 12? Seriously? — out on Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway’s Memphis bunch Friday. The Rams sent the 5-seeded Tigers home from the NCAA Tournament with a 78-70 loss, one that wasn’t really as close as the final score.
“We felt like they were playing harder than us in the first half,” hot-shooting CSU guard Kyan Evans told CBS after the game. “And we wanted to come out and change that in the second.”
Did they ever. Evans’ six 3-pointers, three in the second stanza, rallied the Rammies (26-9) from a five-point halftime deficit and carried CSU to the round of 32 for the first time since 2013.
Some teams forget how to win. The Rams have forgotten how to lose. Evans (23 points), senior wing Nique Clifford (14 points, eight rebounds, six assists) and CSU are riding a heater through college basketball the way Slim Pickens rode that bomb at the end of “Dr. Strangelove.”
CSU has won 11 straight, adding the AAC-champion Tigers (29-6) to a wall of pelts that already featured the Broncos of Boise State (thrice), the Aggies of Utah State (twice), the Aztecs of San Diego State and the Horned Frogs of TCU.
Memphis threw everything but a bathroom sink at CSU to keep the ball out of Clifford’s hands in the first half. The Colorado Springs native went into the break with just five points on 1-of-5 shooting from the floor.
Nique hadn’t peaked, though. Mount Clifford went back into Air Jordan mode in the second 20, rising for a fadeaway jumper six minutes into the stanza to give the Rammies a 50-48 lead. On the Tigers’ next possession, Clifford poked a Memphis ball out of the passing lane and led a break the other way, feeding Bowen Born for an easy deuce and a four-point cushion.
CSU’s 7-0 run became 9-0 on a pair of Born free throws, then 11-2 on two more Clifford makes at the stripe, then 14-4 on an Evans trey. Evans’ second triple in 70 seconds, a stepback dagger cut straight from The Tao of Steph Curry, extended the Rams’ lead to 64-54 with 8:38 left in the game and forced Hardaway to call a timeout to try and scramble back the game and the moment.
It didn’t work. Memphis missed nine of its first 12 tries from the floor in the second half, while the Rams connected on eight of their opening 15.
Evans and Clifford combined to pull CSU out of the Dainja Zone. Despite a bruising, splendid first half from Tigers forward Dain Dainja (22 points, 12 boards), a 6-foot-9, 270-pound load with an NBA body and a soft touch, the Rams hung in and hung tough, outscoring the better seed 33-23 over the final 15 minutes.
And talk about Madness. As usual, the committee appeared to draw up its bracket on New Year’s Eve, without much research on so-called mid-majors after that. Memphis was a 5 based on who it beat before Christmas — Mizzou, UConn, Michigan State, Clemson — while the Rams landed a 12 based on who they didn’t.
Memphis might’ve been America’s favorite 5 to lose — but saddling the Rams with a 12 was so ignorant and outright dumb by the selection committee that it was either a lousy attempt at a joke, or a bid to create intentional chaos.
Based on what we saw Friday, they might get their wish. Because CSU getting the shaft also landed them a potentially great draw as a result.
There was a reason so many saw this coming — the NCAA’s NET ranking and KenPom.com both said that CSU was a better team than the Tigers right now. Hardaway might be rolling with AAU studs, but Memphis also ranked 245th nationally in free-throw percentage (70.5) and 296th in turnover rate. And Sunday’s matchup? Maryland, with road/neutral losses to Washington, Northwestern and Ohio State, shouldn’t scare you. Neither should Grand Canyon.
Not while Peak Nique, arguably the best player still kicking in the second round of the NCAA tourney, wears green and gold — and doesn’t want this ride to end. Someone tell the NCAA selection types that anytime Mount Clifford checks in right now, there’s a good chance the team trying to guard him is about to be checking out.