Texas A&M from 0-16 to NCAA round of 16, no seed advantage for Memphis

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- John Calipari realizes Memphis is again at a disadvantage in the NCAA tournament despite having a better seed.

When the Tigers play Texas A&M in the South Regional semifinal Thursday night, most of the fans will be rooting for the Aggies, whose campus is only about a 2 1/2-hour drive from the Alamodome.

While Calipari would prefer playing in front of the Tigers' own partisan crowd, he also knows the other side of that situation.

"The most pressure I've ever felt as a coach, not even close, was (at Massachusetts) playing Boston College on a neutral court. We had 75 percent of the fans. We were supposed to win," Calipari said. "I'm talking Kentucky in the Final Four, Elite Eight games, Chicago Bulls in the playoffs, the most pressure I've ever felt was that game."

Memphis (32-3), a No. 2 seed, is in the NCAA round of 16 for the second straight year. The Tigers' 24-game winning streak is the nation's longest, with the last loss coming Dec. 20 at Arizona before their undefeated run through Conference USA.

Texas A&M hasn't been this far in the tournament since 1980. But in three seasons under Billy Gillispie, the Aggies have gone from an 0-16 record in the Big 12 to the NCAA regional semis and a school-record 27 victories.

"Coming in as a freshman and talking to Coach before I got to campus, he said we're going to win, we're going to do great things and it won't take us long," said junior Joseph Jones, who wasn't part of that 0-16 team. "We have been riding that since then. It's been fun."

The Aggies now get a chance to do what Texas did four years ago in the same building, earn a spot in the Final Four by winning twice in front of their own fans.

Except, Gillispie knows it won't be that easy.

"I hope they talk about it being the greatest home-court advantage in the history of college basketball," Gillispie said. "But we have to play against a really talented, well-coached team, and that's going to determine the outcome of the game, not the crowd."

A crowd of more than 30,000 is expected Thursday, mostly in A&M maroon. If the Aggies (27-6) win, there might not be another color visible for the regional final on Saturday.

Texas A&M was in the same position for its second-round game last weekend as Memphis is in now. The Aggies had to beat Louisville at Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington, just more than an hourlong drive from the Cardinals' campus.

That's even more reason for the Aggies to be cautious.

"We'd be really dumb to think that we're going to have any kind of home-court advantage as far as once the game is being played," Gillispie said. "We just came from a situation where we were in the exact opposite situation. We know how we thought about that."

As a No. 1 seed last March, Memphis advanced to a regional final in Oakland, Calif., before losing 50-45 to local-favorite UCLA.

Joey Dorsey is still motivated by what happened against UCLA, when the 6-foot-9 Memphis forward had early foul trouble and was limited to only two points in 21 minutes. He still watches that tape.

Calipari expects another physical game against Texas A&M, which ranks second nationally in field-goal percentage defense (37.3 percent) and has allowed fewer than 60 points a game.

"If you're not sturdy, you're going to be pushed into the cheerleaders and you're going to have a pompom in your hand pretty fast," Calipari said.

Memphis hasn't been to the Final Four since 1985, when its NCAA run included four straight victories in Texas. The Tigers have won 10 straight tournament games in Texas, including two last year in Dallas.

No. 1 seed Ohio State and Tennessee play in the other South Regional game Thursday night.

"I want to play the toughest team every night," Dorsey said. "I would love to play Tennessee, but I'd love to play Ohio State."

The Tigers have to first beat Texas A&M and quiet the crowd.