Sportsfrog.com

That baseline dunk by Chris Douglas-Roberts in the mug of Kevin Love signaled the beginning of the end for UCLA in the second half last night. Consider that it was followed a by a monstrous block by Joey Dorsey on the other end leading to a fast break culminating in a circus lay-up by Derrick Rose and the game was done. The rest was just running the clock down to the inevitable.

Happily, for Memphis fans, the whispers (and some shouts) of criticism of the team, their offense, their style of play, and the conference from which they have come have been muffled. Hard to see how they could not be at this point.

A round-up of the national chatter:

—Luke Winn at si.com on that sequence that began with CDR’s mauling of Kevin Love:

“Extreme pressure on Collison meant that Love — who carried UCLA here in much the same fashion that Rose did with Memphis — didn’t even get his hands on the ball enough to make a game-changing impact. Dorsey, who finished with 15 rebounds to Love’s nine, was a physical force inside, but he played only 27 minutes; while he was on the bench, Shawn Taggart and Robert Dozier employed a swarming, double-teaming tactic that gave Love fits.

“I guess [Love] had never played against a team as athletic and long as us,” said Taggart. “He was frustrated. … I’ve seen him play [in games] when he got the ball 20 times, and I think he only got it about six today.” Dozier admitted that Memphis’ game plan had been not even to guard auxiliary big men such as Alfred Aboya, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute or Lorenzo Mata-Real. The Tigers’ post defenders were strictly assigned to the task of keeping Love uncomfortable.”

That they did. Then again, UCLA guards were so dominated that they really couldn’t get Love the ball. Unreal.

—Gary Parrish at sportsline on the carnage:

“The Sweet 16, Elite Eight and Final Four have been simple, like earlier matchups with SMU, Rice and Tulane. Typically indifferent writers have walked away using words like whoa and wow, and there was this one guy who described himself as slack-jawed in the postgame news conference.

Honestly, the whole thing has been absurd and ridiculous — just Memphis rolling through one opponent after another while using a dribble-drive motion offense that’s been labeled everything from “innovative” to “irritating.” Some people like it, sure. But most traditionalists roll their eyes and call it glorified street ball. Either way, here’s what I know: It’s working. And the main reason is Derrick Rose. The coldest hooper of them all. “We don’t look at Derrick as a freshman,” said Memphis senior Joey Dorsey, who finished with no points and 15 rebounds against UCLA. “Once he came in here he was coached by the veterans a little bit, but he just came in and started playing. And he’s playing well right now.” No kidding.”

And, for some flavor from Memphis, check out Commercial Appeal columnist Geoff Calkins. Yeah, we’re happy.

This has been fun. It is a generally likeable team, and all year, as they toyed with opponents and trying to avoid boredom, there was the worry that they would never put it all together and show the world how good they were. The last three romps over Michigan State, Texas, and UCLA have made certain that the memories of this team will always be fond. No matter what happens against Kansas (and I have no idea myself, I thought UNC would take care of them easily—oops), it has been the best season in Memphis’ history, and this the best Tigers team ever assembled. And there have been some good ones here, so that’s saying something.

Yeah, fun