The Memphis Tigers: Peak Performance Case Study

"It's great, it's great! We all believe in each other and we expect great things to happen, so this isn't new to us."

--Chris Douglas-Roberts, following the Tigers' impressive semifinal win in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament win over the UCLA Bruins.

The Memphis Tigers are playing for the 2008 NCAA Championship against the Kansas Jayhawks. The Tigers became the winningnest team ever in a single season, Saturday, April 5, 2008, beating UCLA 78-63 in the NCAA men's semifinals. Following the win, they are now 38-1, . Now they have a chance to do what the other 37-win teams -- Duke, Illinois and UNLV -- couldn't do: win a national championship.

Chris Douglas-Roberts led the team with 28 hard-eaned points, while his running mate, freshman Derrick Rose added 25 points, including shooting 11 of 12 from the free throw line. In fact, the entire team hit 20 or 23 free throws against UCLA for a percentage of .870.

Much has been made of the #2 ranked Memphis Tigers' struggles from the free-throw line this year. Despite a record of 33-1, poor foul shooting was expected to be Memphis' biggest weakness heading into the South Regional in Houston.

Many critics expected Memphis to be beaten in a close game where free-throws were thought to be a problem. They made just 59.2 percent all season. However, in the Regional Final when Texas' desperation led to fouling the Tigers late in the game, Memphis made its free throws. The Tigers were 30-of-36 for an 83.3 percentage from the foul line and 18-of-22 in the final four minutes.

Against the Longhorns, Chris Douglas-Roberts had a game-high 25 points and finished by hitting a season-best 14 of 17 from the line, Derrick Rose converted 7 of 8 foul shots. Rose, who picked up his South Regional Most Outstanding Player award, led Memphis past Texas 85-67 on Sunday, March 30, 2008 for its first trip to the Final Four since 1985.

"I'm just living the dream right now," said Rose, who finished with 21 points, nine assists and six rebounds. "Everybody back home is happy for me and our fans back in Memphis are happy, so we're just living it up."

The Tigers tied the NCAA Division I record for wins in a season, with their only loss coming to a team ranked No. 2 at the time. They've been first, second or third in the poll all season.

Calipari even compared Rose to another icon of greatness, Tiger Woods. Actually, Calipari brought it up last weekend, when he passed along an article about Woods to Rose, telling him, "This is who I believe you can be, physically, skill-wise."

"He's got to improve, got to get on the range a little bit and get that stroke right, but he also has the mental capacity and the mental toughness and the intelligence to be unique and special. And it sets him apart," Calipari said.

"He's been that way since we got him, so it's nothing I've done with him. He just has a will to win. It may be with a defensive stop. It may be with a rebound that he nicked his head on the rim as he went to get it. It may be outrunning the entire field when he started behind everybody. It may be a steal, a dive, a tip out of nowhere, and then again it may be a drive, baseline and dunk on their team."

The #2-ranked Memphis Tigers, who finished the regular season with a record of 30-1 were the top seed in this week's 2008 NCAA regional tournament after winning two preliminary rounds and taking the C-USA Tournament before that.

On Saturday, March 8, Memphis coach John Calipari joined legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp as the only Division I men's coaches to win 30 or more games in three straight seasons. They hope to win the program's first NCAA championship this year.

During the 2007 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, Head Coach John Calipari, began to use mental imagery and visualization to help his team improve their poor free-throw shooting.  Take a look at his approach.