Beyond all the obvious things like defense and depth and experience, the Tigers’ 76-63 victory over Arizona last night showed me something more subtle but incredibly necessary for them to win a national championship: In a high-profile game, Memphis does not have to rely on its guards to get things done offensively.

It’s been proven over and over in the NCAA Tournament that teams with great guards and mediocre post players simply don’t win national titles. You can get to the Final Four, perhaps, but to win six straight games in March and April, you need big people to provide easy points you can count on.

Last year, Florida’s top three big men accounted for 38.5 percent of the team’s points. Here’s how the previous national champions this decade stack up by the same statistical standard:

2006 Florida — 40.2 percent
2005 North Carolina — 47.2 percent
2004 Connecticut — 37.3 percent
2003 Syracuse — 51.2 percent
2002 Maryland — 38.1 percent
2001 Duke — 47.9 percent
2000 Michigan State — 34.5 percent

Admittedly, this is a flawed statistical analysis for many reasons. With Syracuse, for instance, you have to count Carmelo Anthony as a big on that team, even though he is more of a wing. But the point remains, I firmly believe that legitimate national title teams have to get roughly one-third of their points from their big people.

How does Memphis stack up in that regard? Through 11 games, 28.4 percent of the Tigers points have been scored by Robert Dozier, Joey Dorsey and Shawn Taggart. That’s up from 26.9 percent last season by Dozier, Dorsey and Kareem Cooper. It’s also worth nothing that Dozier and Dorsey have each missed two games due to injuries, so the Tiger bigs would probably account for well over 30 percent if they had been healthy.

Though Dorsey is pretty much giving you what he’s going to give you — a consistent 8 to 12 points — Tiger fans have every right to be encouraged by the uptick in production from Dozier (19 points against Georgetown, 18 against Arizona) and Taggart (15 points against Arizona).

Some major changes this week on my ballot.

Say hello to: Dayton (18), Wisconsin (24)
Say goodbye to: BYU (19), Miami (Fla.) (20)

Moving up: Marquette (11 to 8), Tennessee (14 to 11)
Moving down: Pittsburgh (7 to 20), Texas (4 to 13)

Just missed (in order): Oklahoma, Rhode Island, St. Mary’s, Xavier, BYU

– I’m still not a Washington State believer, but at some point you have to acknowledge the record. They are not the sixth-best team in the country, but until they lose, I’ll won’t move them down.
– Marquette has just been killing people the last few weeks. I’m picking them to win the Big East.
– I moved Tennessee past Vanderbilt for the first time since they lost to Texas. The Commodores have been hanging on, and the Vols are playing better basketball.
– Arizona and Southern Cal are in the same boat. Can’t penalize them for losing to Memphis.
– I considered dropping Pittsburgh out completely. If Levance Fields is indeed out for two months, to go along with the injury to Mike Cook, Pitt probably isn’t a top-25 team. But because of their record, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

And now, the ballot:
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If you are an NFL team that wants to challenge history and go undefeated then make sure you have a Memphis/Memphis State Tigers player on your team. The only two teams to do it now are the 1972 Miami Dolphins with Charlie Babb on their roster and the 2007 New England Patriots with Stephen Gostkowski. The two most recent runs prior to this year’s Pats team was the 2005 Colts and 1985 Bears. Neither team had a Tigers player on their roster therefore were destined to fail. So if you’re an NFL team who wants to challenge destiny make sure you draft a Tigers player soon if you don’t already have one on your roster.

The first half of the Tigers win over Arizona proved once again you can take away some weapons but not all of them. The Wildcats did a good job on CDR and Rose in the first half. But Dozier and company stepped right in and knocked them down. Cal’s recruiting has proven to be nothing short of awesome. And that’s in the truest definition of awesome as they simply overwhelm opponents.
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