Not a ton of Texas folks appear to be sticking around for the second game. The crowd is going to be way, way smaller here tonight. Without all the burnt orange, it’s pretty easy to see that Memphis has probably a 3 or 4-to-1 advantage over Michigan State in terms of fans. In a stadium this big, however, I’m not sure it will matter one iota.

I’m sitting directly across from the Memphis bench. Will be interesting to see how the team handles the odd setup. Looking at the box score from the first game here, Texas only made 7-of-22 from 3-point range and still won by 20 points. Stanford did not have the quickness on the perimeter to keep up with the Longhorns, and they got to the basket at will, which was reflected in the 49.2 field goal percentage.

Karl Hess, Bert Smith and Tom O’Neill are the officials. O’Neill is certainly familiar with the Tigers; he works a lot of their games in C-USA, including the championship game of the conference tournament.

Sitting here courtside — and literally at eye level — here in Reliant Stadium, it appears as though Texas is going to win its South Regional semifinal against Stanford. It’s a 10-point game as I type, and Stanford has just missed out on the key rebounds in this game that could have swung it the other way. The atmosphere in here is interesting; for most of the game, the crowd hasn’t been that big of a factor, in my view. It’s such a huge place, and even though it’s 95% Texas fans, the sound just kind of goes into the air. There have been a couple moments when it’s been pretty loud, but it’s not like one of those road games where the place is just going nuts for 40 minutes. It’s a little more antiseptic in here, but obviously it’s still an advantage for the Longhorns and will be again in the Regional Final if they close out the last 8 minutes of this one.

Tiger fans should be hoping that Wisconsin’s brutal loss tonight to Davidson represents what the Big 10 was this season. If that’s the case, the Tigers will be in great shape tonight. My pick is Memphis, and my hero tonight is Andre Allen. Why? When I checked into my hotel here on Wednesday, the front desk person was named Andrae Allen. Weird, huh? Well, how about this one? Last night, Jim Masilak and I went to a restaurant to eat and watch the end of the Tennessee-Louisville game. We sat down at the bar and eventually learned that the young ladies seated next to us at the bar were from Memphis originally. Not just that, but one of them said she knew Andre Allen. Too much.

I’ll update closer to tip-off, which looks like it will be on time.