The Saint Louis Billikens begin their 2012 NCAA Tournament journey on Friday night against the Memphis Tigers. The Tigers are one of the hotter teams in the country after rolling through the Conference-USA Tournament, and the Billikens also have had a very impressive year. Their respective seeds may belie the strength of the two teams, and SB Nation's Andy Hutchins calls this the best game of Friday:
This really shouldn't be a Second Round matchup, and that's even more true if you examine both teams' Kenpom.com profiles, which each have as much highlighter green as Digger Phelps at College GameDay before a Notre Dame game. Do-everything forward Will Barton leads the Tigers on offense and defense, Tarik Black is about as automatic as any post player in America, and Memphis will look to run; Saint Louis counters with excellent defense, and the Billikens could exploit Memphis' weaknesses on the offensive glass.
Saint Louis and Memphis are both ranked in the top 15 of the Pomeroy Ratings, and both feature very good defenses.
The complete Friday schedule for the 2012 NCAA Tournament, with radio information.
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