DaytonDailyNews.com

SAN ANTONIO — University of Memphis forward Joey Dorsey says he rooted for Ohio State to beat Xavier and Tennessee so he could face 7-foot center Greg Oden today.

"This is the game I wanted," said the 6-9, 260-pound junior. "I'm an underrated big man, and he's a lot overrated as a big man. It's going to be a great rebounding game for me."

Dorsey averages 9.6 rebounds per game.

"I'm going to have a 20-rebound night because Coach (John Calipari) said this was going to be my breakout game," Dorsey said. "We watched tape this morning and last night, and (Oden's) a lot like me. If he gets his head out of the game, he easily can pick up a couple of fouls. Then he stops playing and then he picks up a foul trying to play too hard."

Oden, predictably, took Dorsey's comments as a challenge.

"I guess I need to show up," Oden said. "I guess he's been ready for me for a long time."

Magic of television

Some CBS replays showed that Ramar Smith's shot may not have counted Thursday night even if Oden had not swatted it away.

The official play-by-play credits Oden with a block that preserved the top-ranked Buckeyes' wild 85-84 win over Tennessee in the South Regional semifinal.

There were no officials' comments Friday to clarify the situation. Had the shot gone in, there could have been a replay review. A reversal would have made an incredible game even stranger.

"(CBS announcer) Bill Raftery told me after the game he didn't think it would have counted," OSU coach Thad Matta said. "I didn't rewind it, sorry."

Now he knows

Matta sheepishly admitted he didn't know who Ron Lewis was or scout him at Columbus Brookhaven High School.

"I'm embarrassed to say we didn't," Matta said, then joked, "I don't know (why), but a couple of coaches lost their jobs over that."

Lewis is averaging 21.7 points per game in the NCAA tourney. He didn't know much about Matta when he transferred from Bowling Green, but he knew enough.

"I know he'd been winning since he became a coach," Lewis said. "And I also knew that he played the style of basketball that I would like to play."

Exploding schedules

Memphis (16-0) rolled through Conference USA, but Calipari defended a nonconference schedule that included wins against Kentucky and Gonzaga, plus other tough games.

"When we're playing at Arizona, at Gonzaga, at Tennessee, playing in Maui, the teams in the tougher conferences are playing Popcorn State," he said.

Layups

• Memphis' leading scorer, Chris Douglas-Roberts, has played through a painful ankle sprain. "It is sore but I am getting treatments," he said. "By tomorrow it really doesn't matter."

• Oden's mom, Zoe, didn't make it to San Antonio. But Oden said she plans to be in Columbus today to see son Anthony and Dunbar High School go for a Division II state title.

• Lewis didn't like how Tennessee's players looked at halftime Thursday with a 49-32 lead: "Their body language was like they already had the game won."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or mgokavi@DaytonDailyNews.com.