Guardians Classic to hold semifinals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The semifinalists in the NABC Guardians Classic have something in common: numbers in front of their names.

Four ranked teams, led by No. 5 Missouri, make up the field for tonight's semifinal games at Kemper Arena.

The Tigers meet No. 22 Alabama in the late game, after No. 9 Iowa and No. 12 Memphis play for the other spot in Wednesday's championship game. The losers of today's semifinals will play for third place on Wednesday.

"We wanted to test our team early," Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said. "A good team is going to come out of this with two losses."

Although Kemper Arena is techniclly a neutral court, Missouri should be the crowd favorite -- especially considering that the Tigers' Kareem Rush, a preseason All-America pick, went to high school in Kansas City.

While Rush and Iowa seniors Luke Recker and Reggie Evans are the marquee names in the semifinals, the most talented player may be Memphis' freshman guard Dajuan Wagner, who averaged 42.5 points as a senior at Camden (N.J.) High School.

Wagner, the national high school player of the year, scored 32 points in a 91-66 rout of Old Dominion last week.

"He has been on the cover of USA Today and is being covered like Michael Jordan's comeback," Memphis coach John Calipari said.

Memphis is probably only a brief stop for Wagner before he jumps to the NBA.

"He's talking two years," Calipari said. "He's explosive. He's got the green light to shoot. He's still learning conditioning, defense and all those things."

Memphis is young, with only one senior, Kelly Wise, in the starting lineup.

"We've got talented players, but they are young and they haven't been challenged," Calipari said. "They haven't been through adversity. I don't know how they're going to react when the other team gets a 10-point burst."

To beat Iowa, the Tigers must handle Evans, who led the nation with 346 free-throw attempts and 22 double-doubles last year.

"He's a warrior," Calipari said. "He's relentless. If he catches it, he's either fouled or scoring. And Recker is one of the best guards in the country. That's why they are ranked where they are."