KANSAS CITY — That wasn’t the alarm clock going off—it was Roburt Sallie.

While the rest of the Tigers hit snooze, Memphis got record-setting contributions from a reserve who went scoreless in nine games this season, avoiding near disaster in an opening round game against Cal State Northridge on Thursday.

“Coach gets on me because I don’t come to play sometimes in the morning games,” the sophomore guard said. “But today, I just stayed awake and stayed focused that whole morning. It paid off.”

Can't argue with that.

Here are just a few of the records Sallie set on Thursday: most three-point baskets in a first round contest (10) and most points by a Memphis player in a tournament game (35), which—goes without saying— were personal bests in both categories.

“I don’t think my teammates would ever expect me to break a record like that,” said Sallie, who scored 11 straight points during a span of 2:20 in the first half. “I don’t think I’ve [made 10 threes] before.”

That was just one of many half-truths the Tigers told the media following an 81-70 victory that was far closer than the final score would indicate.

Technically speaking, Sallie fared better in a shooting drill earlier this week. “The other day [in practice], Coach was behind me and he said, ‘Make 10 straight.’”

Sallie made 14.

“I knew he had it in him all along,” teammate Antonio Anderson chimed in. “He was confident today and he was just knocking them down.”

In his postgame press conference, head coach John Calipari again went out of his way to build up CUSA, a conference that sent only Memphis to the Big Dance this season.

“[CSU Northridge] played us like teams in our league play us,” said Calipari, referring both to his opponent’s tenacity and defensive schemes. “UTEP did this to us, had their chances to beat us; Tulsa did it to us down there.”

But the zone defense and the transition offense—the Matadors racked up 23 fast break points—the Tigers saw out of Cal State Northridge in no way compare to what they saw in CUSA.

And Memphis was visibly stunned.

Yet, Antonio Anderson, who picked up nine assists while feeding Sallie’s hot hand, says his team never panicked despite trailing by as many as seven points and as late as the 7:00 mark.

“We were never scared," Anderson said. "Scared is never in our minds.”

Believe that if you will. But believe this, too: The Tigers got an early wake-up call against Cal State Northridge, and they better get up on the right side of the bed Saturday, when they take on a tougher Maryland squad.

For more on Sallie's backstory, click here.