SPOKANE, Wash. — Catching up with some Tigers stuff…..

Unlike the team, which flew back to Memphis via charter after the Tulsa game, I came straight to Spokane today in advance of Saturday’s game against Gonzaga. I’m scheduled to meet with Zags coach Mark Few tomorrow, which hopefully will provide me with some good material to advance the game.

Oddly enough, the weather up here is far better than it was in Tulsa, where it was just bitter cold and snowing on-and-off both Tuesday night and Wednesday. When I landed here, it was about 45 degrees and overcast, which I’ll take over snow any time.

As far as the Tulsa game, I thought it was a very solid road performance. You simply can’t expect Memphis to go out and play flawless basketball and roll people by 30 every time out. Though you’d certainly like to see more from Joey Dorsey, stronger offensive presence by Robert Dozier and better shooting from the 3-point line, the Tigers still did enough to comfortably win another road game by double-digits, putting it away with seven minutes to go.

Chris Douglas-Roberts told me after the game he felt pretty beat up, which isn’t surprising since Tulsa grabbed and bumped him all night long. It will be interesting to see how the Tigers bounce back against Gonzaga after playing a pretty physical game Wednesday, then flying back to Memphis, then taking a four-hour flight here on Friday.

Another note nobody is talking about: With Memphis’ win and losses last night by Rice and UCF, the Tigers are only one win or one Houston loss from clinching a share of the Conference USA regular season title. This isn’t big news, I know, but interesting nonetheless.

Houston has three games coming up in six days: UAB, at Southern Miss and Tulane. If Houston loses any of those, the Tigers will have a chance to clinch the outright title next Thursday at FedExForum against Rice. If Houston wins all three, the Tigers will have a chance to cut down the nets against Houston on Feb. 25.