Janet Dale, famous last spring as part of the Grizzly Growlers blog team, has volunteered to blog a bit from the Regions Morgan Keegan tennis event at the Racquet Club. Here’s her first entry:

Someone once said, “Into each life some rain must fall.” Look outside, I’m not kidding. It seems as if the sky is going to burst forth soon.

It might as well be ME crying, because Andy Roddick isn’t going to be featured on Stadium court tonight. He will be there tomorrow, but I don’t have tickets for tomorrow. What is a girl to do? When I finally decided upon my ticket purchases I was sure that Andy would be my first “real live” tennis match. I was so intent on this that I took a week of vacation to be free to watch as much tennis as possible!

I have decided to forgive Andy, just this once, because every cloud has a silver lining, and this cloud has TOMMY HAAS and VENUS WILLIAMS tonight!

Now I recall watching Tommy quite clearly during the U.S. Open this year. Unfortunately he lost that Quarterfinal match, but made his way into my heart. I didn’t get to watch him win the RMK Championship last year (evil job!) so forgive me for missing that one, please.

Secret German Message to Tommy: Du bist Klasse!

I definitely watched last night as Venus made her comeback. WAY TO GO!

These two matches tonight have got me over the moon, despite the weather. (Now if only I can figure out the parking situation)

Here’s a look at some of the favorites, the not-so-favorites and the teams that nobody wants to play in our district and Division 2 region basketball tournaments. Most get underway today and run through next Wednesday.

District 16-AAA boys at Northside

Favorite: No. 2 seed Central (21-5) - Senior guard Reuben Clayton is good enough to carry Warriors to title. (open play Friday vs. Melrose, 7:30 p.m.)

Darkhorse: No. 1 seed Fairley (19-6) - City-championship meltdown against Raleigh-Egypt could serve as motivation. (open play Saturday vs. Northside, 7:30 p.m.)

Outlook: Watch out for defending Class AAA champ and third-seeded Hamilton (19-8), which finished the regular-season with seven straight wins and has a talented enough mix of seniors to win this tourney. (opens play Friday vs. Kingsbury, 4:30 p.m.)
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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.
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Michael Waltrip seems to have a love-hate relationship with Daytona.

The joy of his first Daytona 500 win in 2001 was swallowed by the death of his friend and boss Dale Earnhardt on the final lap of the same race.

This year, Waltrip came to Florida bubbling with anticipation about being the standard-bearer for Toyota’s entry into Nextel Cup. Unfortunately, his manifold was bubbling with a mystery substance, which caused him to run afoul of NASCAR’s inspectors.

After NASCAR hit his team with some of the heaviest sanctions in the sport’s history, Waltrip nearly pulled his car out of Thursday’s Daytona 500 qualifying races. He didn’t and it gave his whole organization a shot in the arm.
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The four Nextel Cup crew chiefs that were suspended by NASCAR on Tuesday can’t say they weren’t warned.

NASCAR has been tough on cheaters the past couple of years, and Chad Knaus’ suspension last year at Daytona was the first instance of the hard-line stance NASCAR was going to take.

In Chicago last season, teams were told that subsequent penalties would be increasingly harsher.

Now Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler are starting the season with negative points. It’s in line with what NASCAR said was coming.

The only thing that might put a stop to the cheating is that the offending teams will not be allowed to show up to the next race. That’ll him where it counts — the sponsorship.

A quick review for those awaiting Wednesday’s start of the national signing period:

*** The 2007 class will include five mid-year signees previously announced.
They are:
OL Cody Stubblefield (6-4, 305) Itawamba (Miss.) Community College
OL Terrence Echols (6-3, 325) Northwest (Miss.) Community College
WR Steven Black (6-3, 208) East Mississippi Community College
LB Tommy Phelps (6-3, 240) Butler County (Kan.) Community College
P Brent Sutherland (6-4, 200) Hinds (Miss.) Community College

SUMMARY: Black, the former Louisville signee, is the marquee player in the mid-year group, but Phelps is a key pickup, too, and a former Kansas signee. Black joins a receiving corps that lost troubled departing seniors Mario Pratcher and Ryan Scott and may lose Maurice Jones. Black and Duke Calhoun could give Martin Hankins two dependable targets. Phelps is needed to shore up a position that has been wanting.

*** Highly touted running back Robert Elliott (Okolona, Miss) and quarterback Larry Smith (Prattville, Ala.) visited the U of M in early January, but are expected to sign with Southeastern Conference programs. Elliott, an Ole Miss commitment, may end up at Mississippi State and Smith is expected to honor his commitment to Vanderbilt. Elliott was one of the top 15 running backs in the nation and Smith one of the top 25 dual-threat quarterbacks.

*** Expect at least six offensive lineman (counting the mid-year signees) to be part of the ‘07 class. Brent Todd (6-4, 295) is biggest (and most mature) of the group. Ronald Leary of Baton Rouge’s Southern Lab isn’t far behnd at 6-2 and 325 pounds. Leary attracted interest from Southern Miss and Clemson, in addition to Ole Miss.

*** There also will be an emphasis on defensive linemen. Four are expected to sign, including Munford’s Tommy Walker (6-2, 270) who chose Memphis over Ole Miss and Lionel Henderson (6-4, 270) of Mobile Davidson. But the key pickup at that position is former Arkansas signee Freddie Barnett (6-1, 290), who comes to Memphis via Trinity Valley (Texas) JC. Barnett enrolled at the U of M last month.

*** The top local signee looks as if it will be Ridgeway defensive end Dasmine Cathey (6-3, 195), who was the Class 5A Lineman of the Year.

Scott Cacciola, who has The Commercial Appeal’s vote in the AP College Basketball poll, put the Tigers at No. 12 this week.

For those of you chimed in on the discussion a couple weeks ago about Memphis’ ranking, you might remember Cacciola telling columnist Geoff Calkins that he was going to “cap” the Tigers at No. 15 because they hadn’t beaten anyone noteworthy enough to warrant moving up.

But here’s what Cacciola said Monday, after watching both Memphis’ easy win over SMU and seeing so many teams he ranked ahead of the Tigers lose: “I had no choice. I was wrong. I’m eating my words.”