For me, the first week of the college basketball season begins right now. Though Memphis Madness isn’t until Friday, my schedule is already booked up with Conference USA Media Day on Thursday, the Tigers’ weekly pre-preseason practice on Wednesday, the arrival of the Chinese coaching delegation on Tuesday and interviews Monday for some exciting preseason previews we’re working on. Hopefully you guys will enjoy our comprehensive coverage of the 2007-08 basketball season, both in The Commercial Appeal and on The Memphis Edge.

Sometime before C-USA Media Day, the league will release its preseason poll. Here’s how I think the poll will look:

1. Memphis
2. UAB
3. Houston
4. Southern Miss
5. Tulsa
6. Central Florida
7. UTEP
8. Tulane
9. Marshall
10. SMU
11. East Carolina
12. Rice

Here’s how my ballot looks, with explanation:

Read the rest of this entry »

Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni gave the team today off. Not a bad place to spend a little free time, eh? Actually, this is the team’s first day without a practice since training camp began more than a week ago. The players had gone through grueling two-a-days and a long flight to Spain so they were due for some time off.

Knowing that no practice was scheduled for Sunday, Spaniard Pau Gasol took his teammates out Saturday night for dinner and a little partying. Needless to say, what happens in Malaga apparently stays in Malaga. It’s obvious, though, that the players-only group had a great time judging by the body language once they made it back to the hotel.

There is something to be said for bonding during training camp. It promotes unity and trust on and off the court.

Video Postcard
Hard to say what the players did Sunday with time to themselves. Mike Miller sounded as though he was looking for Gasol to be sort of a tour guide.

Sneak preview
Gasol’s image can be found in a lot of commercial advertising around Spain. For instance, this poster is in the window of a local bank.

Odds and Ends

* In addition to having two laptops to use in a Grizzlies-only conference room in the hotel, the league recently installed Sony PlayStation 3 stations for the players.

* Midtown residents Keith and Cary Brown are in Spain with the Grizzlies after winning a season-ticket holders lottery following their renewal. Read Monday’s Commercial Appeal to find out about the Browns and their all-expense paid trip.

* Crime isn’t exclusive to Memphis as many would have you believe. Someone stole the large, inflatable basketball that the NBA placed in the middle of a busy downtown street to promote Europe Live’s Grizzlies-Unicaja game.

* Miami’s Dwyane Wade topped a list of the most popular NBA jerseys in Europe. Denver’s Allen Iverson ranked second.
Among the top eight were four European players, including Gasol at No. 7. San Antonio’s Tony Parker (No. 3) and Phoenix’s Boris Diaw (No. 6) ranked ahead of Gasol.
Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani ranked eighth.
The list also included L.A. Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (No. 4), Cleveland’s LeBron James (No. 5), Denver’s Carmelo Anthony (No. 9) and Houston’s Tracy McGrady (No. 10).
Sales of NBA merchandise in Europe increased 40 percent from last season, with international sales accounting for 25 percent of the league’s overall global merchandise business.

Quotable

“Basketball aside, no country has improved more in all facets of life since (1990 when he began scouting Europe). It was a high-level country to begin with but it’s blossomed into a power in every since of the word.” -– Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace on Spain’s overall emergence.

It wasn’t the best of weekends for C-USA teams. The schedule-makers made a lot of non-conference games. Here’s how it went. Click on the links to go to stories about the games:

EAST CAROLINA 52, UCF 38: The Pirates trailed by two touchdowns early in the second half. That’s when the turnover fun began. ECU forced five turnovers, scored four touchdowns and jumped into first place in the East Division. The loss left the Knights and their fans shaking their heads.

UTEP 48, TULSA 47: The Miners jumped into first place in the West with a win in this offensive shootout. And for the second time in two weeks, they overcame a two-touchdown deficit to do it. The Hurricane doesn’t like visiting El Paso. In 2005, a field goal at the end of the game beat Tulsa.

ALABAMA 30, HOUSTON 24: The Cougars had a chance to send an Alabama homecoming crowd home in tears, but couldn’t quite pull it off.

MISSISSIPPI STATE 30, UAB 13: The Blazers defense had the answers in the first half. In the second half, they couldn’t solve the riddle of Anthony Dixon.

ARMY 20, TULANE 17: Remember when Army was in Conference USA? The Black Knights didn’t win much. Now that they’re gone, things are different. A late Hail Mary and then an OT field goal cost the Wave.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Nebraska fans, supporters and alumni are screaming at the top of their lungs this morning. Nebraska should not lose to Missouri much less by 35 points.

USC drops one to….get this….Stanford. This is simply an unforgivable offense by Pete Carroll and his staff.

Central Florida goes into the Greenville, NC and gets manhandled by ECU. That simply shouldn’t have happened because the coaches should have had the Knights better prepared.

Every football expert on the planet both professional and amatuer would say that Southern Miss is a much better team than Rice. But the Golden Eagles turn the ball over 7 times and lose the the “inferior” Owls. Come on Bower you should have prevented those turnovers.

The national media darling South Florida struggles to get past Florida Atlantic. Oh my goodness, the Bulls are a fluke after all.

A struggling Tennessee team whips up on 12th ranked Georgia. What were Mark Richt and his staff doing? How could they have let the Bulldogs slip to lose to an undoublty weaker Volunteer team?

And all this just happened in the last 3 days. It is indicative of what is going on in NCAA football where no team is safe. It is called parity. It also shows us that waiting to judge a team at the end of a season is the smartest thing to do. But then again, what do I know I had USC and gave the points. That’s a joke, I don’t bet on sports. And that’s another story for another day.