Like most people, I nonchalantly believed freshman Derrick Rose would immediately come in and start for the Tigers at point guard. Maybe that assumption was premature. Not that Rose hasn’t been great — he has, and he’s getting better every day — but I now believe sophomore Willie Kemp will be the starting point guard for the Nov. 5 opener against Tennessee-Martin.

This is based on two factors: 1) Kemp (right) is running with the “first team” during offensive dummy drills. 2) John Calipari is talking about Rose as a possible answer to Marvin Williams, who was effectively the sixth man on North Carolina’s national championship team in 2005 and was drafted No. 2 overall following his freshman season.

If this is indeed Calipari’s plan, I can certainly see some value in it. For one thing, you can keep last year’s starting lineup in tact. Second, when you think about personnel groupings, Kemp is probably the second-best 3-point shooter on the team to Doneal Mack. It would be nice to have one or the other on the floor most of the time. So if you start the game with Kemp and Antonio Anderson as your backcourt, you’ve got a playmaker and a shooter. Then you bring in Rose and Mack, and you’ve got a playmaker and a shooter as your second wave.

A few more things to think about:
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A quick trip around Conference USA (click on the links to go to the full stories:

HOUSTON 56, RICE 48: The battle for the Bayou Bucket produced buckets full of points in Houston.

SOUTH FLORIDA 64, UCF 12: The I-4 war was more one-sided than most could imagine. South Florida, the surprise team of 2007 so far, had an easy time.

SOUTHERN MISS 28, SMU 7: A fumble caused by defensive end Robert Henderson changed the momentum in the favor of the Eagles. For the Mustangs, it’s just more of the same.

TULSA 38, MARSHALL 31: The winless Herd didn’t make it easy for the Hurricane, but a win is a win.

UAB 26, TULANE 21: It was Neil Callaway’s first Division 1A victory and he was happy to have it. Tulane’s Matt Forte had another big game. He couldn’t have been unhappier.

EAST CAROLINA 45, UTEP 42 (OT): The best (so far) of the East and the best (so far) of the West met in a shootout in west Texas.

MIDDLE TENNESSEE 21, MEMPHIS 7: You’ve probably already read about this over at commercialappeal.com, but here’s a link anyway.

That leaves the standings looking like this (overall record first)
EAST
East Carolina 4-3, 3-1
Southern Miss 3-3, 2-1
UCF 3-3, 1-1
Memphis 2-4, 1-1
UAB 2-4, 1-1
Marshall 0-6, 0-2

WEST
Tulsa 4-2, 2-1
UTEP 4-3, 2-1
Houston 3-3, 2-1
Rice 1-5, 1-1
SMU 1-5, 0-2
Tulane 1-5, 0-2