Unfortunately, I don’t have much specific stuff to give you about the Tigers’ scrimmage Saturday against Saint Louis, since I was barred from watching it due to NCAA rules. I showed up at FedExForum as the teams were wrapping up and was able to talk to some Memphis players and the coaching staff, so that’s all I really have to go on.

First, the news: Freshman guard Derrick Rose and senior forward Joey Dorsey were both injured in the morning session. Rose, according to coach John Calipari, played three or four minutes and really played well but then suffered some sort of right knee injury. His X-rays looked fine, but he was still being evaluated when the Tigers finished up. Cal didn’t seem to think it was a major problem, but obviously I’ll follow up tomorrow. Joey said he went to box out his man and his right shoulder got banged up when it hit a chest. The fear with Joey is that it’s an AC joint sprain, which certainly could keep him out a couple weeks. He went straight from the Forum to get X rays, and again, I’ll hopefully know more tomorrow.

Meanwhile, nobody seemed particularly enthused about the way Memphis played early. The general feeling was that Saint Louis came out hyped up emotionally, and the Tigers treated it like a scrimmage. This will be a constant theme throughout the year, since Memphis will be the best team on pretty much everybody’s schedule. It’s a good thing for the Tigers to get exposed to early on. They came back in the afternoon and played better, but of course Saint Louis was getting tired with only eight healthy players on hand.

Calipari said he’ll start raising the level of phyicality in practices. He also said there’s some things with the full-court press to work on, but at the same time, when Memphis dropped back in the halfcourt they did a good job locking Saint Louis down. Look for more details and quotes in tomorrow morning’s paper.

The Grizzlies canceled practice today and instead studied film of their 140-113 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the pre-season finale.

As disappointing as it was to have a thud to finish the exhibition season the Griz may have bigger problems.

7-footer Pau Gasol’s availability for the regular-season opener still is up in the air.

Gasol appeared wide-eyed Friday night when asked about his condition. The Spaniard said he hadn’t been cleared for full-contact practice despite participating in drills on Thursday.

“It was no mild sprain,” he said.

Gasol crashed to the floor Oct. 17 after attempting a layup with 9:36 left in the first quarter of a preseason road loss at Indiana. He immediately grabbed his left ankle. He actually played an additional two minutes before leaving the game for good.

Sophomore defensive end Greg Hardy did not make the trip to Auburn for Ole Miss’ game here this afternoon. Lan Hardy, his mother, confirmed the news in a telphone interview.

“He didn’t tell me any reason,” Lan Hardy said. “I’m not sure if the coaches gave him a reason.”

Hardy, the former Briarcrest Christian standout, entered the weekend as the SEC’s leader in sacks (eight) and tackles for loss (16). But by all appearances, he and coach Ed Orgeron have endured a topsy-turvy relationship this season. Orgeron has hinted that Hardy’s work habits lack consistency. Hardy is, without question, one of Ole Miss’ most talented players, but he has only started four of eight games this season.

In an interview last week, junior linebacker Tony Fein said Hardy has a unique personality.

“He skips to his own beat,” Fein said. “He’s a great football player. When he has to do the team things, he does. But he likes to do his own thing outside of the football team.”

Today, Hardy has no choice but to do things outside of the football team.

Mustang boys, Dragon girls win Region 8-AAA titles
Houston’s boys cross country team won the Region 8-AAA boys title 14 consecutive years until last season when the Spartans of White Station defeated them. But, on Friday at Shelby Farms coach George Gibson’s team decided that one year without the region title plaque was long enough, as they blitzed the field taking 5 of the top 9 positions for a total of 30 points to easily outdistance the second-place Spartans (50 points) and Collierville (55). All three teams qualified for next Saturday’s state championships in Nashville.

The Mustangs were led by Paul Hill (16:51, 2nd place), Camelo Mannino (5th), Will Mischke (6th), AJ Bernstein (8th) and Kyle Smith (9th).

White Station’s Alex Bransford (3rd place), Nathan Coleman (4th) and Graham Wittington (7th) all finished in the top 10 to lead the Spartans.

The Dragons’ Kyle McLarty, a junior, took the individual honors winning with a time of 16:26 over the 5k course.

Memphis Central’s Larry Burton finished in 10th to earn a spot at the state meet.

Virginia Hine, a senior from White Station, dominated the girls portion of the region race, winning with a time of 18:42. In the team competition, Collierville and Houston battled for the region title with the Dragons edging the Mustangs by one point, 40 to 41. The Dragons top three runners — Sherell Hicks (2nd), Haley Greenwell (3rd) and Kristin Kelly (5th) finished before any Mustangs runners, giving Collierville the early edge. But, the Mustangs rallied back by sweeping 6th through 9th-place to make it close. Houston was led by Meredith McFarlin.

The third girls team to qualify was White Station. The Spartans finished with 44 points.