Before the season started, the Grizzlies first road trip was one rookie Mike Conley was looking forward to. With tonight’s game at Seattle, Conley would have loved the chance to show Sonics rookie Kevin Durant that he was going to give him a run for the money in the chase for rookie of the year honors. Then, on the team’s next stop in Portland, he would have gone up against childhood best friend Greg Oden, the top pick in June’s NBA draft, marking the first time the two would be opponents rather than teammates.

Now it’s highly unlikely none of that will happen. Oden’s season ended before it began when he underwent season-ending knee surgery. And when the Grizzlies face Durant and the Sonics tonight, the chances are slim that Conley will see the court. While Durant, the No. 2 pick, has been as good as advertised, averaging 24 points a game, Conley is still waiting to make his NBA debut.

Conley did not appear in the Grizzlies first two games. It’s the first time in his life he has had to learn how to sit on the bench. So far, the 19-year-old point guard who was the fourth player taken overall last June is taking things in stride.

“It’s pretty tough,” Conley said. “There’s two ways you can handle it. You can take it hard and pout about and sit in the corner, or something. Or you can just keep working, and I decided to just keep working. I’m not worried about it. I’m still trying to keep my head up and do the things to get out there on the court.”

THE BIG STORY

The Mobile Register reported that Tommy Tuberville declined again Tuesday to shoot down rumors linking him with the likely-soon-to-be-vacant Texas A&M job, virtually ensuring that questions about his future at Auburn will persist through the Tigers’ two season-ending rivalry games.

Tuberville said he had no plans to meet with Auburn President Jay Gogue or Athletics Director Jay Jacobs until after the season, even though the Tigers have an off week between their games against Georgia and Alabama.

“It’s better to wait,” Tuberville said. “We do it every year. That’s how it is done. There’s no reason to change that. There’s no urgency about anything.”

Tuberville was asked several questions about the Texas A&M job during his weekly Tuesday press conference. He called the rumors “good talk,” but said anything else he said about the topic would just be twisted.

“They work very hard — the players, the coaches and the fans look forward to these two games — and we’re not going to ruin it by discussing any of that stuff, because anything I say will be looked at, turned around and flipped around,” he said. “It doesn’t make any difference. We’ll sit down as I do with the president and Jay at the end of the year and we’ll go from there.”

Meanwhile, in College Station, embattled Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione was dodging questions of a different nature.

Reports circulated Monday that Texas A&M had fired Franchione and reached a settlement on his remaining contract, but the school and Franchione denied those reports.

“I am not going to get into the rumor game with you guys,” Franchione said during his weekly news conference. “There are no facts to that and I’m not into it. I’m sorry that you guys have to deal with it.”

Several media outlets have reported that Tuberville would be a top candidate for the job if Franchione is fired.

“Every year, for some reason, my name gets thrown in for a lot of (jobs),” Tuberville said. “That’s just part of it. After we started off 1-2, I thought I was going to have to be taking a job at the end of the year one way or the other. As I told our players, that’s the least of our worries or anybody’s worries.”

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The Tigers’ 80-63 victory over Richmond will certainly be discussed and dissected quite a bit between now and New York. Overall, it wasn’t an impressive performance. Memphis played poorly for much of the game against a 1-3-1 zone defense, made some defensive mistakes, didn’t dominate the glass and couldn’t really put Richmond away until the last 5 or 6 minutes. Were there reasons to be concerned? Maybe, maybe not.

The first thing to remember is — and I wrote it months ago when this matchup was first announced — playing a Princeton offense team in the second game of the season when you’ve only got one day to prepare is a nightmare. A team like Richmond is just a pain in the you-know-what when you’re not prepared, and the Tigers weren’t. I can tell you, Memphis has probably spent a grand total of 15 minutes in the preseason working against a 1-3-1 zone, so it doesn’t surprise me that their offense did not look the way it usually looks. Richmond mucked it up and dictated the flow of the game, and David Gonzalves made some unbelievable shots.

Having said all that, Antonio Anderson was terrible offensively and defensively. He committed six turnovers and did a poor job against Gonzalves. Chris Douglas-Roberts was getting absolutely mauled all night, but he’s got to do a better job finishing. Though he finished with 19 points and 8 rebounds, it wasn’t a stellar performance. As good a shooter as he is, Doneal Mack shouldn’t be taking 10 shots from 3-point range in 16 minutes. When Joey Dorsey is out and Antonio Anderson and CDR both have below-average games, that’s a recipe for trouble. Derrick Rose was phenomenal again. When the game was tight midway through the second half, he made a handful of plays that really affected the game. Robert Dozier had a good game. Went strong after rebounds and was above average defensively. Even though Shawn Taggart had 10 fewer rebounds than Monday night, he played a much better game. Taggart was tougher, more physical and provided a presence in the paint. Andre Allen did a good job defensively late in the game, which is why he was playing instead of Willie Kemp.