– After taking Sunday off, the Tigers had a short practice today. Coach John Calipari was all set to scrimmage for awhile, but after just two four-minute segments, he saw what he needed to see and called it a day. No need to spoil a good thing.

– Calipari left on a recruiting trip at the end of practice, but players stayed to do some individual work. That all ended when Willie Kemp did a 360-degree dunk, then ripped off his shirt and ran back to the locker room. When Willie does a 360, there’s no reason for anybody to stay on the court.

– Before practice, Calipari held an individual workout with Pierre Niles and was highly complimentary of his effort. Despite his ongoing weight issues, Niles does some impressive things. I think Calipari is going to try everything possible to get him into the rotation now, even if it’s just a 5, 6 minute cameo.

– Matt Simpkins, the 6-9, 215-pound power forward from The Patterson School, will be in Memphis on his official visit this weekend. Simpkins is ranked 47th overall in the class of 2008 by Rivals.com. Simpkins has had some academic difficulties, and Patterson is his sixth school in five years. Simpkins is originally from Berkley, Calif., and several Pac-10 schools are recruiting him. My sense is that Memphis wants a commitment from either Simpkins or Wesley Witherspoon, whichever one they can get first. Getting both is probably not too realistic, since they are both in the 6-8, 6-9 range.

– As of now, point guard Andre Allen will be eligible to participate Thursday against Siena. Allen was thrown out of the game Saturday against Arizona for coming off the bench with 8:11 remaining when Chris Douglas-Roberts was fouled hard by Kirk Walters. Though Allen, by rule, probably should be subject to a one-game suspension for being ejected from the game, the officiating crew never recorded an ejection with the official scorekeeper. As it was happening, I heard the official near the Memphis bench tell Calipari that Allen had to go to the locker room for coming off the bench. But no technical foul was called, so I’m not sure it really was an official ejection. Therefore, I’m not sure how a penalty could be enforced.

Beyond all the obvious things like defense and depth and experience, the Tigers’ 76-63 victory over Arizona last night showed me something more subtle but incredibly necessary for them to win a national championship: In a high-profile game, Memphis does not have to rely on its guards to get things done offensively.

It’s been proven over and over in the NCAA Tournament that teams with great guards and mediocre post players simply don’t win national titles. You can get to the Final Four, perhaps, but to win six straight games in March and April, you need big people to provide easy points you can count on.

Last year, Florida’s top three big men accounted for 38.5 percent of the team’s points. Here’s how the previous national champions this decade stack up by the same statistical standard:

2006 Florida — 40.2 percent
2005 North Carolina — 47.2 percent
2004 Connecticut — 37.3 percent
2003 Syracuse — 51.2 percent
2002 Maryland — 38.1 percent
2001 Duke — 47.9 percent
2000 Michigan State — 34.5 percent

Admittedly, this is a flawed statistical analysis for many reasons. With Syracuse, for instance, you have to count Carmelo Anthony as a big on that team, even though he is more of a wing. But the point remains, I firmly believe that legitimate national title teams have to get roughly one-third of their points from their big people.

How does Memphis stack up in that regard? Through 11 games, 28.4 percent of the Tigers points have been scored by Robert Dozier, Joey Dorsey and Shawn Taggart. That’s up from 26.9 percent last season by Dozier, Dorsey and Kareem Cooper. It’s also worth nothing that Dozier and Dorsey have each missed two games due to injuries, so the Tiger bigs would probably account for well over 30 percent if they had been healthy.

Though Dorsey is pretty much giving you what he’s going to give you — a consistent 8 to 12 points — Tiger fans have every right to be encouraged by the uptick in production from Dozier (19 points against Georgetown, 18 against Arizona) and Taggart (15 points against Arizona).

Some major changes this week on my ballot.

Say hello to: Dayton (18), Wisconsin (24)
Say goodbye to: BYU (19), Miami (Fla.) (20)

Moving up: Marquette (11 to 8), Tennessee (14 to 11)
Moving down: Pittsburgh (7 to 20), Texas (4 to 13)

Just missed (in order): Oklahoma, Rhode Island, St. Mary’s, Xavier, BYU

– I’m still not a Washington State believer, but at some point you have to acknowledge the record. They are not the sixth-best team in the country, but until they lose, I’ll won’t move them down.
– Marquette has just been killing people the last few weeks. I’m picking them to win the Big East.
– I moved Tennessee past Vanderbilt for the first time since they lost to Texas. The Commodores have been hanging on, and the Vols are playing better basketball.
– Arizona and Southern Cal are in the same boat. Can’t penalize them for losing to Memphis.
– I considered dropping Pittsburgh out completely. If Levance Fields is indeed out for two months, to go along with the injury to Mike Cook, Pitt probably isn’t a top-25 team. But because of their record, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

And now, the ballot:
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If you are an NFL team that wants to challenge history and go undefeated then make sure you have a Memphis/Memphis State Tigers player on your team. The only two teams to do it now are the 1972 Miami Dolphins with Charlie Babb on their roster and the 2007 New England Patriots with Stephen Gostkowski. The two most recent runs prior to this year’s Pats team was the 2005 Colts and 1985 Bears. Neither team had a Tigers player on their roster therefore were destined to fail. So if you’re an NFL team who wants to challenge destiny make sure you draft a Tigers player soon if you don’t already have one on your roster.

The first half of the Tigers win over Arizona proved once again you can take away some weapons but not all of them. The Wildcats did a good job on CDR and Rose in the first half. But Dozier and company stepped right in and knocked them down. Cal’s recruiting has proven to be nothing short of awesome. And that’s in the truest definition of awesome as they simply overwhelm opponents.
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People tell me Memphis is a Saturday night town. We’ll see if that holds true tonight, and the FedExForum crowd can match the energy of last Saturday morning against Georgetown.

Unfortunately for the fans, they won’t get to see freshman point guard Jerryd Bayless. Though certainly his absence due to a sprained knee will make hte game easier for the Tigers to win, it’s a shame because he’s a fun player to watch much like Derrick Rose. Without two starters — Bret Brielmaier is also injured — Arizona is really up against it tonight. The Wildcats really weren’t that deep to begin with, so losing two starters is a big blow. I’d imagine Nic Wise will have to pick up the slack for Bayless tonight. Wise plays about 25 minutes per game usually, but I’d imagine he’ll be forced to play 33+ tonight.

Meanwhile, tip-off time has been pushed back about 10 minutes due to the double overtime game between West Virginia and Oklahoma on ESPN2. It’s a Pac-10 officiating crew tonight of Mark Reischling, Michael Reed and Bill Kennedy.

Both Foxsports.com and CBS Sports.com are reporting that Arizona freshman point guard Jerryd Bayless won’t play tonight due to a sprained knee suffered in Friday’s practice.

The Wildcats will also be without starter Bret Brielmaier. That certainly changes the equation in a game that I felt all week was going to be very close and competitive. Arizona did not have much depth to begin with, and the loss of Bayless will be very difficult tonight as they try to snap Memphis’ 37-game home winning streak.

…before heading to FedExForum. Wow, these 9 p.m. starts are weird.

Anyway, it’s been a nice day watching hoops on TV. Some observations:

– I know Kentucky fans are going nuts about the loss to San Diego, and many of them want Billy Gillispie gone. That’s idiotic. Here’s the deal with Kentucky, and I’ve watched them a bunch of times now. Most of their players are really, really bad. A couple of their decent players are hurt, or just coming back from injury. And the ones who are supposed to be good? They’re absolute dogs. I’m sorry, but Joe Crawford is flat-out dogging it. In talking with a bunch of people up there, their view is that Kentucky had become a country club over the last couple years. Gillispie is trying to change the culture, and obviously he’s encountering some resistence from the likes of Crawford, Ramel Bradley, etc. What you get is what they’re putting on the court, which is a putrid product. I feel sorry for Gillispie. The reality is, any really good coach would be having problems right now. Would they have lost to San Diego, Gardner-Webb, etc? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t really matter in the big picture. In fact, it would only be masking how many holes the program has right now.

– I really was hyped to watch Tennessee-Gonzaga, and the game was kind of a letdown. Tennessee played hard, as always, and it’s a very nice win for them. As I watched the game, however, I couldn’t help but feel that Gonzaga has lost its identity. They don’t play like the scrappy mid-major anymore who does all the little things right to beat more talented teams. As their players have gotten better, they’re trying to play like everybody else plays, and at the end of the day, they just don’t have as many good players or good athletes as teams like Tennessee, Memphis, etc. Matt Bouldin and David Pendergraf play hard, but the rest of them just aren’t like the Gonzaga players of old. Austin Daye is going to be a beast, but he hasn’t figured it out yet. Jeremy Pargo is talented enough to have a big impact on a game like this, but he just didn’t play well at all. Another disappointing effort by Gonzaga, which frankly doesn’t have enough good wins to be an NCAA at-large team at this point. Meanwhile, give UT full credit for the way it played. It’s a long trip up there, as Memphis knows, and it’s not easy to beat Gonzaga in a road environment. Chris Lofton tried his best to let Gonzaga back into the game, but even he couldn’t lay enough bricks to make it happen. Lofton is still playing just yucky basketball. This has been a JaJuan Smith-Tyler Smith team to this point, and it’s been good enough. But how long can that last?