Welcome back, Antonio Anderson.

Of all the things you saw Saturday night in Memphis’ 65-41 victory, what stood out the most was Anderson’s performance. Nine rebounds, six assists, six rebounds and two turnovers? That was a typical Anderson line from last season. But this year, Anderson just looked lost. He wasn’t shooting the ball well. He was making bad decisions with the ball. And that combination was clearly affecting his defense and rebounding.

Hopefully, this is the Anderson we’ll see from now on because the Tigers certainly will need him this week against Cincy and Georgetown.

Overall, I thought the Tigers played pretty well. They didn’t give Middle Tennessee many easy looks at the basket (they went 13-for-48), and their press was ferocious. Offensively, Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts simply weren’t there tonight. CDR went 2-for-5 from the field. I don’t know if I’ve seen him play a game where he’s had less impact. Rose wasn’t terrible, but he wasn’t great. In the second half, he ran the offense much better and facilitated a lot of good stuff. Dorsey, Dozier and Taggart all get big A-plusses from me. In the big picture, if the big men play they way they did Saturday, the Tigers are going to be awfully hard to beat.

Now, I’m going to shut down the computer and watch the final 14 minutes of Tennessee-Western Kentucky, which is a very competitive and fast-paced game to this point. Most of the Memphis fans sitting in the lower level have stuck around, and they’re all cheering for Western Kentucky. I’m still trying to figure out Tennessee. I don’t know that I’ve seen a good team that takes as many bad shots as the Vols. It’s astounding, really. Western Kentucky, on the other hand, is an NCAA Tournament team and will be a very tough out as an 11 or 12 seed this year.

All looks to be well with the Tigers tonight; full lineup expected. Nice officiating crew with Hal Lusk, Duke Edsall and Tom O’Neill. Looks like at least a couple thousand Memphis fans are in the stands, though it’s a little difficult to tell since Memphis and Middle Tennessee fans are both wearing blue. The Tennessee sections are filling in somewhat. The arena will probably be about half full for tip-off, but I’d expect by halftime we’ll see evidence of the reported sellout.

I wouldn’t expect too much trouble with Middle Tennessee. I am sure they’ll try to play zone, and it will be up to the Tigers to make some shots early and try to get Middle out of it. For what it’s worth, the Tigers shot the ball very well yesterday in their practice here. The Sommet Center is a hockey arena primarily, and the seating configuration is a little bit different. The background that the shooters see is deeper than usual, which certainly can make perimeter shooting difficult. But the Tigers have shot well in big arenas like this before (i.e., the Alamodome), so I’ll be making a note of how that factors into the game.