I just finished being my obsessive compulsive self and planned out the trip to New Orleans and back this week. This will be my 28th trip to watch the Tigers play football since the 2003 season. While I’m no Scott Forman who will be attending his 107th straight game on Friday, I feel like I’m doing alright now with this being my 32nd straight and 50th of 52. It has been a lot of miles and even more good times.

I feel I’m one of the luckiest Tigers fans alive because I’ve been able to go to all these road games. Prior to 2003 I had only seen a few road games. I simply didn’t have the time nor the means to travel prior to then. Once I had both I decided I wanted to get on the road with the Tigers.

The guy who egged me on about making all the road games in 2003 was my friend, Chris Carroll. Chris passed away in 2005 and the road simply isn’t the same without him. He and I had some serious fun along the way. I still miss him when I head out on a trip.
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The Griz are expected to add Jeremy Richardson of the NBDL’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants, a team insider confirmed. A 6-7 guard/forward from Delta State, Richardson leads the league with 28.5 points per game. Richardson was the Mad Ants’ first round selection (second overall) in the 2007 D-League Expansion Draft. He’s played for Atlanta, Portland and Miami in the NBA.

As for Tarence Kinsey… don’t be surprised if the New Orleans Hornets sign the former Grizzly. Members of the Hornets coaching staff have long been interested in Kinsey. The Hornets have a roster spot open, with just 14 players under contract, and purportedly are interested in making room for Kinsey at shooting guard and small forward.

The Grizzlies made their first player transaction of the season today, and what a strange one it was. The team decided to waive second-year guard Tarence Kinsey, who seldom saw the court this year after being one of the bright spots of last year’s miserable season.

The team is expected to announce the signing of a bigger, stronger guard/small forward later today. For a team that continues to struggle on defense and has no solid individual defensive players, it was odd that Kinsey, who was lauded for being the closest thing the team had to a defensive stopper last season, was never really given a chance to show the new coaching staff what he could do in game action.

Kinsey appeared in just 11 games this season, averaging 3.6 points and 1.1 rebound in 14 minutes. Last year, the undrafted rookie out of South Carolina exploded on the scene when interim coach Tony Barone, Sr. took over. In March, when Mike Miller became injured, Kinsey was inserted in the starting lineup. In 12 starts, he averaged 18.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.4 steals a game.

Kinsey scored 20 or more points in eight of those games and led the Grizzlies in steals 16 times last season. For whatever reason, coach Marc Iavaroni insisted on playing Casey Jacobsen over Kinsey. Jacobsen, who was brought in for his outside shooting, is shooting less than 30 percent from 3-point range (.285) and 36.4 percent from the field (20 for 55).

Meanwhile, Kinsey made 4 of his 7 3-point attempts (42.9 percent) and in 182 less minutes than Jacobsen, he made 16 of 38 shots (42.1 percent) from the floor.

This week presented a scheduling conflict so The Marc Iavaroni will air live tonight at 5:30 p.m. INSTEAD of Thursday on Sports56 (560-AM). Join me and Rob Fischer for the caller-driven show and a chance to go one-on-one with the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Dial us up at (901) 360-8255 or (888) 360-8255. You can email questions to the coach at any time by sending them to coach@sports56whbq.com. The show will return to its regular Thursday time slot next week and air every Thursday throughout the season.

This is a big week for the Tigers. Both games, at Cincinnati and vs. Georgetown on Saturday, are lose-able. But even if Memphis goes 2-0, I don’t see the Tigers getting to No. 1 in the polls any time soon. They are a solid No. 2 right now in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls to North Carolina, but the problem is that North Carolina’s schedule doesn’t give Memphis much of an opportunity to move up.

Here are North Carolina’s next five games:

Dec. 19 vs. Nicholls St.
Dec. 22 vs. UC-Santa Barbara
Dec. 27 vs. Nevada
Dec. 30 vs. Valparaiso
Jan. 2 vs. Kent State

The only tricky game in that bunch is Valparaiso, which is 10-1 with a loss at No. 17 Vanderbilt. Still, I’d expect UNC to go into Clemson on Jan. 6 with a 14-0 record. If Memphis can survive Cincy, Georgetown and Arizona on Dec. 29, the Tigers will have a great shot to be No. 1 sometime in January. But if they drop one of those games, Carolina will be very tough to catch in the polls.