Merry Christmas and here’s to Santa being good to you. (imagine me raising a toast of egg nog to you)

Grateful Dead did a song called “Truckin’” and it included a lyric that said, “what a long strange trip it’s been.” It even included New Orleans references. Well, to say that this weekend was a long strange trip would be a major understatement.

We enjoyed the bowl atmosphere. Bourbon Street, pep rallies, parties and food all make NOLA a fun trip. The game, well that was another story. But in the end I remind myself that this was the 4th bowl in five years and that’s unchartered waters for my university. In my opinion, we need to realize that every road to somewhere has its bumps. The Tigers have had a few of those bumps but they finished the season with a winning record and that’s what it is all about. Do I expect more improvement next year? Oh, yeah. Tommy West does too.
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I think Memphis will probably inch closer to North Carolina in tomorrow’s AP poll given the powerful 85-71 victory over Georgetown Saturday. But in analyzing the voting trends, it will be very difficult for the Tigers to claim No. 1 tomorrow.

In last week’s poll, Memphis was 62 points behind North Carolina. Memphis was No. 1 on 19 ballots (including mine), so the Tigers can’t get any more points out of those voters. Memphis was No. 2 on 30 ballots. Of those 30, 28 had North Carolina at No. 1, and I can’t imagine very many will switch their votes, as UNC is still undefeated too. And as far as the other two, Memphis won’t gain any ground since North Carolina will also move up a spot on those ballots.

Memphis was No. 3 on 13 ballots. Out of those ballots, Memphis could gain 7-9 poll points. Memphis was No. 4 on 6 ballots. Out of those, Memphis should gain at least 6 points and perhaps as many as 9 or 10. Memphis was No. 5 on 4 ballots. Out of those, Memphis will gain at least 7 points and as many as 9 or 10. In other words, Memphis will probably make up about 20 points on North Carolina but is probably unlikely to gain more than 30 if you assume that most of the voters who have North Carolina and Kansas ahead of Memphis will keep them ahead.

Anyway, here’s how I voted this week. I moved Texas from No. 2 to No. 4, as they should not be penalized much for losing a road game to Michigan State. I moved the Spartans from No. 9 to No. 6. Pittsburgh moved up from No. 13 to No. 7 for a big win over Duke. New on my ballot this week are Ole Miss at No. 22 and Stanford at No. 24. They replaced Gonzaga and Xavier.

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If you wanted to know what the Tigers would look like when all their pistons were firing, you saw it today. And what they looked like was a Final Four team. You have to give Memphis tremendous credit for how the improvement in offensive execution since the USC game. It’s now back to how the Tigers looked last year, when they simply tore up zones with their ball movement. Watching the Tigers today zip the ball from one side to the other and get great shots from the middle of the zone, you got a sense of just how good this team can be.

Defensively, Memphis struggled for a stretch of the first half when Joey Dorsey was out. For about 10 minutes, the Tigers were giving up too many quality shots. But in the five minutes right before halftime, Memphis played probably as well as it can play without Dorsey to take a 43-40 lead. In the second half, the Tigers simply dominated.

I’ve got a lot more thoughts and observations, which I’ll share both in the newspaper and in this space over the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend and have a safe holiday season.

What a great morning in Memphis.

Beale Street was buzzing when I arrived at 9:30, and when I walked in the arena, the student section was full and crowd was beginning to filter in already. It’s 15 minutes before tip-off, and most of the seats are full. I expect by game time for the arena to be standing-room only. It will be a very emotional, highly-charged atmosphere, and I expect the Tigers to win. In these situations, the home team has a decided advantage. If the game were at Georgetown, I’d pick Georgetown.

On the other hand, the home team has all the pressure. Though John Calipari disagreed with that when we talked yesterday, I think it’s true. If Memphis was on the road, there wouldn’t be much pressure to win. Today, in front of the home fans, I think the pressure is on the Tigers to perform. We’ll see how they handle it.

A few notes and observations before Friday night’s New Orleans Bowl game against Florida Atlantic at the Louisiana Superdome:

Taking a back seat Memphis and Florida Atlantic are vying for a small share of the attention in New Orleans, but Thursday they found themselves pushed back further on local newscasts by civic unrest. Some citizens attempting to attend a packed city council meeting on the proposed demolition of four public housing complexes were turned away by police with mace and taser guns. The uprising made national headlines and dominated local news Thursday.

A coach-and-child reunion Memphis offensive coordinator Clay Helton said he hadn’t had the opportunity to shake hands or say hello to Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger during a busy week of bowl preparations. After Thursday’s practice at the Louisiana Superdome, Helton said he fondly recalls being a frequent visitor to the Orange Bowl sidelines from 1979 to ‘82 when his father, Kim, was an assistant on the Schnellenberger-coach Miami Hurricanes. “It was a fun time,” Clay said. “I was 7 years old in 1979 and I got to hang around with Vinny Testaverde, Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Alonzo Highsmith.”

Louisiana legend Former LSU coach Dale Brown was the featured speaker at Thursday’s New Orleans Bowl luncheon. A motivational speaker, Brown didn’t disappoint. He talked about overcoming obstacles in a speech that mentioned everyone from Elvis Presley to Albert Einstein.

Three days of national attention Friday night’s New Orleans Bowl will be carried by ESPN2 and give the Tiger athletic program the second of three nationally televised events in a span of only four days.

First off, here are the game stories from the Cincinnati perspective and the Memphis perspective of the Tigers’ 79-69 win.

It was a good experience for the Tigers to play a road game like this one with foul trouble, emotional swings, and the whole bit. I never felt Memphis was in danger of losing, but certainly there were opportunities for the Tigers to melt down.

Several good things stood out:
– Derrick Rose, obviously, is just lights out when he’s making 3-pointers. 5-of-8 will do just fine.
– Antonio Anderson is playing like himself again.
– Doneal Mack was pretty effective in his 14 minutes and didn’t try to jack up the 3-pointer every time he got the ball.
– Jeff Robinson did some good things in his 7 minutes and won a couple loose balls that could have gone either way.
– The Tigers’ ball movement against the zone was way better. They only committed 13 turnovers, and they took high-quality 3-pointers.

Several not-so-good things stood out too:
– Chris Douglas-Roberts, obviously, is in a funk. Just three shots? The Tigers can’t win the big games on their schedule with him playing that way.
– Cincinnati shouldn’t have out-rebounded the Tigers, but they did, 33-32.
– Memphis had a double-digit lead early but couldn’t put the game away. That’s the next step in this team’s growth.
– Some of that was because the Tigers missed 15 free throws. In the first 10 minutes of the game, they were up 11 points and had already missed 5 free throws.

If you know my wife tell her I am so appreciative for letting me go to all the football games.

I’m trying to figure out Wednesday night’s game. I know Cal had to be upset with the officiating and I don’t blame him. Joey got beat down right before Cal got the tech. I guess the refs figured two wrongs do make a right.

The Tigers have shown over the past 5 games why they are one of the best teams in the country. There has been a different leading scorer in each game. Rose lead the way tonight with 26 tonight, Dorsey, Dozier and Taggart each had 11 against MTSU, Dozier lead the way with 13 in the USC victory, CDR dropped 23 on APSU and Willie Kemp went off for 22 against Arkansas State. Teams that don’t depend one guy night in and night out are less likely to have off nights.
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