When University of Memphis football coach Tommy West hires Tim Walton as his defensive coordinator — possibly as early as next week — it will represent a second chance for West and Walton.

West desperately wanted to hire Walton, a former Ohio State defensive back and ex-Tiger assistant, a year ago. But Walton couldn’t pass up an attractive offer to become the University of Miami’s DC under first-year coach Randy Shannon.

Walton and Shannon didn’t see eye to eye and Shannon dismissed Walton in mid-December. West won’t miss an opportunity to reel Walton back to Memphis.

In Walton, West will have a defensive coordinator who will run the 4-3 defense with the same precision and effectiveness West ran it during the latter stages of the 2006 season, when West served as the team’s interim DC. And in Walton, West will have a strong, young recruiter with a solid reputation in talent-rich Florida.

It’s a win-win situation for West. And it’s a great situation for Walton, who should benefit from retaining a defensive coordinator’s title.

Here’s a question: How long will it take Kentucky to match the number of SEC wins Tulane already has?

Seriously, it’s time to recognize what Tulane has done the past few years under Dave Dickerson. Pretty interesting, isn’t it, that Dickerson leaves Maryland’s staff to take the Tulane job, and immediately Tulane starts to get better while Maryland goes into the tank? So props to a very good guy for beating Auburn, Georgia and LSU, in addition to St. John’s, all teams that Tulane really should have no business beating.

Anyway, the point of this is that I got an e-mail today from Tulane’s SID asking all the AP top 25 voters to consider Tulane this week. I certainly will consider them, though I don’t know if I can put them ahead of teams like Rhode Island and Oklahoma, who I left out of last week’s poll. Either way, Tulane will have a chance to get there — and possibly to the NCAA Tournament — if it continues to play the way it has for the past few weeks. Now, to get there, Tulane will have to beat Memphis in New Orleans on Feb. 20. And that sure seems like an iffy proposition, given how badly Tulane has matched up with Memphis the past few years. Here’s Tulane’s C-USA schedule:

UAB twice
Marshall twice
Rice twice
East Carolina twice
Southern Miss twice
(Frankly, Tulane should go 10-0, 9-1 at the worst against this motley group)

SMU once (home)
Memphis once (home)
Houston once (home)
Tulsa once (road)
UCF once (road)
UTEP once (road)

Given that schedule, I would not be surprised to see Tulane go 13-3 or 14-2 in the league. At 14-2, and with a win over Memphis, Tulane would be 23-6 overall heading into the C-USA Tournament. Given the 3-0 SEC record, that would be enough to get them in. Even with a couple unfortunate early losses, Tulane may be the league’s best hope for a second NCAA team.

After a late night Thursday, I had to get up early for practice double-duty at FedExForum. I watched Pepperdine work out in the morning, and then the Tigers came in during the afternoon and did some light drills plus a walkthrough. The only real news to report from practice is that forward Shawn Taggart was sick and did not participate. Not sure of his status for tomorrow; obviously, that will be determined by how he feels. I also talked briefly with recruit Matt Simpkins and his mother, who flew in from California for his official visit. I’ll talk more with him after the game tomorrow to get his impressions of Memphis; it didn’t make much sense to do a story on him after he’d been in town literally for 30 minutes. One thing I found interesting is that his mother was very familiar with the team; she knew all the players, etc. Obviously, she’s been watching Memphis on TV very carefully.

If Memphis gets Simpkins, the fallout from the Morris twins saga will be a distant memory. A class with Angel Garcia (ranked 27th by Rivals.com) and Matt Simpkins (ranked 47th by Rivals.com) would be a better frontcourt on paper than the twins (ranked 37th and 72nd), who are now going to Kansas after originally committing to Memphis, then de-commiting when the Tigers sealed the deal with Garcia.

As far as last night’s game, I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t already been said. Memphis shot the ball great, and Siena was overmatched. Siena’s only hope to keep the game competitive was to really pack in its defense and hope the Tigers missed shots. They didn’t, and that was that. I blogged before the game that the crowd was disappointing right before tip-off, but the arena filled in nicely. It was a nice, solid crowd, though obviously not as great as Georgetown and Arizona. Last year, it would have been the best crowd of the season.

Go ahead, pile on Damon Stoudamire.

“Shut up and …sit!” Right?

Stoudamire’s desire to be traded or have his contract bought out through his agent, Aaron Goodwin, isn’t a slam on rookie Mike Conley. Everybody in the free world, and on Pluto, knew the Griz would hand Conley the keys to this team sooner or later.

Conley, the fourth overall pick, is the future at point guard for this franchise. Not Stoudamire. Not the great Kyle Lowry. Head coach Marc Iavaroni is doing the right thing by starting and playing Conley significant minutes. The organization has to develop him – see what the former Ohio State standout can do and what Conley needs to be taught.

That said, Stoudamire clearly didn’t expect to be told that he will only be the emergency point guard – someone the team doesn’t intend to play unless there’s an injury. Is it ridiculous for a 13-year veteran who is serviceable after coming back from a serious knee injury to want to play with another year left on his contract?

The Grizzlies are doing what they have to do at that position, and Stoudamire is doing what he must do in this situation. The squeaky wheel gets the trade/release in professional sports. And just as “fans” don’t mind their team making business decisions – however poor – players have to make business decisions – however poorly received – in their best interest.

Not every detail will become public in this saga. But here’s one: I’m told that Stoudamire’s contract calls for him to play in 55 games and average 20 minutes this season. If Stoudamire doesn’t, he’ll receive roughly 50 percent of the $4.65 million he’s due for the 2008-09 season.

So don’t think for a second that this is PURELY a basketball decision.

If this was simply a basketball decision, then Conley would start and Lowry would be the third (insurance) point guard instead of Stoudamire at this point and time. Lowry, off the bench, has played the most minutes at point but he’s regressed defensively. Lowry makes the same mistakes (see: turnovers) over and over and his decision-making is poor.

Lowry is an excellent energy guy in an Earl Watson mold. But he’s not starter material. Frankly, Iavaroni lost the majority of those seven games by three points or less in large part by staying with Lowry at the end of games.

Stoudamire is a stabilizing force, a leader and a decorated NBA veteran who doesn’t deserve to be treated like this. The Griz can and should go to a youth movement. But Stoudamire has earned the right not to want to watch.