Sorry I’m a little tardy on blogging. In between making my way home from Huntington, then getting ready to turn around for Houston tomorrow, I needed a minute to catch my breath. First order of business is my top 25 ballot, which is becoming a whole lot more difficult now that conference play is here. It’s very hard to to win on the road in the league, and you have to factor that in.

Say hello to: Arizona State (18), Miami (21), Florida (23), Drake (25)
Say goodbye to: Clemson (20), Notre Dame (21), Oklahoma (22), Stanford (24)

Moving up: Butler (15 to 12), Wisconsin (18 to 14)
Moving down: Michigan State (5 to 16), Texas (13 to 22)

Just missed: Stanford, Arizona, Villanova, Notre Dame, Oregon, South Alabama

1. Memphis
2. North Carolina
3. Kansas
4. UCLA
5. Georgetown
6. Texas A&M
7. Tennessee
8. Duke
9. Indiana
10. Washington State
11. Marquette
12. Butler
13. Dayton
14. Wisconsin
15. Vanderbilt
16. Michigan State
17. Mississippi
18. Arizona State
19. Xavier
20. Pittsburgh
21. Miami – Fla.
22. Texas
23. Florida
24. Rhode Island
25. Drake

- On other matters, Doneal Mack practiced with the Tigers today. He seems to be over the illness that kept him out of the lineup Saturday at Marshall.

- Grant Wahl, the very talented writer from Sports Illustrated, is in town working on a feature about the Tigers’ offense.

- John Calipari was at Madison Square Garden on Sunday to watch the Nike Super Six Invitational, where a bunch of Memphis recruits were playing, including freshman Michael Gilchrist, who said this summer he wants to play for the Tigers. An interesting note coming out of that tournament is that Dexter Strickland committed to North Carolina. That’s four 2009 recruits who have arleady committed to the Tar Heels. This is important since Memphis and UNC have been recruiting a lot of the same players in that class. I’m not sure how many players Roy Williams wants to sign for 09, but at some point there won’t be any more room at the inn. That would seem to give Memphis a better chance at guys like Leslie McDonald, Lance Stephenson, John Wall, Nolan Dennis, etc., who have also been looking at Carolina.

– Expect Memphis to be a big player now in the Rashanti Harris recruitment. Harris is a 6-foot-8, 238-pound forward from Columbus, Miss., who caught the attention of a lot of folks at the City of Palms Tournament in December with 32 points and 25 rebounds against Eloy Vargas and 28 points and 12 rebounds against Greg Monroe. Harris will be in Memphis for the MLK game next Monday. There’s a good chance Harris won’t qualify academically this year and he’ll reclassify as a 2009 after a year of prep school. Either way, the Tigers are interested big-time.