Who else thought the Tigers played well under their bar last night? The talent on this team is so superior to most teams in the country so much so that they can shoot poorly and still blow a team out. If the Tigers had gotten even lukewarm from 3-point range last night they would have won by 40.

The win last night was also an example of just how deep this team is. Andre Allen, Doneal Mack and Willie Kemp got 20 minutes or more last night. The three of them accounted for over a third of the team’s minutes. Folks, we’re talking the 6-7-8 guys on the bench and the team still wins by 27. Wow, that’s all you can say.
Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t you love how world-class athletes, many of which treat everyone around them like dirt most of their lives, suddenly try to spin a new personna in the media?

Take former Olympic track gold medalist Marion Jones. She was a royal pain-in-the-patootie most of her career. The more medals she won, the more insufferable she became. She always had a sneer when dealing with anybody but a sponsor who was handing her money.

Now that Marion is about to serve six months in prison for lying to investigators about sterpod use and a check-fraud scam, she’s trotting out this “how can I use my story to change the live of a young person?” line. She was on Oprah this week attempting to draw a little public sympathy because as she said, “I truly think a person’s character is determined by their admission of mistakes and then beyond that, what do I do about it?”

For starters, Marion, try treating everyone you meet with respect and humility. You’ll probably learn that in prison.

The more you hear John Calipari talk, the more you understand that he has a tendency to, well, exaggerate. There are tons of examples, whether it’s saying that Doneal Mack led the country in points per minute last season (he wasn’t even close) or even on Saturday when he told the Marshall media that the Tigers were getting 17,000 in the building for Christian Brothers.

Here’s another one, courtesy of the Seattle Times and Bud Withers, their fine college basketball writer. In the article, Withers writes about the success of Memphis, Vanderbilt and Tennessee, and he gets Calipari talking about the differences between the schools, the philosophies, recruiting and a number of topics. But, for the sake of accuracy, we must point out that Calipari gets a few things wrong. A couple highlights:

– Tennessee, he says, is a full eight hours across the state from Memphis.
Well, I’ve driven the Memphis-to-Knoxville route. I drive like a normal person, and I can make it easily under six hours. But, I guess if you factor in a long lunch at the Loveless Cafe and the time change, it might take you eight hours. You could maybe even squeeze in a tour of the Jack Daniel’s distillery.

– “They’re closer to Washington, D.C., than they are Memphis,” he (Calipari) says.
Sorry, coach. According to Google maps, D.C. is 493 miles from Knoxville. Memphis, according to the same map, is 391 miles from Knoxville.

– Calipari notes Memphis is the only college program in the country that regularly shares an arena with an NBA team.
Is there a new building in Milwaukee? Maybe I didn’t get the memo.

– Memphis schedules Tennessee; in fact, Calipari says the Vols, who visit Feb. 23, will be “the most talented team to come into our building” in his eight seasons there.
This, of course, is all a matter of opinion. And there’s no doubt UT is talented. More talented than the 2005-06 Texas team with P.J. Tucker, LaMarcus Aldridge, Daniel Gibson and A.J. Abrams? More talented than Louisville’s Final Four team with Francisco Garcia, Larry O’Bannon, Taquan Dean and Ellis Myles? More talented than the 2002-03 Illinois team with Brian Cook, Dee Brown, Luther Head, Deron Williams, etc.?

I’ll admit, you can at least debate the last one. But the other three are clear exaggerations. These aren’t malicious exaggerations, but it’s always fun to point them out.

Sorry there was no pregame blog, but the Internet situation at Reliant Arena was about as you’d expect, if you saw the place on TV. The whole experience down there was inconvenient, so I can only imagine what it’s been like for Rice, who has to play most of its home games there.

Not much to say about this game. John Calipari wasn’t happy; he didn’t feel the Tigers competed hard. It’s true, after they got up 19-4, their intensity definitely dipped. But this is one time where I don’t really blame them. It was a terrible environment, against a team that could barely get it across halfcourt. The Tigers didn’t make any shots, and it was obvious that they weren’t focused by some of the shots they missed. Just write it off and be happy you didn’t suffer any injuries. I won’t bore you with any more analysis. There’s nothing to analyze here.

I’m looking forward to Saturday’s game against Southern Miss. The Eagles played Memphis tough twice last year, and I know they’ll play hard again.