Who says these C-USA games aren’t interesting?

There’s certainly something on the line tonight, as the Tigers will have a chance to grab their first No. 1 national ranking since Jan. 10, 1983. As everybody reading this blog surely knows by now, North Carolina lost to Maryland today. So for the Tigers, there’s a clear path to the top spot if they can beat Southern Miss tonight. Coach John Calipari said earlier this week he’s not sure if Memphis is ready for the No. 1 ranking, and certainly, a team needs to have some maturity to handle all that goes with that. But whether they’re ready or not, it likely will belong to Memphis barring a huge upset tonight.

Southern Miss certainly has given Memphis problems in the past, and I wouldn’t expect tonight to be any different. I’m looking for a pretty competitive game, but one in which the Tigers should win by 10 or so.

It’ll be interesting to see how full the house is tonight. Last season, the Tigers had a great crowd for a Saturday night game against Tulane. With the No. 1 ranking on the line, I’d expect the fans to come out big time.

In a way, I love these night games. Even though it kills us in terms of newspaper deadlines, it’s nice to be able to watch basketball during the day. I got to see most of the Ohio State-Tennessee game. The Vols didn’t play their best, but they still won, which was impressive. People talk about how poorly Memphis shoots the ball, but Ohio State is probably the worst-shooting teams I’ve seen all season. This could really be shaping up as a 1-2 matchup or something close to it on Feb. 23.

The Grizzlies recently presented point guard Damon Stoudamire with a buyout offer that would have required the 34-year-old to give back nearly 80 percent of his expected salary for next season.

Stoudamire is preparing to counter in hopes of joining a contender soon. Stoudamire is hopeful that he can sign as a free agent with Boston, which is looking for help behind Rajon Rondo.

His contract is for $4.6 million next season. But that number gets cut in half if Stoudamire averages less than 20 minutes and appears in fewer than about 55 games.

Negotiations toward a buyout will likely heat up Monday when Griz owner Michael Heisley is expected in town for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day game against the Chicago Bulls.

And it appears that Stoudamire’s immediate future will more likely involve a buyout rather than a trade. The Griz have already turned down a trade involving Stoudamire because the deal would have left the 13-year veteran in an undesirable position.

At the time Stoudamire’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, requested a trade or buyout in the wake of his client’s demotion, Heisley said his preference was to help Stoudamire get to a winner.