Folks, sorry it too me so long to get a blog up here after the UAB game. I was trying to get out of the arena as well last night. I drove back this morning and spent most of the day following up on the postgame fracas.

I talked to most of the pertinent people today — R.C. Johnson, John Calipari and some C-USA folks — and the bottom line is that nothing is likely to happen , either to UAB or Memphis players. UAB officials were apologetic, but R.C. Johnson’s stance was that it could happen anywhere, including Memphis. Indeed, in my years covering sports, I’ve certainly seen several ugly scenes similar to that one at a variety of venues. Anyway, look for more detail on it in tomorrow’s paper. My take: Clearly, UAB fans were seriously out of line for throwing things at Tiger players. Clearly, UAB did not do a very good job of controlling the student section. Some of the signs that fans brought to the game should have been confiscated. There was no reason for the students to come onto the court after the game ended, even though they thought they won. If you don’t want students on the court, get your security people there. Get them in front of the student section and hae them with pepper spray out and ready to use. Having said all that, some Memphis players acted like idiots in the aftermath. There was no need for Pierre Niles, Jeff Robinson, Shawn Taggart and others to do what they did. When the fans started coming on the court, they should have headed directly to the locker room, not toward the fans.

Also, Tiger fans should be very thankful for the efforts of Richard Hogans and Rod Strickland. Because without them, and a few others, I’d probably be writing a very different story today. Had they not been successful restraining Joey Dorsey, I have no doubt Dorsey would be in jail today, his college career over and his potential NBA career completely destroyed.

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After a busy week covering the field trials and then attending the Ducks Unlimited sponsor banquet Friday night, I found time to visit the Mid-South Sports & Boat Show on Saturday afternoon.

It was an impressive show this year.

There were guides and outfitters from all over North America, including one from Canada called Pine Cliff Lodge. They offer fishing for northern pike, lake trout, walleye, smallmouth and yellow perch. They also offer hunting trips for bear, moose and grouse - and their prices are really amazing.

There were also quite a few tackle vendors on site. I bought three Strike King Series 3 crankbaits for $10 - just gearing up for the upcoming white bass run on Sardis Lake. I also bought three cards of crappie jigs from a new Memphis company called Uncle Ted’s Lures.

Any of you who are into crappie fishing know how hard it is to find decent jigs these days. But these jigs from Uncle Ted’s Lures actually look pretty good. If the wind ever stops blowing, I might get a chance to try them.

As always, there were plenty of boats and sea-doos at the show - and lots and lots of people. It was one of the more well-attended shows I can remember. Maybe because they finally managed to hold it on a weekend when there was no snow.

Now all we have to do is wait for some decent weather, and it’ll be time to use some of the stuff we bought at the show.

Hopefully, it’ll be a short wait.

Wow, was that game last night simply amazing. Say what you will about these Tigers but they have a resolve for winning that is second to none. They battled for 40 minutes and were rewarded.

You’ve got to hand it to UAB. They played lights out last night. They shot 53% from the field. They shot 91% from the FT line. They played the game of their lives against the #1 team in the land. But in the end, they lost. And you can lead every statistical category but if you have less points those stats simply don’t matter.

Mike Davis’ passive aggressive approach about officiating was a joke. Look I can complain about officials as much as the next fan, but his logic was laughable considered the way this game was called. Mike you weren’t complaining when your team got into the bonus five minutes before the Tigers. I could go on and on. And in all honesty, if your superstar makes his FT with 15 ticks on the clock, we play overtime.

Check of WREC’s website for the ESPN screen shot that proclaimed our perfect season over. They assumed the Tigers had lost before the game went final. It was the Memphis Tigers’ verison of Dewey Defeats Truman.

The actions of the UAB students and fans were pitiful. Everyone knows about the actions of the students but it wasn’t any better in other parts of the arena according to many Tigers fans. Even the police were out of line, they did NOT allow Tigers fans to hang around for Coach Cal’s post-game show but let UAB fans stay for Davis’ show. It wasn’t about the way the game ended because more than one fan has reported the police said the order was given BEFORE the game. Sounds like UAB needs to take some lessons from Ron Burgundy.
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