“So now we’ll see what the next knock is.” That’s what CDR said yesterday after the game. From where I’m sitting that may be the mantra for this Tigers team. Keep it up national media because we want you to “knock” the Tigers to two more wins. Andre Allen said something a while back that still sticks out in my mind, “we’ll just have to kill everybody” when asked about the Tigers being respected. I think those two statements by those kids (and they are kids) tells me that no matter what the media may say this week the Tigers won’t feel fully vindicated until next Monday night.
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In case you missed it - and you probably did if you were watching basketball like every other blue-blooded Memphian - there were several significant fishing tournaments held over the weekend.

Over on Wheeler Lake, the FLW Series anglers struggled at times. But Ramie Colson, Jr., found enough fish to win with 59-02. He earned $125,000.

Mark Rose of Marion, Ark., just missed the final-day cut, finishing 11th with a solid three-day total of 39-6. He still got a paycheck for $11,323.

In the co-angler division, Derrick Snavely of Rogersville, Tenn., won with 35-1.

Southaven angler Rick Barham turned in a solid sixth-place finish with 29-1, earning $5,588. I heard from Rick via email after the event, and he said it was tough. He had to adjust to a new partner every day, but he obviously did a great job.

Trust me, I’ve gone the co-angler route before, and it’s no picnic.

For complete pro and co-angler results, visit FLW OUTDOORS.

On the Crappie USA front, the Wingo, Kentucky team of David and Larry Sisson too first place in the semi-pro division with a weight of 12.66 pounds. Second place went to the McKenzie, Tenn., team of Pam and Tim Ridley with 12.48.

In the amateur division, Ralph Dillard and Scott Watson of Paris, Tenn., won with 11.15. Larry Buchanan of New Concord, Ky., and Scott Buchanan of Williamson, Ky., with a weight of 10.61.

For complete results, click here.

It’s far from significant, but my dad Mike and I finished fourth in his little company crappie tournament over the weekend. It was the 30th consecutive year of the tournament, and the 25th straight year we have fished together.

The winners, Wayne Rudolph and Randy Lewis of Shelby County, Ala., finished first with 15 crappie that weighed 24-plus pounds. We were fourth with 20.20, and I had the big fish of the event with a female black crappie that weighed 2.04.

It was a fun, exhausting few days.

Here we go. There’s a lot riding on today, including the legacy of this team and the Derrick Rose era. But you know what? You wouldn’t have been able to tell yesterday from being around the team. I have never seen the Tigers look so relaxed, so confident. That’s why I believe they will indeed win today and bring Memphis back to the Final Four since 1985. Texas, to me, seemed a little bit uptight but they may be that way anyway. Maybe I’m overrating body language. I just liked what I saw from Memphis, and if they come out and play that way, they’ll win. If they’re uptight and missing shots, they could be in trouble. But if they’re uptight, it happened sometime in the last 24 hours.

Exciting stuff. I think it would be a great storyline for all four No. 1 seeds to make it to San Antonio. It has to happen some time, right? It would be a heck of a Final Four.

So it looks like Antonio Anderson will be guarding A.J. Abrams which I like. He’s a catch-and-shoot guy, and Antonio has done well on those kinds of players before (Neitzel, Lofton) whereas last year he struggled a bit against Mike Conley in the Ohio State game last year. That means Derrick Rose’s job is simply to keep D.J. Augustin in front of him. We’ll see how he handles it. If Dorsey and Dozier win their individual matchups down low and out-rebound Texas, the Tigesr will win.

Let’s see how it plays out.

I love it. We dominate MSU and the pundits say, “But they can’t do that to Texas.” Well, the Tigers might not be able to beat Texas by 30 at the half. But I promise you that if Texas believes anything the media is saying then they are in for a long afternoon tomorrow. The Tigers are as focused as any team I’ve ever seen.
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No Joey Dorsey bulletin board material this year. Though I wasn’t in his breakout room for the entire session, I was there for a good bit of it and he was undoubtedly charming and talking a lot about his upbringing in Baltimore. Actually, the entire team was very charming and engaging today. To give you folks a little bit of insight into our business, the way this works is, the NCAA makes the entire starting five and the coach sit up on the podium for 30 minutes. Then, the five players go off into separate rooms for 30 minutes and the reporters can pretty much have at them in a less formal setting. Maybe it’s because they’ve been here now for three straight years, but the Tigers are just unbelivably good in that setting. They were relaxed. They were funny. They were very composed and insightful. If it’s your first exposure to Memphis players, you had to be impressed. I believe you will see a ton of stories tomorrow nationally with effusive praise of the Tigers. Maybe that’s not such a great thing; they’ve done so well as the underdog, so who knows.

By contrast, I’m sitting here watching Texas’ press conference. These guys could not look any more disinterested right now. D.J. Augustin looks like he’d rather be anywhere else than sitting up on the stage. Last week in Little Rock, a national writer made a comment to me that Texas was a “media disaster” because the players are just not good talkers. I can see now what he means.

Back again.

Think about it. Three years ago, when this run began, the odds of Memphis playing in three straight regional finals? Astronomical. It just doesn’t happen that often. Regardless of what transpires Sunday, last night’s romp validated this Memphis team and put it right back to the point where it has been the last two years.

Lots and lots and lots of thoughts. A couple things swirling in my mind.

– Memphis fans should thank Tennessee. It is clear, now more than ever, that the Vols did Memphis a big favor by beating the Tigers on Feb. 23. You go back to that day, and it’s amazing to think how the paths of those two teams went in completely opposite directions. The Vols never were the same, and it was obvious within the first week after that game (I talked about it here and on the radio) that they were going in the wrong direction as a team. The Tigers, on the other hand, used that loss as an opportunity to refocus. I think back to a blog entry I wrote the day after the UT game where I talked about how the Tigers’ stellar play from late December to late January had seemed to level off for a few weeks leading up to Tennessee. It was a good time for a loss, and clearly Memphis has gotten better and better since then. Can you imagine what this circus would be like if the Tigers were still undefeated? Totally different mentality leading up to last night’s game. Tiger fans, at this point, shouldn’t mind too much losing the all-time head-to-head series with the Vols. When it comes to NCAA Tournament success, the programs aren’t even in the same league.

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Not a ton of Texas folks appear to be sticking around for the second game. The crowd is going to be way, way smaller here tonight. Without all the burnt orange, it’s pretty easy to see that Memphis has probably a 3 or 4-to-1 advantage over Michigan State in terms of fans. In a stadium this big, however, I’m not sure it will matter one iota.

I’m sitting directly across from the Memphis bench. Will be interesting to see how the team handles the odd setup. Looking at the box score from the first game here, Texas only made 7-of-22 from 3-point range and still won by 20 points. Stanford did not have the quickness on the perimeter to keep up with the Longhorns, and they got to the basket at will, which was reflected in the 49.2 field goal percentage.

Karl Hess, Bert Smith and Tom O’Neill are the officials. O’Neill is certainly familiar with the Tigers; he works a lot of their games in C-USA, including the championship game of the conference tournament.