It always takes Crappie Masters a little longer to post their results than Crappie USA.

But I did finally receive results from the Crappie Masters event held Saturday at Reelfoot Lake.

Tony Duncan and Randy Allmon won with seven crappie that weighed 11.78 pounds. That’s an average of 1.68 per fish. It’s pretty strong for Reelfoot - a lake that’s known for producing big numbers of crappie, but not very many monsters. There were only two crappie caught in the whole tournament that weighed 2 pounds or better.

Duncan and Allmon said they caught their crappie in super shallow water, using weedless purple/chartreuse jigs on Wally Marshall poles. They earned $5,300 for first place.

The Crappie Masters press release identified Duncan and Allmon only as a “local team,” so I can’t say for sure where they’re from. But I remember seeing their names up high in the results for several past tournaments on Reelfoot.

They must know that lake pretty well.

Click here to view the complete results from the tournament.

Veteran swingman Mike Miller was back on the court Monday afternoon, and participated in the team’s full-contact practice without restrictions. He didn’t seem bothered by the bad back that’s kept him out of the lineup for nearly two weeks.

That’s a good sign for Miller and the organization because the Grizzlies’ shooting has been flat-out putrid without the 6-8 sharpshooter. Miller is still listed as day-to-day so his availability for their game Tuesday against Chicago is unknown. Coach Marc Iavaroni said Saturday that they targeted Wednesday (vs. New Jersey) for Miller’s return.

Memphis’ offense, though, has struggled mightily without Miller. The Griz (0-7 without Miller this season) have scored more than 100 points just once (113 on Feb. 26 vs. Phoenix) and is averaging just 41 percent from the field overall and 30 percent from behind the arc in seven games without their second-leading scorer (16.8), leading rebounder (6.5) and three-point shooter (.433).

Miller has missed each game due to a sore back, including the past six.

Obviously, voting Memphis No. 3 in the AP poll has really offended a lot of Tiger fans. No.3? Oh, the horror! Never mind that I voted Memphis No. 1 in the preseason poll, and kept them No. 1 for months when very few voters had Memphis at No. 1. Never mind that I was one of the few voters to put Chris Douglas-Roberts on my preseason All-American team. Never mind that I have spent hours and hours writing stories, blogs and doing radio interviews around the country explaining why Memphis is a legitimate national title contender and why the primary theories about why Memphis will lose in the tournament (that the league will hurt them and free throw shooting) are bogus. Never mind all that. Because I put the best team from the best league in the country at No. 1, and the team that beat Memphis one week ago at No. 2 in this week’s poll, I’m somehow an idiot. Though you might not agree with my methodology, you have to acknowledge that my job in voting is different from your job as fans. I could make a case for any of four teams in the No. 1 spot, and that’s why voting is so difficult. As a fan, you are only trying to make a case for your team.

I’ve been saying for weeks and weeks that Memphis is a better team than Tennessee, a more complete team, and I believe that if they played 10 times on a neutral court it would be 5-5 or 6-4 in favor of Memphis. I think Tennessee caught Memphis at a perfect time, as the Tigers were ripe for a loss that night. But to move Memphis ahead of UT again would be completely discrediting the head-to-head victory that happened just one week ago. To do that would be punishing Tennessee for losing a road game against a top-25 team, and I just don’t do that. I’d afford Memphis the same benefit of the doubt if the roles were reversed. So my options were to keep it the same way I had it last week (which I didn’t want to do, because UT should be moved down a little bit for losing) or move somebody else up to No. 1. And I decided UCLA on merit was deserving of that spot based on their performance the past month. Just look at the road wins: Stanford, USC, Arizona, Arizona St., Washington St.

Meanwhile, if I were Tennessee, I’d be very worried about Sunday’s victory against Kentucky. The thing that kept coming to mind as I watched that game was that UT looked like a tired team. This happened two years ago, if you remember. The Vols played lights out until the end of the season, faded down the stretch, got that controversial No. 2 seed and lost in the second round to Wichita St. I didn’t see a lot of legs or energy yesterday in a game that should not have been close. Is it possible that UT reached its peak last week in Memphis and now is on the down side of its season? Who knows. But there are a lot of teams surging for No. 1 seeds right now, and UT really needs to win at Florida to avoid the pressure of having to win the SEC Tournament. It’s hard to play the way UT plays — all out, all the time — and not get worn down toward the end. Another epilogue to that game is that Kentucky exposed a very significant trend. UT doesn’t like to play defense for 35 seconds. Kentucky held the ball, held the ball, then went to the rim once the shot clock got to 8 or 7, and it was a fantastic gameplan that worked pretty much the whole way through. It shows even further the folly of Memphis trying to take quick shots in that game last Saturday, failing to pass the ball around and run their offense. The Tigers really let UT off the hook by playing that way, and a more measured attack on offense probably would have propelled them to a win.

I love music and the Tigers so I tend to associate songs with the Tigers. Here’s my latest song associations.

Control- Puddle of Mudd -The Tigers dominance of C-USA.

Settlin’- Sugarland- The Tigers aren’t settlin’ for another Elite Eight.

Jim Dandy To the Rescue- Black Oak Arkansas - Derrick Rose’s theatrics Saturday when he scored 22 in the 2nd half.
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