Sorry folks, no Gillen tonight. I figured that was important info for some of you, given that CSTV analyst Pete Gillen has become a cult hero among Memphis fans. Instead, it’s the team of Tom Hart and Steve Lappas tonight, and I’m sure they’ll do a fine job.

Supposedly, there’s going to be 7,000 people tonight at Moody Coliseum, which would be about three times the size of a normal SMU basketball crowd. This actually is a neat old fieldhouse to watch a college basketball game. If they put some money into a few things cosmetically and got the program going a little bit, this wouldn’t be bad at all. On a sidenote, if you’ve never been to SMU before, this is a great campus. It’s obviously a small and very expensive private school, and when you look around here, it’s amazing to think that this was the epicenter of cheating in college football during the 1980s. I did not get a chance to walk through the new practice facility, but I’ve seen a few members of the Memphis traveling party and they all say it’s amazing. I was also told that Memphis had an incredible shootaround this morning, maybe the best of the season. Let’s see if that intensity carries over to this game and the Tigers take care of business, making it an easy night.

Don’t know for sure whether Joey Dorsey (stomach flu) is going to play but he’s out here warming up a little bit and I heard he was looking OK earlier. He may not start, however. Could be a lot of Shawn Taggart tonight, and the way he’s been playing lately, I wouldn’t mind seeing that at all. Taggart really has come on the last two games, and he rebounded the ball better against Southern Miss than I’ve seen him all year.

After trying and failing to add more elk to their eastern herd last year, officials from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency are planning once again to release new elk onto the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area.

This time, it looks like they might succeed.

On Saturday at approximately 9 a.m. Central Time, TWRA officials hope to release 36 elk at Royal Blue WMA, which is located in Campbell County. The elk are being brought in from Land Between the Lakes (LBL), a Kentucky facility that belongs to the United States Forest Service.

Last year’s elk importation plan was scrapped when Tennessee officials could not obtain the necessary permits for bringing in elk from a captive facility in Canada. Disease was the major concern, especially chronic wasting disease.

I guess since these elk are already American citizens, the same disease concerns do not apply.

Royal Blue WMA is part of Tennessee’s 670,000-acre Elk Restoration Zone. The release location will be on Massengale Mountain where the first Tennessee elk were released in 2000.

TWRA officials say the plan is to load 36 elk onto four trailers Friday and haul them to the release site, where they will be held overnight and released the next morning.

The shipment will include 19 adult bulls, four male calves, nine adult cows and four female calves. Most of the elk will be fitted with radio collars, so researchers can follow their progress after release.

This will be the fifth time Tennessee officials have released elk in the state. Prior to this fifth release, 167 elk have been released between 2000-03. Currently, Tennessee has an estimated 200-250 free-roaming elk.

To say this is a TWRA project isn’t really fair. It’s actually a joint venture between the U.S. Forest Service, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Campbell Outdoor Recreation Association, the University of Tennessee Veterinary School, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Animal Plant Health Inspection School, Land Between the Lakes Bugle Corp, the Land Between the Lakes Association and TWRA staff and volunteers.

The public is invited to come out and witness the elk release.

But be warned, it’s a long, long drive over there from the Memphis area.

According to Mapquest, it’s more than six hours from my house to Royal Blue WMA.

Can Memphis boys high school basketball teams win all five state championships?

That is the question and it will be answered next week at the boys state tournament in Murfreesboro (March 12-15).

Memphis area boys prep basketball has always been good — producing state champions, McDonald’s All-Americans, numerous college players — but this year could be a record-setting year for the number of teams winning state championships.

Memphis teams have already extended their string to 11 consecutive years with at least one state championship trophy, but is this the year Memphis takes home all the hardware? The only time that has ever happened was in 1979 when Bolton (A), East (AA) and Northside (AAA) swept the titles.

Last week in Nashville at the Division 2 state tournament at Lipscomb University, local teams won both trophies (Gold Balls).

In Division 2 Class A, Harding Academy needed overtime and the play of Marlon Brown to wrestle the state title away from Tipton-Rosemark Academy and Briarcrest’s Elgin Lee was on fire as Briarcrest Christian defeated Christian Brothers for the Division 2 Class AA championship.

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