I went to Sardis Lake Friday evening with Chris Brown of Strike King Lure Company.

As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, the white bass fishing on Sardis in March is some of the best I’ve ever experienced.

My intention Friday was simply to see if the white bass are biting yet.

They are, but they’re not red-hot by any means.

We fished about three hours and caught 25 or 30. We kept 20 that we ended up giving away.

They’ve eliminated the creel limits for white bass on Sardis, and Mississippi conservation officials are encouraging anglers to keep every one they catch. Still, we couldn’t resist throwing back a few of the smaller ones.

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, I would definitely recommend the trip. Just don’t expect to catch them by the hundreds.

Guess who walked into the Tiger locker room just a few minutes ago? Never mind. You’ll never guess. Let’s just say it’s one of the greatest bass players ever: Bootsy Collins. Yes, Bootsy Collins, the man who played with James Brown AND George Clinton.

Turns out Bootsy wrote a song called “Fear the Tigers” as part of some marketing campaign. So he came decked out in a Tiger blue zoot suit, as only Bootsy could.

This has to be a good sign.

Oh, and in the Tiger locker room, I asked Pierre Niles if he knew who Ben Spiva was. A lot of fans compared Niles to Spiva after the former smacked that goofy-looking kid at UAB during that little post-game brawl a few weeks ago.  Niles, though, had no idea who Spiva was, adding, “I ain’t no enforcer.”

See you tomorrow.

So after the Tigers’ (expected) victory over Southern Miss, it looks like I’ll be joining Jody and hundreds of others bright and early Saturday for the championship game. And I’m excited - having just moved to Memphis six months ago, I know I’m in for a real treat.

But first, I’ll be grabbing some breakfast downtown at Alcenia’s - and honestly, I think I might be looking forward to the breakfast biscuits as much as I’m looking forward to the game!

So until tomorrow morning, sleep tight Tiger Nation. We’ll see you bright and early.

That’s it. Tigers win, 69-53. It certainly wasn’t their best game of the season, but the trio of Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Robert Dozier kept Southern Miss at bay. The Tigers now play in the championship game Saturday morning at the ridiculous time of 10:30. We’ll be back, coffee in hand, blogging away. See you then.

Dorsey has pulled another of his disappearing acts. He has four fouls, two rebounds and ZERO points. Dozier’s picked up the slack inside with 10 rebounds, but it’s not hard to see that Dorsey’s ghost is one reason this game has been somewhat closer than expected.

This one on the Memphis bench. That’s the third T of the game between the two teams. Maybe some of that old animosity between these two teams is coming back. The Tigers are still up by 12 and seemingly in control with 3 minutes to play.

Last night, with Miami Heat coach Pat Riley here, Derrick Rose didn’t have his best game: just seven points, although he did post six assists and six rebounds. Today, Pat Riley doesn’t seem to be here, and Rose has already scored 20 points with three rebounds and two assists. And there’s still almost five minutes left to play.

Make that 23 points. He just hit his fourth three-pointer of the game.