Sitting here courtside — and literally at eye level — here in Reliant Stadium, it appears as though Texas is going to win its South Regional semifinal against Stanford. It’s a 10-point game as I type, and Stanford has just missed out on the key rebounds in this game that could have swung it the other way. The atmosphere in here is interesting; for most of the game, the crowd hasn’t been that big of a factor, in my view. It’s such a huge place, and even though it’s 95% Texas fans, the sound just kind of goes into the air. There have been a couple moments when it’s been pretty loud, but it’s not like one of those road games where the place is just going nuts for 40 minutes. It’s a little more antiseptic in here, but obviously it’s still an advantage for the Longhorns and will be again in the Regional Final if they close out the last 8 minutes of this one.

Tiger fans should be hoping that Wisconsin’s brutal loss tonight to Davidson represents what the Big 10 was this season. If that’s the case, the Tigers will be in great shape tonight. My pick is Memphis, and my hero tonight is Andre Allen. Why? When I checked into my hotel here on Wednesday, the front desk person was named Andrae Allen. Weird, huh? Well, how about this one? Last night, Jim Masilak and I went to a restaurant to eat and watch the end of the Tennessee-Louisville game. We sat down at the bar and eventually learned that the young ladies seated next to us at the bar were from Memphis originally. Not just that, but one of them said she knew Andre Allen. Too much.

I’ll update closer to tip-off, which looks like it will be on time.

Things get started here this afternoon. Our trusty Commercial Appeal team will head over to Reliant Stadium in a few hours to cover the media events, which will begin with Michigan State’s press conference and open lockerroom session. I’ll be very interested to see how they set things up at Reliant, which is an NFL stadium and to my knowledge has never hosted basketball. For the fans who are coming down here, this place is huge. The old Astrodome, which is still standing next door, was considered one of the wonders of the world or something like that when it was built. It looks like a pimple on the landscape compared to Reliant.

At this point in the year, I do have much time to spend following recruiting, but I caught the last few minutes of the McDonald’s All-American game last night. Tyreke Evans was the MVP. My sense on Tyreke is that a decision has been made, but he’s going to see how the dust settles on certain things — who’s staying, who’s going, potential coaching moves, etc. — before committing in one direction.

Nothing major to report basketball-wise at this point. I’ll update this afternoon after interviews. I’ll be on Greg and Eli’s show on 560 for the weekly Tiger Basketball Report at 11:20 a.m.

Spring practices at the University of Memphis routinely end with a brief scrimmage period of roughly 25 plays.

Wednesday at the Murphy Athletic Complex was no different, except for the revelation the Tigers may have yet another tall receiver adept at running the fade route and winning `jump balls’ in the end zone.

Junior college transfer Steven Joachim (6-4, 205) had two touchdown receptions in Wednesday’s scrimmage, doing a credible impersonation of 6-9 Tiger wideout Carlos Singleton. Like Singleton, Joachim simply used his height and strong hands to outleap defenders for touchdown receptions of 14 yards (from QB Dallas Walker) and 11 yards (from QB Arkelon Hall).

It’s a deep position for the Tigers, who are going through the spring without their top receiver, 6-4 Duke Calhoun. Calhoun is recovering from offseason knee surgery.

I know Coach Cal is tired of hearing about free throws. I am also tired of hearing about it so I thought I’d look into the actual impact they may or may not have on a game.

This season the Tigers have gone to the line 878 times in their 36 games. They have made 520 of them. That means that they average right at 24 FT attempts and 14 makes per game. Opponents have gone 454 of 671 from the line. That number is skewed as Southern Miss went 24 of 26 in the C-USA semis and UAB went 20-22 in the game at Birmingham but stats are what they are. That numbers shows that opponents average right at 12 ppg from the line. Therefore the Tigers have scored two more points every game from the line that their opponents. Considering only five of the Tigers games were closer than 10 points it has had little relevance to the Tigers winning or losing games.
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…or at least the area.

Remember the story a few weeks back on the swans that were relocated from Iowa to Arkansas in hopes they will begin naturally migrating between the two states?

Well, they have left the areas where they were released, and Arkansas conservation officials are asking people to report sightings.

There were 13 swans released on Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge near Dardanelle. Five more were released in Boxley Valley in western Newton County, but two of those swans fell victim to predators just days later.

Officials from the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission are asking anyone who sees the swans to report the sighting on the Commission web site or by calling (877) 873-4561.

They need to know where they are, so they can keep track of them.

Hopefully, they’ll go back to Iowa, mate and then fly back to Arkansas next fall.

It would be pretty cool to have a regular migration of swans into the Mid-South every year.

In a March 22 blog about turkey hunting, I mentioned that many of the turkeys used to re-stock Arkansas were trapped at Brandywine Island, just across the river from Memphis.

But they obviously didn’t trap them all.

In fact, they may need to go back and trap some more.

Check out these recent trail cam photos of Brandywine turkeys. They’re absolutely unbelievable.

Rod and Brenda Alexander and the folks who work at Brandywine practice supplemental feeding year-round. That means they keep feeders full of whole kernel corn and other stuff like soybeans.

Sometimes they get pictures of gigantic whitetail deer. Sometimes it’s raccoons and possums.

These two photos showed awesome groupings of eastern wild turkeys.

If I could choose one place in the Mid-South to hunt, Brandywine Island would be first on my list. President’s Island would be a close second. And Ames Plantation would be next.

I’ve been lucky enough to hunt turkeys a couple of times at Ames, but I never saw turkeys like these.

These are some great pics.

The University of Memphis football team finally was able to practice on its Murphy Athletic Complex fields Tuesday after last week’s rains had saturated the area forcing the Tigers to Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

At the end of Tuesday’s workout, the Tigers scrimmaged for about 25 plays — all in the red zone. The defense made its presence felt for the first 16 snaps (Michael Grandberry had a pick in the end zone, freshman defensive back Jermaine Richardson added several big hits and Tony Bell and Steven Turner combined on a second-and-goal stop from the 1-yard line).

But the scrimmage ended with the offense executing as well. Junior college quarterback Arkelon Hall tossed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Carlos Singleton, converted linebacker Jeremy Longstreet ran 17 yards for another score and Hall ended the practice with a 15-yard TD run.

“A point of emphasis for us on offense (this year) is scoring touchdowns,” Tiger coach Tommy West said. “We didn’t start good (in the scrimmage), but we finished pretty good. We’re getting a little better at different things every day.”