Tuesday at the Murphy Athletic Complex . . . .

* Former Tiger defensive back Reggie Howard, who played in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers and the Miami Dolphins, attended Tuesday’s workout. Howard talked about how odd it was to not be in a preseason camp, but was hardly bemoaning his lot.
“No one likes training camp,” Howard said. “Practicing the week of a game is one thing, but no one likes training camp.”

* Howard also had some interesting things to say about his one-time coach at Miami, new University of Alabama coach Nick Saban. He expects Saban to do well at Alabama, but he said he doesn’t expect him to mingle with the boosters.

* During scrimmage situations at Tuesday’s workout, the offense had the upper hand and broke off several big plays.
Backup QB Will Hudgens teamed with Earnest Williams on a 64-yard scoring play.
Starting QB Martin Hankins connected with Steven Black for a 55-yard TD.
And starting RB Joe Doss danced and darted for a 55-yard pickup.
The defense had its moments. Linebacker Heath Grant and safety Tony Bell recovered fumbles and DBs Michael Grandberry and Alton Starr had impressive pass breakups.

Our Tiger Bloggers will give us their thoughts throughout the University of Memphis’ run through the NCAA Tournament

From Keith Ellis, Lexington, Ky.:

I’d have to say that going into the year, I was definitely worried about our team, the loss of Rodney, Darius and Shawne was a major blow, but I never doubted how good we could be. CDR is fantastic, and Joey is a monster (when he is on, he rivals the dominance of Chris Massie a few years ago), but the beginning of the year really let me down. I questioned the addition of Jeremy, but I could not have been more wrong on that issue. I expected us to be in the championship game of the Maui, but to lose the way we did to Georgia Tech was a real blow. To turn around and then get blown out by Tennessee, and to lose to Arizona the way we did really hurt, because I thought the Tigers to be a much better team then that.

C-USA lived up to it’s billing and our dominance on the court was expected. Going undefeated was a nice accomplishment, but we should go undefeated in C-USA this year, and probably next year. Until the league builds itself up more, we should not lose a game there, and I really hope next year we continue the mid-February series with Gonzaga as well as add in a Creighton or Nevada to keep our team’s attention. I’d also like to see more marquee match-ups early on, and really like the way Calipari will take on anyone.

After a little time crunching the numbers, I came up with a bracket projection to share with you guys. First, I’m basing my bracket on the following assumptions: Florida beating Arkansas in the SEC title game, North Carolina beating NC State, Kansas beating Texas and Ohio State beating Wisconsin. Disclaimer: If there’s an upset in any of those games, it could impact the bracket.

Now, let me address who I have in and who I have out. Obviously, nobody knows what the committee is thinking, but here’s my best guess:

Final teams in:

Illinois — Some nice wins, no terrible losses, 9-7 road/neutral record, good showing in the conference tournament

Georgia Tech - Has 8 wins against RPI top 50; terrible road record but the quality wins are hard to ignore; also went 7-3 in last 10

Drexel — The 14-5 road/neutral record will be enough to get them in; the Villanova and Syracuse wins are key

Purdue — A 10-8 record against top 100 is just enough to get them in.

Air Force — Solid RPI, 9-7 in road/neutral games, 7-5 against top 100, has wins over Texas Tech and Stanford, which is the tiebreaker over those teams.

Old Dominion — Gets the final spot.

Teams left out:
Michigan State — This is the surprise. 9-11 against top 100 and 4-10 in road-neutral games. Non-conference resume was poor.

Missouri State — Misses out yet again. Went 0-5 against Creighton and Southern Illinois.

Texas Tech — Loses a tiebreak to AFA, a bad non-conference record, a poor showing against K-State is their undoing.

Arkansas — Had too much ground to make up.
West Virginia — Went 5-8 against top 100
Stanford — Went 9-12 against top 100, 9-0 against bad teams
Florida State — went 7-12 against top 100
Read the rest of this entry »

Before I go any further, I want to issue a disclaimer: The following is not an argument about where Memphis should be ranked, where Memphis should be seeded or how good Memphis is.

Rather, I want to comment on what I’ve been hearing, mainly on local talk radio, about the Tigers. Most of it is shallow mimicry, people saying the same intellectually lazy things over and over again about the Tigers’ schedule, Conference USA, the losses to Georgia Tech, Arizona and Tennessee, etc.

The problem is, what you hear is two-dimensional analysis about an incredibly multi-dimensional sport. I can guarantee, in a month these same people will be talking about how it baffles the mind that some No. 7 seed made a deep run while some No. 1 or No. 2 seed lost early.

But this is the difficulty in analyzing college basketball. In my opinion, there is no sport where there are more variables that can impact the outcome of every game. Then, you get to the NCAA Tournament, and some of those variables are suddenly eliminated and others are altered, which is why there are so many seemingly shocking upsets.
Read the rest of this entry »

This is a rare occasion where I get to blog live during a practice. And the main reason is that I’m courtside at FedExForum.

The Tigers don’t get to practice much here, but with the Grizzlies on a West Coast trip, the floor was open. Looks like Chris Douglas-Roberts will play tomorrow against Southern Miss. He’s definitely practicing as much today as he has since the injury.

On a related note, Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline showed his face at practice today. I guess he felt guilty about hating on the Tigers so much. I imagine it was healing, kind of like going to Lourdes.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Tigers overcame a really, really bad first half to win by a fairly comfortable 17-point margin.

John Calipari said Memphis wasn’t ready to play, and I’ll accept that as a valid explanation for the first half, which ended in a 21-21 tie.

In reality, it shouldn’t have ever come to that. Memphis should have won by 40. I’ll try to be nice here, but East Carolina is, ahem, very deserving of its No. 323 RPI ranking. With the number of times East Carolina flat-out gave the ball to Memphis on turnovers, and the fact East Carolina airballed more outside shots than they made, it’s remarkable that this was ever a game.
Read the rest of this entry »

GREENVILLE, N.C. — It’s about 6 minutes to tip-off. Looks like Doneal Mack will get the start in place of CDR. CDR is here, dressed in blue jeans and a black Memphis shirt.

I like this arena. It’s a nice set-up for a college arena of this season. Has some modern amenities (like wireless Internet) that some other places in this league don’t. It’s pretty loud in here, though it’s not going to be a packed house. It’s about 55% full at the moment.