As we reported last month, the Tigers will open up the Puerto Rico Tip-Off with Chattanooga; the irony being that Memphis will travel all the way down to San Juan to play an intra-state opponent. Obviously, Memphis is expected to win that game — I don’t think the Tigers would have agreed to play in Puerto Rico unless they were guaranteed an “easier” first-round opponent, by the way — which would set up a semifinal with either USC or Seton Hall.

If it’s USC, it would be a match-up between arguably the top two freshmen in the country in Tyreke Evans and DeMar DeRozan. It would also be a rematch of last year’s Jimmy V Classic, which was one of the most painful games to watch between two good teams that I’ve ever seen.

The other side of the bracket also offers interesting possibilities in a championship game or consolation game matchup. With Virginia Tech, you’ve got Seth Greenberg, an old Calipari nemesis when he coached at South Florida (in the old C-USA). With Missouri, you’ve got Mike Anderson, the former UAB coach, and freshman Laurence Bowers, who was the second banana on Elliot Williams’ team last season at St. George’s. And finally, you’ve got Xavier, who is coached by the man Calipari calls his “cousin,” Sean Miller.

I’ve gotten a couple calls from people today insisting that it wasn’t the Arizona coaching staff that tipped off Jeff Goodman on the Abdul Gaddy phone call. I don’t know whether it’s true or not, and I certainly was not trying to say definitively in my blog this morning that Arizona was behind this. I was merely speculating on how the story could have come to the attention of a national columnist — most likely through the coaching staff of another school — and Arizona is obviously the team that is most involved in the Gaddy recruitment.

Second, Memphis is getting a visit this weekend from Will Coleman, the Dorsey-esque 6-9 power forward from Miami-Dade Community College. Coleman originally signed with Arkansas-Little Rock but had to go the Juco route. He’s a guy who was being recruited at Pittsburgh by Orlando Antigua, who is now on the Memphis staff. Coleman was at the Memphis elite camp earlier this summer and is a major physical specimen. I didn’t see enough to get a feel for his skills.

Memphis does not plan on ending its recruitment of Abdul Gaddy because of the phone call booster/FedEx CEO Dave Bronczek made to his mother, according to my sources.

In fact, there’s a case to be made that this kerfuffle could actually turn Gaddy away from one of the Tigers’ competitors.
First of all, I have not talked to anyone who expects this to go beyond an NCAA letter of reprimand being sent to Bronczek.

Second, the Gaddys are not real happy to be in the middle of this situation, especially since they were caught completely off-guard by the way this played out. Oseye Gaddy obviously did not think there was anything inappropriate about the phone call, or else she would not have talked so freely with Foxsports.com’s Jeff Goodman about it when he brought it up in his line of questioning last week. The fact that this story ends up embarrassing her employer was absolutely not what she intended.

And why are they in this situation? Obviously, someone leaked it to Goodman.

Now, let’s take a step back here. The entire Gaddy recruitment has been a delicate situation with Memphis and Arizona, who have been listed as his co-leaders. Gaddy originally committed last year to Arizona, in large part due to the efforts of assistant coach Josh Pastner.

After Pastner left for Memphis, Gaddy de-committed from Arizona and put Memphis on his list. It’s my understanding that Arizona coach Lute Olson was actually brazen enough to ask (demand?) that Pastner not be involved in recruiting Gaddy at Memphis.
If Arizona was indeed responsible for leaking the information about this phone call to Goodman – who is, coincidentally, an Arizona graduate and has a close relationship with Lute Olson – I can’t imagine it would help Arizona’s chances to re-gain the player’s affection.

I met a few folks who work for NBADraft.net out in Vegas last week; today they posted an evaluation of some of the players in the Reebok event. I found it interesting how most of what they posted jived with what I saw, especially in their comments on Nolan Dennis having a little bit of Chris Douglas-Roberts in his game:

http://www.nbadraft.net/node/1627

I’ve been out of town for a week covering the AAU circuit, but apparently the Tigers haven’t been playing much pickup ball lately and had to be goaded by ops director Rod Strickland into getting on the court last night. So after flying back into town, I went to watch. Since they were done after 45 minutes, I don’t have too much to write about. I guess at this point in the summer, basketball isn’t necessarily a big priority (sarcasm meter high).

Anyway, a couple things were noteworthy:

- Angel Garcia’s high school coach was there. The rumblings on Garcia’s eligibility are more hopeful, but we’ll see. He’s in Puerto Rico right now.

- Pierre Niles looked good (not necessarily physically - he’s still got a long way to go), but he played as well as I’ve ever seen him. Nice to see him getting in there and fighting, keeping loose balls alive, using his body to get in position. He passes out of the high post so well, he could be useful in a number of sets the Tigers use. Yeah, he made a couple jump shots too (and a 3-pointer), but that’s fools gold. If that’s going to be his game, he won’t be playing.

- Wesley Witherspoon ran the point. My gut feeling is that point guard won’t be his ultimate position, but he really does have a lot of tools. He just isn’t strong, and if you want to finish plays at this level, you have to have some strength. A lot of Witherspoon’s freshman season will depend on where his body is at on Nov. 1. That’s only three months from now.

- Tyreke Evans has a devastating first step, but my sense is that Calipari will have to work with him on cutting out some of the unnecessary jukes and shakes in his game. If you can’t get by someone on the first try at the college level, you’re not going to get by him. Memphis’ offense is based on the concept of running downhill, and that’s the biggest adjustment Evans will have to make.

- There were some not-so-encouraging things I saw, too, but not real reason to harp on it (OK — too much bear-hugging, not enough defense). I imagine the intensity and frequency of these sessions will pick up when John Calipari gets back into town. Though the coaching staff can’t watch the pickup games, the mere specter of Calipari sitting in his car outside the Finch Center is enough to motivate, I’m sure.

After a couple days of this, the routine gets repetitive. Many of the coaches have already left town, and the ones that are in the stands seem to have the glazed-over look. It’s just too much basketball, really.

- I started off watching John Wall for a third time. He’s really, really special. He’ll definitely have to work on improving his defense, but he does a lot of the same stuff Derrick Rose did. I never saw Rose play at the AAU level, but it would be interesting to compare them at this point.

- I watched Nolan Dennis’ team play against the Kenny Boynton team. Dennis does a lot of good stuff and has a quick first step, especially along the baseline. He made some great moves to the rim in the second half of that game but was playing with some foul trouble. He’s a good court leader, always communicating with teammates and is very active on the bench. Boynton has a strange-looking shot, but it goes in most of the time. He hit a couple big buckets down the stretch to pull out the victory. John Calipari and Billy Donovan were both there watching him.

- I then went over to watch the Memphis Magic team play. Though they won the afternoon game, they lost in the quarterfinals at night (I didn’t see it). It’s a talented team, but they don’t play together particularly well. Joe Jackson had a pretty good game and looked much better than last week at the Battle of the Bluff in Memphis. He’s so small out there, but he can really pop off a bunch of points in a row.

- Christian Watford had a very poor first half, but picked it up in the second half. He played much better after Calipari walked in the gym. Wonder if that’s a coincidence? Watford has had a tough week - a lot of people are down on him after this performance. Calipari, Derek Kellogg and Randy Bennett of St. Mary’s were the only three head coaches watching that game.

- Mardracus Wade has a chance to be pretty good. He’s only a rising junior, but Clyde Wade’s cousin is really active defensively and is athletic enough to get the job done. He shoots it pretty well too. He’s worth keeping an eye on at Mitchell this year. If he keeps getting better, he’ll have a shot to play at Memphis.

Sorry it’s late (almost 2 a.m. Memphis time!) but I just got in from watching games, then a late dinner. Observations:

- I went to watch Lance Stephenson. First time I’ve seen him. I was so personally offended by his play, I had to leave at halftime. I just couldn’t take it anymore. It was like when you walk into a bad movie and 30 minutes into it, you know this thing is going nowhere. Folks, he’s a complete circus. A walking debacle. The pouting, the bad body language, the lazy play, the throwing elbows when he gets frustrated. And he’s not even really that good. Certainly not worth the trouble. I have it on very good authority that Memphis is NOT recruiting him. By the way, when I left his team was down 15 to some suburban Chicago kids.

- I got another look at the Atlanta Celtics. Once again, Derrick Favors did not impress me, relative to the expectations and ranking. If he’s the best player in this class, this class is crap. He’ll be a very good college player, but he’s no one-and-done. Not even close. He gets rebounds against guys that aren’t as talented or physically gifted as him, but the rest of his game leaves me ambivalent. Once again, Terrance Shannon played very well until he got hurt early in the second half. What I like is that every move he makes is a strong move; nothing weak. He rebounds everything with two hands, and when he doesn’t get the rebound, he’s sprinting back the other way. And he knows exactly what he is. I talked to him afterwards, and he described himself as an energy guy. On a very good team with some serious talent, he will be very effective, a guy you win with. He won’t be as good if he has to be the best player on a mediocre team.

- The kid I loved in that game on the other team, the Texas Ambassadors, is Daniel Alexander. He’s a 2010 kid who can really, really stroke it from deep and competes hard. He’s 6-8 and will be a big time player for somebody down the line.

- Karron Johnson is a talent, but he’s got some issues. He admitted to me that he likes to talk on the court, but he probably does it a little too much. He’s got a lot of the Shawn Taggart mannerisms and body language, which isn’t a surprise since he and Taggart are very close friends (both from Richmond, Va.) The Tigers could certainly do worse than Johnson as their 4 man for this class. Seton Hall is on him hard, and Bobby Gonzalez was there watching today. Johnson has nice skills and can play a physical game.

- Another kid to watch in the future is Davonte Grace, a 2011 guard who plays on Johnson’s team. He’s got a chance to be real nice.

- Nolan Dennis played better today than yesterday, when he had a migrane. He’s got long arms and just a nice feel for the game and where people are on the court. They’ll have to surround him with some tough, physical guys, but he’ll be a good player at Memphis. He’s a little more skilled than some of the guards Memphis recruited in the past.

- Yesterday, Avery Bradley was the man for the Northwest Panthers. Today, it was Abdul Gaddy. I didn’t pick up a stat sheet, but rest assured he was a monster. Really like both of those kids, and they play off each other so well. I don’t get the sense, however, that they’re going to go to the same college.

- After some digging around today, let me reiterate a point I made in this morning’s blog. I have no idea whether or not DeMarcus Cousins is ultimately going to de-commit from UAB, but he is indeed calling some major programs and expressing interest. Let me repeat. Schools are not tampering with this commitment and trying to recruit him; Cousins is calling them. It’s obvious to me he’s not completely solid on UAB at this time.

- By the way, I did not know this until tonight, but Derrick Rose came over on Tuesday to watch John Wall. Rose was in town anyway and made an appearance, which is good for the Tigers since Wall basically idolizes Rose.