Month: March 2014

Next Day Notes: Grizzlies 109, Wolves 92

Post author By Kevin Lipe
Post date March 25, 2014

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Ed Davis returned to action last night against the Wolves, to the tune of 12 and 7.

Larry Kuzniewski
Ed Davis returned to action last night against the Wolves, to the tune of 12 and 7.

Last night was not pretty. The Grizzlies faced the Timberwolves just one night after the 10th-place Wolves blew a late lead against the Suns, a crippling blow to their postseason hopes for the season. One night later, they found themselves in Memphis, a team two spots ahead of them in the standings and firing on all cylinders, with Kevin Love having to match up against Zach Randolph.

Things did not go well for Minnesota from the opening tip. Courtney Lee struggled with foul trouble early, but the rest of the Grizzlies didn’t struggle with much of anything in the first quarter. After twelve minutes of basketball, Tayshaun Prince and Zach Randolph both had 8 points, Mike Conley had 6, Marc Gasol had 9 rebounds—most of which were collected on a single possession that saw him take multiple point blank layups and miss, but still an impressive number—and the Grizzlies were up 30-15.

The Grizzlies’ lead never dipped back down into the single digits again. They managed to cruise the rest of the game, going up by as much as 25 at one point.

Of note last night were the lineups used by Dave Joerger to get the job done—especially some of the “medium-ball” lineups in the first and second quarters: Ed Davis (remember him?) subbed in for Gasol in the first quarter, and with Tony Allen at home with a stomach virus, James Johnson came into the game to a huge ovation. The Grizzlies ran with a lineup of Calathes – Miller – Johnson – Davis – Koufos for a good bit of the second quarter, matching up against some of Minnesota’s more athletic bigs.

[jump]

For a guy who’s mostly been collecting dust for months, Davis played well: he shot 75% from the field (6 of 8) and had 7 rebounds in 18 minutes. It was enough to make this Boss afficionado pine for the days when he was a regular fixture of the Griz lineup—when Davis is on, he’s really on, and it’s fun to watch. One wonders what sorts of moves will happen in the offseason, and whether he’ll be in a Grizzlies uniform next year, but for now, it was good to enjoy Davis’ slightly-confused hyperathletics while they were available for viewing.

Speaking of disappearing from the rotation, last night revealed a little bit of Joerger’s thinking, and may have explained where James Johnson’s minutes went: it would appear that Tony Allen is playing them, not Tayshaun Prince. With Allen unavailable, Johnson appeared early and often, playing more at the 3 than at the 4. If Joerger is really committed to not playing Allen and Johnson together, then Allen is the one who is (rightly, I’d say) playing ahead of Johnson. Doesn’t mean Johnson shouldn’t get some of Tayshaun’s minutes, but it looks as though Joerger would rather have Tony Allen in that spot.

It’s easy to say that this was a domination of a lesser team, and it was that, but it was also a game in which the other team had only a minimal interest in participating. Kevin Love, especially, looked checked out from the word go. Love didn’t run back on defense, didn’t contest as hard as he normally does, didn’t really do much at all on the offensive glass (leaving that to Gorgui Dieng, who grabbed 17 rebounds but clearly isn’t much of a match for Marc Gasol one-on-one). Minnesota didn’t feel like they had much to play for last night, and as a result, they didn’t fight the way they could have.

All of which helps the Grizzlies. With last night’s win, the Grizzlies are in 7th place, a half game up on both Phoenix and Dallas, and 1.5 games behind Golden State for the 6th seed. Even harder to fathom is that they’re also only 2.5 games behind the Portland Trail Blazers for the 5th seed. Everything from “5th seed in the West” to “last pick in the lottery” is in play for the Grizzlies right now, with 12 games left to play.

As they head out on this five-game Western road trip, the Grizzlies are going to play the two teams currently above them—the Warriors and the Blazers—and have the potential to create some space between themselves and the teams alongside them. For one, they already have the tiebreaker with the Blazers. If they win at Golden State, they’ll have the tiebreaker with the Warriors, as well. Those tiebreakers mean the Grizzlies only have to tie with those teams in the win percentage column in order to move ahead of them in the standings—a massive advantage when the playoff race is as tight as it is.

It’s hard to imagine right now that the Grizzlies have such a wide range of possible outcomes for the season. It seems criminal that any one of the Memphis/Phoenix/Dallas trifecta should have to stay home from the postseason while the top nine teams in the Western Conference all have a better win percentage than the Eastern Conference’s third-seeded Raptors.

With these games against playoff-position rivals—not to mention the last two games of the season, one at Phoenix and the ultimate game at home against Dallas—the Grizzlies’ fate is more in their control than it seemed to be a month ago. The way this team is currently starting to round into shape, it looks like things are starting to come together finally, but I’ve seen to much this season not to expect something bad to happen soon. I’m not getting my hopes up too much just yet.

Calling the Bluff Music

Christian Artist Creates Cancer Campaign, EP In Honor Of Mom

Post author By Louis Goggans
Post date March 24, 2014

CREDIT: Terrance Davis

Terrance Davis
Margaret “Butta MD” Deloach

On August 20th, 2013, Memphian Gloria Deloach succumbed to her battle with cancer, which started in her breast and traveled to her lungs and bones. It happened three days after her 59th birthday.

Gloria’s youngest daughter, Margaret, felt a sense of confusion and hopelessness after her mom’s passing. She was the main person Margaret could rely on for compassion, constructive criticism, and advice.

Nearly a year after losing her mom, Margaret has launched the campaign, “We Are Warriors; We Made It,” in her honor as well as others who’ve battled with or are currently fighting cancer. And as part of the campaign, she’s released some special T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Warrior: We Made It” across the front.

“I didn’t want to be an artist putting out a shirt to make money. I wanted to have a bigger cause behind it,” she said. “I want to use everything I can to give back or to show other families that you can make it through whatever fight that you’re going through.”

The slogan is derived from the song “Warrior” that Margaret, also known by her Christian hip-hop moniker “Butta MD,” created during her mom’s battle with cancer. It’s the last song Gloria witnessed Margaret perform before she passed.

The “Warrior” t-shirts are available in either white with purple lettering or black with red lettering. Margaret said a portion of the proceeds raised will be donated to The Cancer Foundation. The shirts can be purchased here.

Margaret’s campaign ends Wednesday, March 26th, but she’s also releasing her EP Da NU Norm; We Made It, which will be composed of songs that got her through the unimaginable hardship of witnessing her mom fight and succumb to cancer.

“These are songs I was writing, sitting while my mom was getting treatment,” she said. “These are songs I was writing waking up in the middle of the morning, 1 or 2 a.m., hearing my mom. These are the times I would just write. I really couldn’t talk to people, because they didn’t really understand.”

Each year globally, about 14 million people learn they have cancer and eight million people die from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2007, while Margaret was a sophomore at the University of Memphis, her mom began her battle with cancer. Over the years subsequent to her diagnosis, she experienced hair loss and her health began to slowly diminish. Fueled by the desire to care for her mother, Margaret’s motivation to attend school lessened.

“I really wanted to drop out of college, but my mom pushed me to finish,” she reminisced. “I ended up graduating with honors. I had a 4.0 and I owed it all to her. She was there at my graduation.”

The Jones Clinic, the only independent oncology clinic in the region, was an establishment Gloria received assistance from. She attended its monthly cancer support groups. And Margaret traveled along with her faithfully.

Betty Dozier, a nurse at the Clinic, worked closely with Gloria and still remembers her last days there.

“She would come to the treatment room and ask other patients how they were doing,” Dozier said. “The word warrior really describes her, because she fought to the very end.”

With both the campaign and EP, Margaret said she hopes to encourage other families who have or are going through the same thing that she and her family did.

“I just want them to get hope, be encouraged, be inspired,” she said. “As an artist, as a person, being graced and blessed with a voice, I just want to continue to give that hope to people through music, songs, and writing. I believe that’s why I’m here for. I just want to continue to keep going for my mom and for those coming after me.”

Da NU Norm;We Made It is slated to drop digitally in mid-May, but there will be a release party in June. To stay updated on the EP’s release, visit ButtaMD.com

Follow me on Twitter: @Lou4President
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Check out my website: ahumblesoul.com

Tags 'Da Nu Norm; We Made It' EP, Calling the Bluff, Gloria Deloach, Louis Goggans, Margaret 'Butta MD' Deloach, Memphis Flyer, The Jones Clinic

News

What Y’all Said …

Post author By Flyer Staff
Post date March 24, 2014

It’s all about Putin, Palin, and other potential pals at Letters to the Editor, etc.

Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Accounticon ’15 Headed To Memphis

Post author By Joey Hack
Post date March 24, 2014

Cosplay enthusiast Gary Puckett as accounting legend Charles Ezra Sprague

Cosplay enthusiast Gary Puckett as accounting legend Charles Ezra Sprague

In light of the success of this past weekend’s MidSouthCon, other themed conventions are eyeing Memphis.

MidSouth Con features costumes, games and panels all focusing on a fantasy theme. Next year, the wizards and anime ladies will have some competition when Accounticon comes to town.

Accounticon is the nation’s premiere fantasy accountant themed convention. And the 2015 meeting will take place in Memphis.

“It’s a great opportunity for accountants and fans of accountants to get together and whoop it up,” said Society of Creative Accountancy and Bookkeeping (SCAB) president Penny Dollar.

The convention is less about accounting and more about the celebration of accountancy, Dollar explained. “It gives accountants an opportunity to let down their hair and pretend to be other accountants.”

The event features a costume contest where participants dress as their favorite accountants in history. “Last year a guy won with a spot on costume of 1953 Accounting Hall of Fame winner Charles Ezra Sprague. It was really amazing,” Dollar said.

In addition to the costume contest, participants will take part in accounting games, attend workshops on how to better emulate famous accountants, take part in sing-alongs, participate in the “Calculators and Tax Code Ball” and attend a night of stand up comedy by and for accountants.

“You can’t believe how funny some of these accountants can be. This year we expect our headliner to be Gary Feldbaum from the Mayweather Group out of Philadelphia. That guy is hilarious. And filthy. His bit about double entry accounting would make Richard Pryor blush,” Dollar explained.

The 2015 Accounticon will take place in May 2015. “After tax season, of course!” Dollar said. “We’ll pick the specific venue after analyzing a number of factors, putting them on a spreadsheet, and just getting hammered while running the numbers.”

Joey Hack is a regular contributor to Fly on the Wall and is a member of The Wiseguys improv troupe.

Politics Politics Beat Blog

Local Dem Chair Deals With Two Letters, Attempts to Avert Two Crises

Post author By Jackson Baker
Post date March 24, 2014

JB
Bryan Carson

Bryan Carson, chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party, has been busy this past week putting out fires — or trying to. Carson personally intervened to resolve a party-fidelity case involving one veteran Democrat, Sidney Chism, and he basically rebutted a warning by another, Del Gill, that had seemed to warn Democrats about appearing at Sunday’s candidate forum sponsored by the NAACP.

Chism had been one of several Democrats who were formally censured recently by the party’s executive committee for violation of “existing protocols for bona fides, loyalty and political behavior.” In the case of Chism, a Shelby County Commissioner and former Teamster leader who served an interim term in the state Senate, the offense was that of allegedly trying to keep Sheriff Bill Oldham, a Republican, from having to deal with a Democratic opponent.

Bennie Cobb, who has filed as a Democrat to oppose Oldham’s reelection, testified to the party committee that Chism had implored him on multiple occasions not to run against Oldham.

After being censured, Chism responded by suggesting the party was “dysfunctional” and by stating for the record his conviction that Oldham was “the best candidate: for Sheriff.

At that point, at the request of Gill, an ex officio (i.e., non-elected) member who had brought the censure resolution, Carson had scheduled a special called meeting of the party executive committee for Thursday night of this week, expressly for the purpose of determining whether to declare Chism “non bona fides” as a Democrat. Such action would have precluded Chism’s running for office again as a Democrat or using the party label in any other overt way.

But in the meantime Carson scheduled a lunch with Chism for last Friday. Afterward, Chism dispatched the following letter of apology to Carson:

Chairman Carson,

I am a life-long Democrat and I will always support the Democratic Party. I am under attack from a fragment of the membership who I feel are following the lead of a man with personal motives and as I have said before that is unfortunate. This ordeal has caused me to say words that I wish I hadn’t said. But in the heat of being attacked, I simply got angry and called the SCDP dis-functional and for that I humbly apologize.

Bryan, I will support the Democratic Party always and pray God’s blessings on us all.

Respectfully yours,
Sidney Chism

Carson released the letter on Monday and said he regarded the apology as resolving the matter and formally called off the schedled Thursday night meeting.

Gill, however, remained unsatisfied. He sent a letter to party secretary Rose Ann Bradley, indicating he would persist in efforts to decertify Chism as a Democrat. The letter said in part:

“…Point of Order: There is no provision in our Bylaws that allows the ‘un-calling’ of a duly called meeting of the SCDP Executive Committee.

But since it is obvious that Chair Carson does not plan to be in session on Thursday, May 27, 2014 – WE should ALL plan for the next REGULARLY scheduled meeting on April 3, 2014.”

The other matter dealt with by Carson was a previous letter sent out by Gill, onje advising Democratic candidates to avoid joint appearances with Republicans. The letter — signed “Del Gill, SCDP” — noted the fact of Sunday’s NAACP forum for county mayoral and Commission candidates and said in part:

“…Our invited candidates should be further cautioned their participation in any such non-partisan forums with cross party participation prior to the conclusion of our PARTISAN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY on May 6th prematurely elevates potential Republican incumbents to being “honorary Democrats” prior to the GENERAL ELECTION contests scheduled for August 7th.

“Our Party‘s Strategic Position to our CANDIDATES is: during the primary, limit your debates to DEMOCRATS only; let the Republicans and Independents wait on our Nominees per position until the General Election season which commences the day after our May 6th Primary…..”

Carson said he disagreed with that position, expressed concern to Gill that he had appeared to speak on behalf of the Democratic Party without authorization, and made his feelings known to other Democrats. “I have always been a supporter of the NAACP,” the chairman said.

In any case, the auditorium at First Baptist Church Broad St. was filled to capacity for the forum on Sunday, almost exclusively with Democrats, candidates as well as rank and file sorts. One Republican, incumbent County Commissioner Steve Basar, spoke at the forum, along with his Democratic opponent in District 13, Manoj Jain.

Carson was on hand, and so, for that matter, was Gill.

Sports Tiger Blue

Who Was That Team?

Post author By Frank Murtaugh
Post date March 24, 2014

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

For every team, in every sport, there exists a dichotomy: what is expected of that team, and what that team actually becomes. The only exceptions are the super teams (think 1976 Cincinnati Reds, 1985 Chicago Bears, 2012-13 Miami Heat) or the extraordinarily dreadful (the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks and the 2008 Detroit Lions come to mind). The mercurial nature of the 2013-14 Memphis Tigers made for a dichotomy as pronounced as any this proud program has experienced (suffered?) before.

Larry Kuzniewski
Josh Pastner

There’s the team Memphians wanted to see, the team they thought coach Josh Pastner had secured last November. A veteran (four senior guards!) core, a pair of prize recruits (Austin Nichols, Nick King), and a brand of athleticism that would ensure a frenetic offensive pace and stout, lock-down defense. And there were games this team did, in fact, surface. A payback win over 5th-ranked Oklahoma State in early December. An upset of 12th-ranked Louisville on the Cardinals’ floor in January. An astonishing late-game comeback against Gonzaga — with ESPN’s Game Day crew at FedExForum — in early February. When the Tigers closed their second game against Louisville (this time ranked 7th in the country) on a 15-1 run, Tiger fans collectively screamed, Yes . . . this is our team!

But hold on. The win over Oklahoma State was considered remarkable largely because the Cowboys had destroyed Memphis — scoring 101 points — less than two weeks earlier. As tough as the Tigers proved to be against the defending national champs, they were as soft in losing five games combined against Cincinnati and Connecticut. (You’d have to go back a few years to find a more dispiriting loss than the 19-point beat-down the Tigers took on their home floor against the Huskies in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament.) And let’s not forget the loss that may have done the most damage to the Tigers’ NCAA tournament seed: February 27th at Houston. A Cougar team the Tigers beat by 23 points in January controlled the game, start to finish. Mercurial doesn’t do this Memphis team justice.

So what exactly was the group we’ll remember as the 2013-14 Tigers? Once the hurt of the season-ending loss to Virginia on Sunday begins to fade, when we’re able to pull back and examine the mosaic of a season instead of the tiny panels that made that season, we’ll likely see precisely what we got: One of the top 32 teams in the country, and no more.

Larry Kuzniewski
Joe Jackson

There was some irony to the Tigers falling out of the Top-25 rankings on the eve of the NCAA tournament, as they’d managed to stay in those rankings the entire regular season. (The AAC tourney loss was just that ugly.) After eight years of Conference USA 2.0, Pastner led his club through a gauntlet of 11 ranked opponents, tying a program record set in 2004-05. (That team, remember, played in the NIT). Memphis beat five of those teams, and came agonizingly close to knocking off a Florida team — in Madison Square Garden — that entered the NCAA tournament as the number-one team in the country. This was a good team. Just not a great one. (It was, let it be said, a poor defensive team, weak in both body and effort. Priority One for the offseason should be strengthening. Period.)

Next season will be very different. The departure of those four senior guards — Joe Jackson, Chris Crawford, Geron Johnson, and Michael Dixon — will alter, literally, the way the Tigers play the game. Tiger fans will have to get acquainted with Markel Crawford and Pookie Powell (both redshirted this season) and newcomers Dominic Magee and Avery Woodson. Big men Shaq Goodwin and Austin Nichols will become the faces of the program, while Nick King, presumably, transitions from role player off the bench to impact scorer. They will not be ranked among the country’s top ten teams, maybe not the top 20. And they will not be favored to win the AAC. They’ll enter the season claiming to be overlooked and under-appreciated, with little to lose and a new chapter in Tiger history to gain.

And they’ll likely surprise us, for good or ill. They’ll win a game they shouldn’t . . . and lose a game they shouldn’t. Leaving those who love Tiger basketball to wrestle, once again, with the dichotomy that makes every season worth following in the first place.

News

Farewell to the Kings

Post author By Flyer Staff
Post date March 24, 2014

A Memphis season that started with the promise of “four kings,” the Tigers’ senior guards, ended with a blowout loss to Virginia, Sunday, in the NCAA tourney. Frank Murtaugh has a season post-mortem.