Month: December 2014

Categories
Blurb Books

Greaney’s Back — Big Time — With a New Clancy

At 674 pages, Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect (Putnam) is a big book by any measure or any genre, and the author doesn’t need reminding of it. Mention the fact, however, and Mark Greaney good-naturedly replies, “Tell me about it!”

This latest novel of Greaney’s follows on the heels of his Tom Clancy Support and Defend (also from Putnam and at 503 pages), which came out this past July, and that book followed on the heels of Greaney’s latest in his own Gray Man series, Dead Eye (at 479 pages), which came out last December.

That puts Memphian Mark Greaney at a remarkable 1,656 pages for the year, and in a recent phone interview with the Flyer, Greaney reported that he’s already got another Clancy and another Gray Man lined up for next year. In the meantime, his only Memphis book signing for Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect falls on the book’s official publication date, which is today: Tuesday, December 2nd. Barnes & Noble at Wolfchase (2774 N. Germantown Parkway, 386-2468) is hosting the event beginning at 7 p.m.

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Greaney co-authored three action-suspense thrillers with Tom Clancy before Clancy’s death in 2013. And with the backing of the Clancy estate, he’s continued the enormously successful franchise by authoring two more novels using Clancy characters.

And so: Full Force and Effect brings back both Jack Ryans — Ryan Sr. (U.S. president) and Ryan Jr. (operations officer for the Campus, an under-the-radar U.S. intelligence agency) — and the cause of the conflict is today’s front-page news: North Korea, which is, under the leadership of the young, untested son of the country’s former leader, in the process of developing a long-range, nuclear-war-headed intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the West Coast of the United States. Capable, that is, if only a North Korean mining site rich in rare-earth minerals can be harnessed to supply the materials for that weaponry and if only the science can be brought in to get that missile going.

East European geologists are needed for their technical expertise. The very shady Sharps Global Intelligence Partners (headed by former FBI agent “Duke” Sharps) is supplying the know-how to get those geologists into North Korea. Jack Ryan Jr. and his cohort at the Campus are charged with getting to the bottom of it. Annette Brawley, “imagery specialist” at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, is doing a damn good job fielding satellite photos. And Jack Ryan Sr. is set to be assassinated by a North Korean sleeper cell.

It’s a classic Clancy setup, and Full Force and Effect is a good, solid read. Its globe-trotting combination of above-board and rogue elements is in Greaney’s equally good hands. Thing is, though, the book — as in all of Greaney’s books, whether Clancy-connected or not — was at least partially written in an East Memphis coffee shop. The East Memphis home that Greaney moved into six months ago has its own office for writing too, but as Greaney reported, when you’re on deadline, you do what you can, you write where you can.

“I try to write 1,000, 1,500 words per day,” he said. “But I spend a lot of time researching at the beginning of a novel, and that due date [to my publisher] doesn’t move. I was up in D.C. for a month and in New York City for location research in the mornings. I was writing all afternoon and into the night. So some days I wrote 20 pages a day.”

But when Greaney’s in Memphis, is he writing inside that coffee shop? Or is he at home?

“Fifty-fifty,” he admitted. “I was also in Algeria two weeks ago. Los Angeles last week. I’m writing wherever I am.”

Which leads to the question whether Greaney’s actually been inside North Korea. That question is not far-fetched. Greaney considered joining a tour group there, because visits to North Korea by Westerners can be done — but Westerners, as recent headlines confirm, can get into major trouble getting out.

Turns out, Greaney didn’t go to North Korea, though as Full Force and Effect demonstrates, he’s been especially interested in introducing to readers another side of “The Hermit Kingdom” — a more personal side — because two of the novel’s lead characters are North Koreans who have to carefully negotiate the politics of doing business there. Their lives depend on negotiating it. The lives of their families do too. And that’s one reason this novel’s so big.

“I looked into going to North Korea,” Greaney said, “because I wanted to create legitimate reasons for the action of the ‘bad’ guys … personal reasons to give the story more depth. Otherwise, those characters would have been like aliens from another planet. It would have been too easy to make the characters pure evil, beyond parody.

Mark_Greaney_courtesy_Carrie_Echols.jpg

“But I also wanted to expand the story to take in the American private intelligence that was working with the North Koreans. And yes, there really is a mine in North Korea — rare-earth minerals that the Chinese are mining — and there are conflicts now between China and North Korea. I envisioned a scenario where things got so bad that North Korea kicked China out. And North Korea is developing ICBMs. That’s the reality. I just took it to another level, went from there.

“And there are definitely private intelligence organizations all over the U.S. that do contract work for the U.S. I’ve always been fascinated by these agencies, because some of my real-life contacts are ex-CIA and ex-FBI. I’ve learned a lot about that world.”

Greaney has also learned the difference between writing according to his own cast of characters and those of Tom Clancy. Both writers made their names in the same genre. What separates a Greaney thriller from one by Clancy?

“The Gray Man books are more narrow in scope,” Greaney said. “Readers have the feeling they’re looking over the shoulder of the hero. Clancy is wider in scope. It’s fun to do both. And it was fun for me in Full Force and Effect to wonder in one scene, for example, what it’s like to be in the White House, to be the president in an intelligence briefing, to not be getting the intelligence you want.

“In the Gray Man series, it’s interesting to have this hero and think about all the personal things he’s having to deal with, the objectives he has to achieve. With Clancy, it’s a different type of fun, a different type of challenge. With the Clancy books, I start to wonder: If the plot goes here … then maybe now we can look at things through the eyes, say, of a Navy Seal. Let’s put the camera there. Let’s see what things look like.

“But I don’t try or think too hard about writing like Clancy, though there are definitely expectations people have. I’ve been reading him since the mid-1980s. A lot of my development as a writer comes from reading those books of his. It’s the reason I don’t expect the series to veer off in some strange direction, because, one, I don’t think anybody would let me do that. And two, I used to love seeing how Tom Clancy would tie all these different threads together — the threads in the first and second acts: How could they all possibly come together in the third act? That’s a Clancy hallmark. As long as I’m writing a Clancy book, that will never change.”

What has changed since Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October appeared in 1984? Speed of storytelling. “People are not as interested in the minutiae of detail that they were 15 or 20 years ago,” Greaney said. And as for Clancy’s core audience?

“The vast majority of readers,” Greaney said, “are very glad the Jack Ryan novels are continuing. And the vast majority are glad that the guy who worked with Tom on his last three books has been brought in to continue the series.

“There are naysayers. People who think the books should have been put to bed with Tom’s death. I understand that. But people like the books. The Clancy estate wanted to continue. The publisher wanted to continue. From the very beginning, I knew there would be some pushback. But the one thing I can do is to make the books as faithful to people’s expectations as I can. Make the books as good as I can. If I get close enough, then everything’s going to take care of itself.”

But does Greaney have in mind for the next Clancy book a global conflict even more pressing than North Korea?

“I’m looking at Syria, which means looking at Iran, Russia, and ISIS. That’s a whole lot to slip into one book, in addition to the Clancy characters. I don’t have a plot yet. But you don’t have to look hard to come up with world conflicts to write about.”

Nor do you have to look far to stay close to today’s home-grown headlines. That phrase “full force and effect”? It applies to a presidential executive order, which carries the full force and effect of law, aside from Congress. Unlike the up-to-the-minute, real-world immigration debate right now in America, it applies, in Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect, to President Jack Ryan’s challenge to North Korea.

A reminder, then, at 674 pages, that this is the way we live now. Mark Greaney, inspired by the late Tom Clancy, is simply, in fiction, heightening the stakes, taking things to another level, going from there. •

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: LBOE and Memphis Made Taproom

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

At Last Burger on Earth (LBOE), you can’t order dessert. The reason is simple: They don’t have any. And if you want a vegetable — fugheddaboudit. There’s a lonely looking salad at the bottom of the menu, a spinach-and-tomato affair that might as well be called “The Afterthought.”

But let’s be honest. You didn’t come here to eat a vegetable.

What LBOE has is burgers. Ten of them. They aren’t healthy, and apart from the Classic ($7.95), you can’t really pick them up with your hands. But if you can come to grips with using a knife and fork, then you’ll find out why LBOE is worth a trip. These burgers — they’re fiendishly tasty.

Justin Fox Burks

Take their signature, the LBOE (pronounced “elbow,” $9.95). Just the ingredient list is enough to inspire a mild heart attack in your faithful food columnist: Havarti cheese, roasted garlic cream cheese, hardwood-smoked bacon, green chilies, and corn chips.

Um, excuse me? Green chilies? Corn chips? But take the plunge, dear reader, and soon you’ll be asking yourself why you haven’t been putting chips on your burgers all along. The chips lend a salty crunch to the meat, one that is beautifully balanced by the citrusy acidity of the peppers. Try all you want: you won’t take home any leftovers.

“The name is like a last meal kind of thing,” says co-founder Tyler Adams. “Like if you’re gonna have your last burger, we hope you do it here.”

Of course, toppings are important, but they’re no good without quality meat. For that reason, LBOE sources all its ground beef at Charlie’s Meat Market on Summer, which grinds its meat fresh five days a week. From there, they add a top-secret mix of seasonings (I thought I detected smoked paprika) and cook the burgers on a flat-top griddle.

“The reason is they get to simmer in their own juices,” says Adams, “so it makes the burgers juicier.”

He ain’t just whistling Dixie.

There are a few conservative choices on the menu. Think bacon, cheese, pickles. But I recommend an adventure. Try the Walking in Memphis (kielbasa, pulled pork) or the Lava Me (sriracha cream cheese, Nikki’s Hot Ass Chips). And remember the words of Machiavelli: “Never was anything great achieved without danger.”

Take a stroll around the new Memphis Made Tap Room, and you might suspect that the place wasn’t built for beer. Well, you’d be right. The cavernous space — big enough to house a couple of movie theaters — was formerly a drive-in freezer for the now-defunct Keathley Pie Company, piled high with hundreds of thousands of single-serve pecan pies.

These days, the space is home to the sudsy ambitions of Memphis Made Brewing Co., whose tap room opened to the public on Friday, November 21st. And you know what? For a former drive-in freezer, they’ve made it pretty homey, complete with expanded bathrooms, custom metal furniture, and a gracious wood bar by craftsman Galen Woods.

“It’s like the Death Star in Return of the Jedi,” muses Memphis Made co-founder Andy Ashby. “We’re not quite completed yet, but we’re getting there.”

Memphis Made is known for its Lucid Kolsch ($6): a crisp, golden ale that is produced year-round. But in colder weather, it’s their seasonal offerings that really shine. Case in point: Fireside Ninja ($6). An American amber ale, it is deliciously malty, with notes of caramel and chocolate — just the thing to warm up with on a chilly fall night.

“I envision a ninja in a silk smoking jacket,” says co-founder Drew Barton, “lounging on a bearskin rug with a glass of cognac — in front of a roaring fire.

“We were definitely drinking when we came up with that,” he adds.

At first, the tap room will be open just one night per week: Fridays from 4 to 9 p.m. Ashby and Barton say they will expand as business allows. Food will be provided by Hot Mess Burritos food truck, as well as Aldo’s Pizza Pies, which will open a new location across the street in early 2015.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Ultrasound Bill Introduced After Amendment 1’s Passage

CREDIT: Mitar Gavric | Dreamstime.com

State representative Rick Womick (R-Rockvale) is wasting no time in taking advantage of the passage of Amendment 1, a constitutional amendment that passed this month giving legislators the right to enact stricter abortion laws.

A bill introduced by Womick would require that women who choose to have an abortion would have to first hear the heartbeat of the fetus, unless there’s a medical emergency.

It also requires medical providers to show the patient an ultrasound. If the patient declines, the provider would be required to provide a verbal explanation of a live ultrasound, describing the fetus’ stage, including the heartbeat, internal organs, legs, and arms, if present.

CHOICES Memphis Center for Reproductive Health is urging its pro-choice supporters to reach out to state representatives. The clinic is also working with Healthy & Free Tennessee, a statewide organization aiming for more progressive reproductive and sexual health legislation.

Mitar Gavric | Dreamstime.com

Rebecca Terrell, the executive director for the clinic, said what some pro-life legislators call regulation is actually restriction.

“The idea behind Amendment 1 was, ‘We’re going to introduce bills to ensure that women get safe care,'” she said. “So what on earth does this have to do with women getting safe care?”

According to Womick’s bill, a woman would be required to have the ultrasound (or verbal explanation of an ultrasound) two days before the scheduled abortion — something that Terrell said only restricts access to a procedure. She said procedures need to be completed as soon as possible to ensure they are as safe as possible. Since abortions are not performed every day, a woman who goes in for an ultrasound and then needs an abortion might add a few days or a week to her appointment, making it “less safe by definition,” Terrell said.

Ultrasounds are already offered to patients as standard practice, Terrell said.

“We really just use it to date the gestation of the pregnancy, so there’s no looking for fingers and toes,” she said. “But the majority of our procedures are so early, you can’t really see any of that anyway. We always ask the patient if she would like to either see the image or have a copy of the image. All the studies [show] that seeing the image has very little effect on the women’s decision, that they have made that decision before they come.”

The Family Research Council, a pro-life organization based in Washington, D.C., quotes a study that says otherwise, but an independent study conducted by the University of California in San Francisco, published in January of this year, measured data from more than 15,000 women who sought abortions at an urban clinic. Nearly 43 percent of women chose to view their ultrasound, but 98.4 percent of those who viewed it still terminated their pregnancy. Out of the 15,000, 98.8 percent of women still followed through with their abortion procedure.

“If there’s any kind of devastation, like in a case of rape or a pregnancy terminated for medical reasons, why would you want to traumatize someone like that?” Terrell said. “It’s cruel, and it’s so intrusive. It’s about shaming the woman.”

In January of this year, a federal judge struck down a law in North Carolina requiring medical providers to describe the fetus in detail, even if the patient asked to the contrary, declaring it unconstitutional.

“We have our job. We have to provide the care,” Terrell said. “So, who’s fighting the fight? I hope that maybe some lights went on for people in this Amendment 1 battle — that [abortion] might actually be unavailable to people in our state. Legislators do pay attention when they hear from their very own districts, so don’t think your voice is unimportant. It can have an impact.”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

The Theory Of Everything

Even in a century of scientist heroes that includes Einstein, Salk, and Bohr, Stephen Hawking stands out. He was the first to try to reconcile the very large world of relativity with the very small world of quantum mechanics. He helped prove that black holes exist, then proved that even they don’t last forever. He became a popularizer of science, writing a bestselling book that introduced many to the science of time. And, of course, he did it all while fighting Lou Gehrig’s Disease, doing his most profound work as a public figure confined to an electric wheelchair and communicating with the world through a computer voice.

The Theory of Everything is based on a memoir by Hawking’s first wife, Jane Wilde, that attempts to look behind the myth and reveal the real man living behind the voice synth. It opens with a bike ride through Cambridge in 1963, where Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) is a promising, if somewhat scatterbrained, doctoral candidate in astrophysics and cosmology, which he defines as “a kind of religion for intelligent atheists.” When he’s not turning in impossibly elegant mathematical solutions written on the back of train schedules, he does what all of the other young scholars do: awkwardly chase girls. He meets Jane (Felicity Jones) at a house party and is immediately enchanted; but in a bit of foreshadowing of their eventual relationship, she has to give him her number, because she knows he would have asked if he had thought about it.

Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne

Just as Hawking is formulating his first big ideas that would earn him his doctorate, he is diagnosed with motor neuron disease and given two years to live. Jane insists they marry anyway, and she puts her own studies on hold to minister to him while he works on his world-changing science.

Directed by James Marsh, who won an Oscar for his 2009 documentary Man on Wire, The Theory of Everything resembles Walk the Line, in that it tries to illuminate the character of a “great man” through the lens of his great love. Hawking’s accomplishments are complex equations written on blackboard, and thus not as cinematic as Johnny Cash playing Folsom Prison. But like Walk the Line‘s Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, this movie soars on a pair of strong lead performances. Jones is self-possessed and compassionate as Jane, who bears the burden of caring for her husband and their three children until the cracks begin to show. Redmayne’s physically demanding performance as Hawking brings to mind Daniel Day-Lewis’ Oscar winning turn in My Left Foot. The film is at its best in the early going, as the lovers move through sun dappled English campuses with Hawking’s disease creeping up behind them, but it bogs down in the middle with some plodding characterization and the difficulties of explaining the complex science that is its subject’s life’s work. But The Theory of Everything ultimately wants to live in the heart and not the mind, and in that, it succeeds admirably.

Categories
Memphis Preps Blog Sports

Son of Mingo

Jordan Johnson

Jordan Johnson waits to hear his name called by Overton coach John Woodridge. He watches most of Overton’s game with Trezevant from what has been unfamiliar territory during his young career — the bench.

Johnson checks in during a short stretch in the third quarter. The freshman point guard plays his role, does just what he’s asked to do, which is mainly give the Wolverines’ starting point guard a breather. In his four minutes, he doesn’t commit a turnover. He plays good defense. He gets a steal. He also gets an assist. One thing he doesn’t do is shoot the ball — a big change from what he been accustomed to.

Last year, at Sherwood Middle School, Johnson was a gunner, his light kryptonite green. His aerodynamic fro-hawk fade hair cut fits the look of his shot, high and dynamic. He was also a starter while playing AAU ball with Team Penny 14 & Under over the summer. Without question, he’s a shooter, a good shooter. But high school ball is different. “It’s been real hard,” Johnson says. “In middle school you can get away with a lot of stuff. In high school, you have to be more physical and stronger and mentally stronger.”

Although Johnson has struggled at times, he is making strides, thanks to three men in his life: Chris Adams, Jerry Hurt, and Mingo Johnson.

CHRIS ADAMS

Saturday afternoon, while Overton is playing Trezevant in a jamboree game at East High School, Chris Adams, who coached some of the players on the court during their middle school careers, including Johnson, is there as a spectator and a cheerleader. He likes to keep up with his former players.

Sunday afternoon, Adams watches the Memphis Tigers women’s team play Minnesota at Elma Roane Fieldhouse. He’s there to witness the progress of Memphis players Mooriah Rowser, Damonique Miller, and Courtney Powell, players he has trained during the off-season.

After the Memphis game, Adams heads to Sherwood Middle School, where he coaches the boys’ varsity squad. On Sundays, just before the light outside fades, he opens the gym to work out some of his former players. Johnson is one of them.

“I’m trying to make sure they have a good work ethic,” says Adams, who prepped at Melrose and played college ball at Southwest Tennesssee Community College and Fisk University. “Make sure they always go hard.”

To start the workout, Adams makes the players go through dribbling drills. He puts a chair to the right of the free throw line. Players have to dribble up to the chair, change direction, and then either go to the bucket or pull up for a jumper. He increases the degree of difficulty by adding another chair, and having the players dribble between their legs to pass one, then at “game speed,” behind-the-back, then back-to-front dribble between the legs to get past the other.

Adams says he wants Johnson to continue to perfect his jump shot and mid-range game. They’ve had the same Sunday routine for the past three years.

“Coach Chris, he knows what he’s talking about,” says Johnson. “And I know he can help me improve my game, to get me to the next level.”

JERRY HURT

Overton High senior, Jerry Hurt

Joining Johnson in the gym Sunday is Jerry Hurt, Overton’s starting point guard. Hurt, a senior, has taken Johnson under his wing. Adams coached Hurt at American Way Middle. Hurt, like Adams, is interested in Johnson’s growth. He wants to end his high school career with a bang, a trip to the Murfreesboro to play for a state championship. He believes Johnson could help the cause.

“He’s very good,” Hurt says. “He’s just got to learn to get focused before games. He likes to play around, because he’s a freshman. He likes to joke around when everybody is trying to take it seriously.”

Johnson also has to become a better distributor. The 5’8” Johnson has always been called upon to score first; now he’s being asked to get his teammates more involved, which Hurt and Adams both believe he can do with Hurt as a mentor.

MINGO JOHNSON

It’s easy to understand why Jordan Johnson has developed such a good outside shot. His father is former University of Memphis Tiger guard, Mingo Johnson, who hit 153 three-pointers at Memphis, despite playing only two seasons at the school in the mid-1990s.

Mingo is his son’s hero. He not only fostered his son’s interest in basketball, he served as an assistant coach on Jordan’s AAU team. Mingo knows his son has a long journey, but says Jordan is off to a good start. “I was telling someone the other day that (Jordan) was much better than I was at the same age,” says Mingo. That is where father and son disagree.

Jordan, who has studied his father’s college and high school game tapes for years, says his dad’s scouting report is a bit inaccurate. “I think I’m close to where he was (as a freshman) but I’ve still got a lot more to get to,” says Jordan.

It is a tough comparison, because Mingo was a point guard in high school who made the transition to shooting guard in college. His son is a shooter hoping to transform to a point guard.

“Jordan’s game is different,” says Adams. “Mingo was bigger. Jordan has a point guard’s body.”

Mingo is also a better outside shooter — still. Jordan and Mingo play one-on-one and unfortunately for Jordan, the results are always the same. “He still beats me,” Jordan admits. And Papa Johnson does not use his size to do it (Mingo is 6-2). “Just his shot and his handles” Jordan adds.

Still, Jordan has made progress. He logged about 15 minutes in Overton’s game against Oakhaven. Adams was there and he was pleased with what he saw and offered encouraging words for his former student-athlete.
“I told him to be patient,” he said. “Your time will come.” And when it does, hopefully he’ll be ready to effectively run an offense — and maybe even beat his old man. n

You can follow Jamie Griffin on twitter @flyerpreps.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Guess Where I’m Eating Contest 48

This one may be a little tough … 

The first person to correctly ID where I’m eating wins a fabulous prize. 

To enter, submit your answer to me via email at ellis@memphisflyer.com. 

The answer to GWIE 47 is the bi bim bap at Kwik Chek, and the winner is … Kate Bass!

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

New Site The Fork Launches

John Klyce Minervini is a native Memphian,  Harvard grad, food writer for the Flyer, freelancer writer for many local publications, and an all-around interesting cat. He introduces his latest venture today: The Fork. 

The Fork is a hyper-local site, designed to “help Memphians figure out where to eat, what to eat, and why.”

First up is a series called “Hungry Holidays,” featuring food and drink running Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through Christmas. These posts come with a lagniappe: If you go to the restaurant and buy the featured item, 20% of the proceeds will be donated to the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry.

Hungry Memphis asked John to explain himself … 

Tell us about yourself.
Ha! Well, I’m a Pisces. I like rainbows and long walks on the beach.

No, really.
OK, OK. I recently moved to Memphis from Portland, and I’m trying to figure out what this city needs or wants me to do. I’ve written about food for the last six years, and the Memphis dining scene is literally blowing up. So I thought I’d make a website and help people find out about it. Tada! The Fork.

You’re very clear that The Fork is NOT a blog. Why’s that?
I think it’s about breadth of vision. A blog is about one thing, or maybe two things. It’s about baking, or it’s about going to culinary school. With The Fork, I want to embrace the whole Memphis dining scene. I want it to be a place where people can go and click around until they figure out where to eat, what to eat, and why.

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You’ve teamed up with the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry?
When I started this thing, I knew I wanted to bake social justice into the concept, right from the beginning. The way I see it, seared tuna actually tastes better when you know you’re helping to feed the homeless. And UBFM just seemed like a perfect fit for what I was trying to do.

How so?
So they’re these young volunteers—basically big-hearted hipsters with bicycles. And every Wednesday and Saturday, they load up their backpacks with burritos and pedal around downtown and midtown, handing out food to homeless people. I’ve biked around with them, and it really is a beautiful thing. A way for people who don’t usually encounter each other to come together over food.

You’re a mindful eater, but there must be one thing you would be ashamed of admitting you eat. Tell us!
Well, I guess it was gonna come out eventually. At Costco, they sell these 25-ounce jars of castelvetrano olives. Buckets of olives is really what they are. And if I’m not careful, I’ll take out half of one of those buckets in a single sitting. There is basically no limit to my appetite for Costco olives.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Road Report: What did the Grizzlies do for Thanksgiving Break?

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

Noted dunk enthusiast Jon Leuer continued his reign as the Grizzlies’ best (current) dunker on the team’s three game road trip.

The Grizzlies were busy over the Thanksgiving holiday, playing three West Coast road games in six days and winning all of them, for a Western Conference record of 11–0 and an overall record of 15–2. For those keeping score at home, the last team to start the season 11–0 against Western Conference opponents were the 2008–09 Lakers. The Grizzlies have one more road game—Wednesday night in Houston—before they return to the Forum to face the Spurs on Friday, but they’re returning to Memphis between yesterday’s game and Wednesday’s trip, so the 13th or 14th annual Grizzlies West Coast Road Trip was a little bit shorter than usual this year (usually there’s a game against Phoenix or Golden State thrown into the mix as well), but I doubt anyone is complaining about that.

Herewith, a brief rundown of what the Grizzlies were up to while you were traveling and/or stuffing your face with turkey and/or too comatose from pumpkin pie intake to pay attention and/or fixing your parents’ or grandparents’ computer while you were in town because that’s the only time any software updates ever get run:

Grizzlies 99, Lakers 93

Probably the least impressive of the three performances for the Grizzlies, as they trailed at the end of the first quarter and didn’t take the lead for good until some time during the third. Players who usually have good defense—Tony Allen and Courtney Lee—didn’t, and Lee especially had a rough night shooting after setting the nets on fire for most of the season so far. Once the Grizzlies asserted control, they weren’t in any danger, but this was not an efficient offensive performance nor a good defensive outing. Ed Davis had 2 points in 22 minutes, though, so I guess The Ed Davis Revenge Game is still forthcoming.

A tweet from Tuesday night that gives you a glimpse of what Lakers fans are going through this season:

Grizzlies 112, Trail Blazers 99

On Friday night in Portland, another slow start looked like it was going to sink the Grizzlies. They got down big to Portland very early on, as the Blazers are a really streaky jump-shooting team and when they’re hitting shots and the Grizzlies aren’t, they can cover a lot of ground in a hurry. They fought back quickly, and held Portland to 18 points in the second quarter while putting up 29 or more points in each of the last three frames. Gasol was almost transcendent, with 26 pts, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists. Z-Bo had 14 and 13 and collected that same weird blend of cheers and boos he always does when he plays in Portland. Jon Leuer dunked like he was never going to dunk again. Overall, Friday night was a big win against one of the best teams in the West, a team that was on a 9-game winning streak before the Grizzlies got to town.

It also started to become clearer that Jon Leuer (alias Jonny Basketball) is the best dunker on the Grizzlies’ roster. I’m not sure what that means, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

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Grizzlies 97, Kings 85

Last night’s game in Sacramento featured a Kings team without DeMarcus Cousins and a Joey Crawford with an itch to eject some folks. Unfortunately, the target of his ire was Ryan Hollins, who was playing ahead of Reggie Evans, who had been quietly racking up DNP-CD’s on the end of the Kings bench. Reggie Evans, you may remember, is a notorious Z-Bo-stopper and all around rebounding pest, and one of the few guys in the league who can consistently cause nightmares for the Grizzlies’ interior play on both ends of the floor.

He ended up with 20 rebounds in 35 minutes, while the Grizzlies’ beautiful ball movement and floor spacing from the first half slowly devolved into hideous 2012 LionelBall™, with the Grizzlies walking the ball up the court and throwing the ball into Zach Randolph for an isolation play that, because of Reggie Evans, usually didn’t go according to plan. Z-Bo still finished with 22 and 12, and his defense was unusually good (especially in the first half), but that kind of stagnation was disheartening to see after the start the Grizzlies have gotten off to this season offensively.

Once the Grizzlies started to assert control of the game down the stretch (and Joey Crawford reminded everyone he was officiating the game, as is his wont), the Griz pulled away and got the win, but for a while, it looked like Reggie Evans was about to ruin a perfectly good road trip.

Of course, Grizzlies fans are still a little salty about the Kings’ protest of the earlier game between these two teams, the one that ended with a Courtney Lee game winning buzzer-beater:

So, of course, taken as a whole, there are good things and bad things that happened on the road trip that just wrapped up, things that stick out one way or the other as being of note:

Three Good

➭ Marc Gasol continues to play like an MVP candidate most of the time. In the Portland game he was on another level, but even in the Lakers and Kings games, games where the Grizzlies didn’t always look great, Gasol played with an edge that we haven’t seen from him before. He’s been much more willing to go to the rim instead of settling for jump shots this year, and that’s put him on the free throw line a great deal more than he’s ever been there in the past. If Gasol can continue to do what he’s doing, it’s going to make it a lot easier for the Grizzlies to win at this rate. Gasol is the engine that runs the entire Griz identity right now, on both ends of the floor. His defense has probably regressed a little this year due to his increased focus on scoring, but regressing a little from “Defensive Player of the Year” caliber so that he can score 30 points on a regular basis isn’t exactly a trade I’m upset about making.

➭ The offense continues to have stretches of (dare I say it?) almost Spurs-ian crispness, especially when the Grizzlies’ shooters (Lee, Pondexter, Udrih, et al) start to get going. The things Joerger is doing, and the way the Grizzlies are almost fanatically committed to making the extra pass to get the better shot, it’s hard to understand why anyone would want to be back “in the mud” again. The offensive effeciency has dropped off a little bit lately, and the Griz are still 8th out of 30 teams in offensive rating (according to Basketball Reference, anyway). It’s a thing of beauty.

Larry Kuzniewski

The #Feed50 movement got a breath of fresh air in the first half against Sacramento.

➭ Zach Randolph has been mostly quiet, but even when flying under the radar he’s still shown that he can assert himself when his matchups are favorable. In the first half of the Kings game, especially, he found himself being guarded by Ryan Hollins and had 15 and 5 by the seven minute mark of the second quarter. Randolph has ceded his “first option” status to Gasol and Conley for the most part this year, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not a vital part of what the team is doing. With Randolph camped out on the blocks while the offense whirls around him, he’s able to transition his rebounding and putback game into the “Garbage Man” role he was born for, grabbing anything and everything that comes his way and putting it through the rim. It’s the perfect role for Randolph for the rest of his career, if we’re honest: just hanging out, getting double-doubles, no big deal.

Three bad

➭ The first bad thing is exactly the obverse of what I just said: in the Sacramento game, the offense broke down (mostly because of Reggie Evans, if we’re honest) and everything reverted to the 2012 Grizzlies look: walk the ball up the court and Z-Bo iso. (Rudy Gay was on the other team, so at least there was one fewer guy to clear out for.) Randolph may have quietly stopped being The Guy this year, but that doesn’t mean he’s gotten it out of his system, but when the Grizzlies try to pound the ball inside to #Feed50 instead of getting him the ball in the flow of the offense—some spectacular passes from Udrih to a rolling Randolph in the first half of Sacramento were the perfect example of this—he can’t get buckets against good interior defenders the way he used to. “Throw Zach the ball” can’t be the Grizzlies’ offense anymore, or, at least not against teams with good bigs.

➭ Marc Gasol is muy turnover prone this year. He’s averaging 2.7 a game, but they seem to come in clumps of 4 or 5. It makes sense that he’d be turning the ball over more, given that the ball is in his hands a lot more on offense as he transitions from a facilitator to a scorer, but still: it’s a bit problematic. The joke about Gasol has always been that he’s got the handles of a point guard trapped in a center’s body, but he’s got to work on those handles a little bit.

➭ The third thing is not really a bad that’s happening right now but a bad that is bound to happen at some point: Courtney Lee will regress to the mean at some point. The longer he can play this way before he does, the better. Lee’s shooting has opened up the floor for the Grizzlies’ offense the way nobody ever has before. Lee is doing exactly what we all thought O.J. Mayo would do in 2012 or so. But he’s shooting so far above his career averages (53% overall this year, 45% career, and 53% from 3 as opposed to 38% from three) that there’s no way it’s going to continue at this rate. Even a moderate dropoff in Lee’s production wouldn’t be that big of a deal. What would be worrisome is if he goes through a prolonged drought, and can’t hit anything for a couple of weeks. That would shift the onus to shoot to Pondexter and Udrih and Vince Carter, who keeps shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting, and I’m not sure that the Grizzlies’ newfound offensive flow looks quite the same with those guys taking the shots.

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Memphis Tiger Football: A Roaring Engine

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

As far as three-year rebuilding plans go, we have a new standard. In December 2011, Justin Fuente was given the keys to a rusty, oil-burning pile of scrap with (maybe) one partially inflated tire. Today — three regular seasons later — Fuente is behind the wheel of a machine Matthew McConaughey would be pleased to drive. The 9-3 Memphis Tigers — read that record again — will play in a bowl game, to be announced this Sunday. They’ll take the field for that postseason tilt — the program’s first in six years — riding a six-game winning streak, something not seen in these parts since 1969. For a long-suffering Memphis football fan base, the wait (’til this year) is over.

Ironically, the first signs of legitimate progress for the Tiger program were the team’s first two losses of the season. Memphis traded punches with 11th-ranked UCLA on September 6th, tying the game at 35 early in the fourth quarter when senior safety Fritz Etienne returned an interception for a touchdown. Three weeks later in Oxford, the Tigers trailed 10th-ranked Ole Miss, 7-3, entering the fourth quarter. Coming up short in these two games seemed merely to fuel the motivational fire, particularly for a defense that — led by defensive coordinator Barry Odom and eight senior starters — climbed its way to elite status, surrendering only 17.1 points per game.

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The last Memphis team to win nine games (2003) featured the greatest player in Tiger history (DeAngelo Williams) and, not incidentally, the program’s most accomplished quarterback (Danny Wimprine). According to Fuente, this year’s team lacks a definitive headliner: “There’s no superstar on either side of the ball. This group is selfless, and they’re good listeners. That’s an important trait.” The lack of a season-long headliner didn’t mean the 2014 Tigers were starless. They just shared the spotlight, one week to the next.

• Paxton Lynch passed for 305 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for another score in the loss at UCLA, enough to earn him American Athletic Conference Player of the Week honors. He hasn’t thrown an interception in six games.
• Tank Jakes had a game (against Middle Tennessee) that would have made Jack Lambert proud: two sacks (one for a safety), a forced fumble (that led to a Bobby McCain touchdown), and an interception.
• Sophomore kicker Jake Elliott split the uprights as time expired at Temple on November 7th, culminating a 66-yard drive over the game’s final 2:40 to clinch bowl eligibility for the Tigers.
• After injuries sidelined running backs Doroland Dorceus and Sam Craft, senior Brandon Hayes took over, rushing for 199 yards against Tulsa and 189 against USF. Once a walk-on, the White Station alum personifies his team’s rise from irrelevance to conference champions for the first time in 43 years.

What’s the difference in the culture of Tiger football today and that of 2011, Larry Porter’s last as head coach? Best to ask a four-year senior who has experienced both. “Maturity,” says defensive end Martin Ifedi, now the Tigers’ alltime sacks leader. “We have great coaches who came in and showed us the vision. We implemented the plan in the offseason, and were consistent [with our work]. [Coach Fuente] doesn’t tolerate certain things. We understand what he wants. We play hard on the field for each other.”

You’ll hear the Tigers caught a break by not having East Carolina or UCF (both AAC heavy hitters) on the schedule. But there’s a corollary: The Pirates and Knights each caught a break by not having Memphis on their schedule. The first test of any champion is beating the teams you’re supposed to beat. The Tigers were undefeated in such games this fall, and added tough wins at Cincinnati and Temple to their ledger. With nine wins, they are already in the Memphis history books (only five Tiger teams have won as many). Should they win their bowl game, the 2014 Tigers will join the 1938 team (10-0) as the only 10-win clubs in the program’s history. Worry about the newly popular Fuente’s future after that bowl game. For now, relish a singular football team with an engine humming on all cylinders.