Category: From My Seat

With a
name like Murtaugh, St. Patrick’s Day is bound to be special. And considering my
dad was born on March 17, 1942, the one day Americans devote to all things Irish
is indeed a highlight on my calendar. This is the third St. Patrick’s Day I’ve
experienced since I lost my father, but I retain a belief in good fortune, good
cheer, and yes, good luck. And in the world of sports, we all know the cliche:
better to be lucky than good.

Here are
a few wishes — tied to the games we play and cheer — that could use a four-leaf
clover or two:

•
Shooting touch for the Memphis Tigers. What a remarkable season the 2007-08
Memphis Tigers have enjoyed. But aside from five weeks atop the national polls,
there’s a degree of redundancy, believe it or not, to this team’s high
achievements. Thirty wins? Done that (the two previous seasons). Conference USA
championships for both the regular season and postseason tourney? Done that (the
two previous seasons). Undefeated in C-USA play? Yep (did it a year ago). C-USA
Player of the Year? Twice before (2004 and 2006).

For this
year’s Tigers to separate themselves from the blur of excellence Memphis fans
have enjoyed recently, the team will have to — minimum — reach the Final Four
for the first time in 23 years. And for that to happen, a team that struggles
with its shooting is going to have to make shots. Andre Allen and Willie Kemp
are capable of dropping five treys each. But will they under the heat of the
NCAA spotlight? What about Doneal Mack (4-for-5 one game, 2-for-8 another)? This
team can win four games in the NCAAs on the backs of Derrick Rose and Chris
Douglas-Roberts. But they can win a national championship with some shooting
luck from its supporting cast.

• A
senior season for Chris Douglas-Roberts. The Tigers’ All-American — and NBA
prospect — might define “luck” a little differently than the fans who cheer him.
But if CDR were to return for the 2008-09 season, he would increase the
likelihood that his class (which includes Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier)
would leave Memphis as history-makers. They’ve already achieved something no
college basketball player outside Lexington, Kentucky, can claim: three
consecutive 30-win seasons. Why not make it four-for-four, and set the bar for
Tiger greatness as high as it can possibly reach?

• Colby
Rasmus for the Memphis Redbirds. Rick Ankiel was fun to watch last season, doing
his Babe Ruth imitation at AutoZone Park, proving that a
pitcher-turned-outfielder can, in fact, hit the long ball. But not since J.D.
Drew first took centerfield at Tim McCarver Stadium during the Redbirds’
inaugural season of 1998 has our Triple-A outfit suited up a player with the
kind of prospect tag Rasmus could bring. With the St. Louis Cardinals beginning
what can mildly be described as a transition year, some luck will be necessary
for Rasmus to be in a Memphis uniform beyond April. (To begin with, if Ankiel
locks up the centerfield job for the Cards, Rasmus — having never played above
Double-A — will likely spend a full five months with the Redbirds.) The last two
summers have been long for local baseball fans. Young Rasmus will bring smiles —
and win games — for a minor-league outfit all too green with envy of its Pacific
Coast League rivals.

•
Looking a bit ahead — to June’s NBA draft — perhaps the playoff-bound Celtics
can spare a shamrock for our pitiful Grizzlies. Having lost out on the LeBron
(2003) and Oden (2007) sweepstakes, perhaps the Griz can score Kansas State
phenom Michael Beasley to accompany Rudy Gay and Mike Conley into a new era of
local pro hoops.

• Luck
is where hard work and opportunity converge. So here’s hoping for a magical
convergence, dear reader. One where the harder you cheer (read: work) for your
team, the “luckier” that team becomes near trophy time.

I miss
you, Dad.

Memphis
hosts the Conference USA basketball tournament for the fourth year in a row this
week, with the hometown Tigers aiming for a third straight championship. (The
most distinct memory from these tourneys at FedExForum remains Darius
Washington’s tears at the end of the epic title game won by Louisville in 2005.)

While
the players in uniform for the Tigers will be familiar, there will be 11 other
teams aiming to steal some spotlight from the country’s second-ranked team. Here
are five C-USA stars who have earned some attention.

• Robert
Vaden, UAB — The junior guard from Indianapolis is the Tigers’ Chris
Douglas-Roberts’ only competition for C-USA Player of the Year (to be announced
on Wednesday). Vaden is among the top 20 scorers in the nation (22.8 points per
game) and leads the entire country in three-point field goals (138). He scored
27 points against Memphis on February 16th in a game his Blazers should have
won, a miraculous run by the Tigers over the game’s final 90 seconds reversing
fortunes. Last Saturday at FedExForum, he made only three of 13 three-point
attempts and was limited to 13 points in a blowout U of M victory. He scored a
career-high 41 points (including nine treys) in a win at UTEP February 27th,
earning his second C-USA Player of the Week honor of the season. A transfer from
Indiana, Vaden was a second-team All-Big 10 selection in 2005-06.

• Robert
McKiver, Houston — This senior guard from New Haven, Connecticut, scored 52
points in a Cougar win over Southern Miss February 27th. The outburst is the
highest point total for a Division I player this season and broke a Hofheinz
Pavilion scoring record previously held by one Larry Bird. McKiver is the
second-leading scorer in C-USA and, like Vaden, among the top 20 in the nation.
He scored 20 against Memphis on January 30th, then 21 at FedExForum on February
13th. With more than 120 three-pointers, McKiver is just behind Vaden and among
the top 10 long-distance shooters in the country. A three-time C-USA Player of
the Week this season, McKiver will certainly be named first-team all conference
for the second year in a row.

• Stefon
Jackson, UTEP — Miner coach Tony Barbee — a longtime assistant under John
Calipari at Memphis — has had as talented a go-to scorer as any coach in C-USA.
The junior from Philadelphia is sixth in the nation in scoring, averaging more
than 24 points per game. Jackson dropped 27 on the Tigers at FedExForum on
February 2nd, a game Memphis pulled out in the final minutes, 70-64. Unlike
Vaden and McKiver, Jackson’s team doesn’t have a bye into the tourney
quarterfinals. UTEP will play SMU at 2:30 Wednesday, then face Houston Thursday
if they can top the Mustangs. A three (or four?) game run by the Miners will
leave Jackson atop this week’s scoring chart.

•
Jermaine Taylor, UCF — Don’t confuse this sharp-shooting swingman with the
middleweight boxer of the same name. This Taylor’s knockouts come from behind
the three-point stripe, where he was among the C-USA leaders with more than 70
bombs on the season. The Tigers’ Antonio Anderson bottled him up on February
9th, holding him to 13 points and nary a trey. Taylor’s Knights are the fourth
seed in the tourney and will receive a bye into Thursday’s quarterfinals. Should
they beat the winner of the Southern Miss/Rice opening-round game, UCF could
face Memphis in the semifinals.

•
Darrell Jenkins, East Carolina — The Pirates struggled to a record of 11-18 this
season, but it was no fault of their senior point guard, who led C-USA in
assists for a second straight year, averaging 6.1 per game. He enters the
tournament having scored a career-high 30 points against Tulane in ECU’s final
regular-season game. Along with Jackson, Jenkins will be among Wednesday’s
headliners, as the Pirates (the 10th seed) face Tulsa in the tourney’s opening
game at noon.

NOTE:
The tourney’s top seed, Memphis will open play at 6 pm in Thursday’s
quarterfinals. Should they advance, they’ll play in the semis at 3:30 pm Friday.
The championship will tip off at 10:30 am Saturday and be televised nationally
on CBS.

\

This
Saturday at FedExForum, before the Memphis Tigers end their regular season
against UAB, the U of M will honor Joey Dorsey and Andre Allen with its annual
Senior Day. The rite of passage has become somewhat of an oddity, as many recent
Tiger stars — Dajuan Wagner, Darius Washington, Shawne Williams, and presumably
Derrick Rose — never so much as reach a fourth season as a Tiger, leaving campus
early for the siren call of professional basketball.

The
pregame march to center court, family and flowers in hand, remains a touching
tribute to the young men who do, in fact, give all they have in terms of
eligibility to the Tiger program. But I’m going to go out on a limb – a thick
and sturdy one — and say the U of M has never honored as mercurial, as vexing a
class as they will with the pair we’ll see Saturday. (Neither Allen nor Dorsey
is on schedule to graduate in May. They’ll be encouraged — like every former
Tiger still shy of his diploma — to continue their education toward its
completion.)

Allen
enrolled at the U of M having starred at Booker T. Washington High School, where
he was twice named Class AA Mr. Basketball and his 949 career assists
established a Shelby Metro record. But Allen couldn’t possibly have started his
college life more astray than he did. Compounding difficulties in the classroom,
Allen was arrested for soliciting prostitution and sat out his entire freshman
(2004-05) basketball season.

He
persevered, though, and became the face of the Tigers’ 2006 NCAA tournament run,
draining three treys against Oral Roberts in the first round and proving that
height — Allen stands 5’10” when he wears extra socks — has little to do with
stature during March Madness. As a backup to point guards Washington, Willie
Kemp, and this season, Rose, Allen has been that proverbial spark plug off the
bench for coach John Calipari, keeping the pace of the Tiger offense in the red
line even with the second unit on the floor.

I
remember sitting in the media room after Joey Dorsey’s first game as a Tiger, a
whitewashing of Savannah State on November 11, 2004. I asked local sportscaster
Greg Gaston if this freshman from Baltimore was supposed to get 16 rebounds in
his collegiate debut. Greg was just as astonished at Dorsey’s stat line (which
included 10 points). Four seasons later, the most astonishing aspect of Dorsey’s
career is how very little he seems to have improved from that night well over
100 games ago. He’ll leave Memphis second only to Keith Lee in career rebounds.
And he’s won more games in a Tiger uniform than any other player in the
program’s long, proud history. (Dorsey’s been a part of 116 wins as a Tiger.
With four more, he’ll have more notches on his belt than Elliot Perry and Penny
Hardaway COMBINED.)

But even
with his athleticism and a body that would have many NBA players negotiating
with the devil, Dorsey’s value to his team is impossible to gauge. Three days
after grabbing 22 rebounds in a big Tiger win this season at Houston, he managed
but four boards in a near-loss to UTEP at home.

And
Dorsey’s trouble off the court somehow trumps Allen’s. As a sophomore, he was in
the middle of a water-throwing incident on campus, apparently drenching a female
student. Last September, it was Dorsey slinging money from atop a bar in a
downtown club that spurred a near riot and earned handcuffs for teammates Shawn
Taggart and Jeff Robinson. And with UAB in town for Senior Day, Tiger fans will
fight flashbacks to February 16th in Birmingham. With Blazer fans slinging more
than epithets after a last-second Tiger win, Dorsey was kept from returning fire
only by the restraints of his coaching staff. Dorsey unleashed has become a
horrifying proposition.

The
cheers for these two seniors as they near their Tiger hoops coda will be
tremendous. Dorsey, in particular, has been among the most popular Tiger players
of the last decade, kids and grannies alike embracing their Joey as a lovable —
flawed, as we all are — giant. Allen and Dorsey need to soak up those cheers, as
they will reach the pinnacle of their basketball lives in the coming weeks,
however far the Tigers advance in the NCAA tournament. Neither player will make
a living in the NBA.

Ironically, both Dorsey (24) and Allen (23 in April) are older than most current
NBA rookies. They will be, yes, unleashed from Calipari’s watch, from the loving
gaze of Tiger Nation, each with most of his life in front of him. Having played
central roles in the most successful three-year stretch in Tiger basketball
history, these two interdisciplinary studies majors will aim their lives toward
the right track, one must hope. And within that premise — and that wordy major —
is perhaps an answer for the riddles of their college lives.

With
discipline, comes success.

Ten
years ago, as part of my day job with MEMPHIS magazine, I was assigned the task
of researching the five greatest tennis tournaments in Memphis history. The
Racquet Club of Memphis was preparing to host its 23rd indoor championship,
which forced some deliberation in identifying the five best.

This
week, as The Racquet Club hosts its 32nd men’s tourney — now called the Regions
Morgan Keegan Championships — I’m going a step further, and dusting off my recap
of the best of the best. The finest, most memorable tournament the Bluff City
has ever seen.

_______________

As far
as sports rivalries from the Eighties are concerned, only the NBA’s Magic and
Bird can hold a candle to McEnroe vs. Connors on the tennis court. Considering
Magic Johnson had the rest of the L.A. Lakers and Larry Bird had the Boston
Celtics, well, Mac and Jimbo take the individual prize.

Over the
course of 10 years, these two American legends would play a version of
smash-mouth tennis unlike any seen before or since. Dating back to the
Seventies, they faced off in 15 finals, splitting a pair of Wimbledon
confrontations, achieving a year-end ranking of either one or two a total of 14
times, all the while putting on the kind of emotional show previously reserved
for the boxing ring and Wall Street trading floor. In 1980, during the embryonic
stage of their rivalry, McEnroe and Connors spent a memorable week at The
Racquet Club.

Connors
had finished 1979 ranked second in the world (behind Bjorn Borg), with McEnroe a
close third. By the last week in February 1980, ,when the U.S. Indoor kicked off
at The Racquet Club, Connors and McEnroe had already played in three finals
each, squaring off against each other for the first time in a final at
Philadelphia (a match won by Connors). Johnny Mac drew the top seed at Memphis,
with Connors number two in a field that included Roscoe Tanner, Stan Smith,
Harold Solomon, and a certain 11th seed by the name of Ivan Lendl.

With the
exception of the 10th-seeded Smith being upset by Terry Moor, the first round
was rather uneventful. McEnroe’s opponent, Byron Bertram, was forced to retire
with an injury in the opening set, while Connors sat out the first round with a
bye.

Connors
appeared lethargic at the outset of his second-round match with Peter McNamara,
a player recognized primarily for his doubles play. McNamara won a first-set
tiebreaker, only to watch Connors fight back, take a second-set tiebreaker, then
dominate the final set, 6-2. As tight as Connors’ match was, it paled in
comparison to McEnroe’s second-round battle with the relatively unknown Ferdi
Taygan. Johnny Mac not only lost the first set to Taygan, he got bageled, 6-0.
Considering this was his first appearance at The Racquet Club, Memphis fans had
to wonder what the McEnroe hype was all about. But the cream, as they say,
rises. The New York lefty played a solid second set, winning 6-4, before
breezing through the third, 6-1. And what about Lendl? Just shy of his 20th
birthday, the Czech baseline specialist won his Memphis debut in straight sets
over Russell Simpson. His reward? A third-round match with the defending champ,
Connors.

1980
would be the first of a record 13 straight years Lendl would finish ranked among
the world’s top 10, though in Memphis he was no match for Connors. With a
straight-set win, Connors moved into the quarterfinals for a test against the
eighth seed, John Sadri. McEnroe whipped Brian Gottfried to join Connors in the
quarters.

While
Connors had no problem in dispatching Sadri, McEnroe was again made to sweat out
a three-set duel, this time with the unseeded Bob Lutz. It again appeared all
Mac needed was a wake-up call. After dropping the first set, 6-2, McEnroe won
the final two sets while losing only a single game. In the semifinals — both
two-setters — Connors knocked off Solomon (for trivia buffs, Solomon won the
very first pro tournament in Memphis, the 1975 Memphis Tennis Classic at the
Mid-South Coliseum), while McEnroe made quick work of unseeded Bernard Mitton.

March 2,
1980, was a big day for Memphis tennis. For the second time in their careers,
Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe would do battle for a tournament championship.
While Borg would give each of them fits at times, Connors and McEnroe became the
perfect foils in a sport built on nuances and subtleties that separate the
legends from the mere mortals. McEnroe’s slice backhand . . . Connors’ service
return. McEnroe’s pinpoint volleys . . . Connors’ two-handed backhand. McEnroe’s
tantrums . . . Connors’ tirades. On this day, McEnroe stole the show by winning
a pair of tiebreakers. It was his first title-winning effort against Connors, a
championship series McEnroe would win over the course of their careers, eight
matches to seven.

“In my
opinion,” said former tournament director Tommy Buford, “McEnroe was the best
athlete ever to play the game of tennis. He just had wonderful, wonderful
hands.” As for Connors, he’d be back of course. Jimbo was crowned champion twice
more at The Racquet Club, and permanently endeared himself to Memphis fans by
reaching the semis in 1992 at the tender age of 39.

This
Saturday night at FedExForum, Memphis will host the closest thing to a Final
Four the city has ever seen. The top two
college basketball teams in the country will share a floor for 40 minutes, and
with more than a state’s bragging rights on the line. Memphis vs. Tennessee. The
Game of the Year, and perhaps more.

In
trying to name the greatest regular-season game in the history of Memphis Tiger
basketball, we’re almost forced to wear blinders. Why even look beyond the
fabled series — sadly, now former series — between the U of M and the University
of Louisville? Particularly during the 1980s — when Louisville won a pair of
national titles, Memphis reached the ’85 Final Four, and the teams traded Metro
Conference championships like a flu bug — Tigers-Cardinals is among the
preeminent rivalries in the history of college basketball. From the 1980-81
season through 1988-89, the teams played 18 times, each winning nine.
Considering the stage of the season when it was played (the Tigers’
regular-season finale) and the ranking of each squad (Tigers were 17th,
Cardinals 3rd in the country), the March 6, 1983, game that Louisville won,
64-62 in overtime, might qualify as the “greatest ever.”

But a
new era’s upon us. A necessary ingredient for a great rivalry is really sort of
ugly: hatred. (A large part of the Memphis-Louisville rivalry died for me the
day Milt Wagner — who played in that 1983 game in a red uniform — graduated from
the U of M.) And Memphis sports fans who hate the University of Tennessee grow
in number with every whipping at the hands of the Big Orange on the gridiron.
(Wasn’t that 1996 upset — now five UT victories ago — supposed to change
things?) And this burst of animosity has been relatively independent of the
cross-state recruiting rivalry now sizzling between Tiger basketball coach John
Calipari and his orange-blazer-wearing counterpart, Bruce Pearl.

All of
which makes this Saturday’s contest between the top-ranked Tigers and the Vols —
until this season, UT had never been ranked among the nation’s top three — the
biggest game between state rivals Tennessee has ever seen, one of the three or
four biggest games in the entire country this season, and — depending on the
result — the biggest regular-season game in Memphis Tiger history.

[Full
disclosure: I’m the son of two Tennessee alumni and the husband of a Memphis
alum. I won’t lose Saturday night . . . but I surely won’t win, either.]

What
would a victory mean for these teams, these schools, these regions of Tennessee
hoopdom? For the Vols, it would be the biggest win in years over a school not
named Kentucky. (That win over Florida a year ago was a mighty upset, but the
Gators are Johnny-Come-Latelies relative to the basketball history celebrated by
Memphis.) It would be a shot across the bow by Pearl for any recruits in
Calipari’s clutches who might not have considered Knoxville anything more than
women’s basketball country. And it would keep a Tiger program under heel in a
series somehow led by the Volunteers, 11-7. (Note that the two schools only
played one game — in 1969 — before the 1988-89 season.)

And for
the home team? The hosts of an ESPN Gameday crew that finds itself spotlighting
the pride of Conference USA for an entire nation? The win would be a final, pre-NCAA
tournament validation for all that John Calipari has preached since his arrival
eight years ago. League be damned, Memphis is a program that will compete for
NATIONAL championships. Any other program — regardless of conference might —
with the stones to visit FedExForum will be welcomed with an old-fashioned,
Southern-flavored, close-fisted sock in the mouth. (That’s a metaphor, people.
No excuses for the postgame behavior last weekend in Birmingham.)

If you
go back to December 23, 2006, when Memphis began a 25-game winning streak by
beating Middle Tennessee at FedExForum, the Tigers’ are 50-1 through Saturday’s
win at UAB. That, basketball fans, is a pinch-me, rub-your-eyes, you-gotta-be-kidding-me
record for any college team, be they members of C-USA, the ACC, or the YMCA. The
U of M has not, of course, played the Tennessee Vols over the course of those 51
games. And a team’s ultimate legacy, it’s ultimate image is determined on the
brightest of stages, in front of the most eyes and cameras, with the most at
stake. (Just ask the New England Patriots.) Next Saturday’s bout — in downtown
Memphis — between the two best college basketball teams in the country will not
determine a championship. But it will be a moment on this city’s sports timeline
never to be forgotten.

“I was
hoping they could make it through the season without getting in trouble.” So
said my wife last Wednesday when I told her the name of Memphis Tiger basketball
player Robert Dozier had appeared in a police report alleging the junior
forward’s involvement in a downtown altercation on February 3rd. My favorite U
of M alum knows exactly two things about the John Calipari era of Tiger
basketball: (1) they are a supremely talented bunch of players, capable of
reaching “that Final Four thing” and (2) they are capable of showing up in
headlines we don’t read in the sports section.

“It just
goes to show that good kids do stupid things too,” said Calipari after Wednesday
night’s drubbing of the SMU Mustangs at FedExForum. Following a brief, though on
the surface sincere, apology by Dozier in front of the TV cameras, a subdued —
sad? angry? — Calipari addressed the same throng and stressed two points in the
aftermath of his program’s most recent brush with the law: (1) he’ll deal with
Dozier firmly (witness his benching for that night’s game) and (2) he will treat
Dozier like a son and not “throw anyone under the bus” (witness Dozier’s return
to the floor Saturday against UCF).

Whichever side you take in this particular case — and if the allegations prove
true that Dozier hit his ex-girlfriend in the face, your take should be vehement
— you have to believe this can only harm the chances of the 2007-08 Tigers
reaching their ultimate goal of a national championship. In the best-case
scenario, a program already labeled “rogue” by critics will have to answer
questions that have nothing to do with substitution patterns or shot selection.
And in the worst-case scenario, one of the team’s leaders and most valuable
two-way players will be sidelined for the most important stretch of games the
team has played in over 20 years. Another slip-up from Dozier, and you’ll next
see him in uniform as a senior, if then.

Had it
been Joey Dorsey’s name in the police blotter, there would have been a
collective rolling of eyes. “Not again.” But for the soft-spoken, team-first
Dozier to initiate the firestorm? It makes this a real head-scratcher.

Robert
Dozier has been part of the Tiger program — and part of the Memphis community –
for going on three years. He’s been an eyewitness to the troubles that caused
Jeremy Hunt to miss the entire 2005-06 season (among Hunt’s transgressions was
hitting a woman). He saw the public admonishment Calipari delivered the entire
team after Shawn Taggart and Jeff Robinson were arrested on Beale Street last
September. (The curfew established for that incident, alas, was lifted in
October.) Perhaps even more damning, Dozier is a 22-year-old young man with two
parents in his life. He has the kind of guidance and direction that, frankly,
too few Memphis Tiger stars of late have enjoyed. Why did he put himself in a
position to be seen publicly on a downtown street at 3:00 in the morning, let
alone raise his hand to a woman?

A bit of
paranoia surfaced in Calipari’s comments last week when he referred to his team
as “targets.” But it’s beyond question that the faces (and, importantly, height)
of the number-one team in the country — playing in the biggest “small town” in
America — are far more recognizable than any City Council member or professional
stage performer. It’s part of the mix that makes Tiger basketball the most
galvanizing public enterprise Memphis can claim. And it’s a heavy dose of
responsibility that every member of that team must swallow: Their game faces
must stay on long after the court lights at FedExForum have gone dark.

Among
this team’s virtues is its depth. If Dozier misses games, there are players
(ironically enough, Taggart and Robinson) who will fill his shoes capably.
Whether his replacements are capable of boosting a championship run remains to
be seen. Likewise, whether this team will be remembered for more than “getting
in trouble” is a new angle to be followed all the way to season’s end.

My wife,
among thousands of other alumni and fans, will be watching closely.

Memphis has found itself near the top of far too many
national rankings of late. Crime. Obesity. Political corruption. Makes you want
to toss your newspaper at times, or click to another web site. One devoted to,
say, sports.

This week (and beyond?), though, for the first time in a
quarter-century, Memphis is at the very top of a list Memphians have WANTED to
head for more than a generation. The undefeated Memphis Tigers, of course, are
the number-one college basketball team in the land. When the North Carolina Tar
Heels lost their first game of the season Saturday (to the Maryland Terrapins),
all John Calipari’s team needed to do was beat Southern Miss at FedExForum to
reach the mountaintop. They did so with a holding-to-formula 37-point drubbing
of a Conference USA rival.

On the football field, Memphis-USM has come to be called
“The Black-and-Blue Game,” and a hardwood variety of such broke out after
Saturday’s tip-off. The Golden Eagles were whistled for nine fouls in the first
nine minutes, prompting Southern Miss coach Larry Eustachy to ask an official,
“Are you going to give us 40 fouls tonight?!”

The Tigers’ Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 14 of his team’s
first 26 points, and Joey Dorsey blocked two shots early to establish the home
team’s defensive backbone. Southern Miss would shoot a mere 25 percent in the
first half, a figure that jumped but a percentage point in the second. Derrick
Rose contributed 13 points and four assists for the Tigers, while Antonio
Anderson contributed six assists with nary a turnover.

With 2:30 remaining in the game, chants of “We’re number
one!” from the crowd of 18,108 bathed the players below, who somehow came across
as less celebratory than their coach. With a minute to play, Calipari stood up
from the bench, turned to the crowd, and, after applauding himself, danced his
version of what might be considered a jig. It was, after all, Saturday night in
downtown Memphis.

The players weren’t willing to acknowledge the significance
of the win — yet — as the chance remained that undefeated Kansas might leapfrog
Memphis when Monday’s rankings were released. (In the ESPN/USA Today coaches
poll, Kansas received 10 first-place votes, to the Tigers’ 21.)

“It wasn’t about North Carolina in the locker room before
the game,” said Anderson as he dressed for the sub-30 temperatures outside the
arena. “Hopefully [the top ranking] will happen, but we’re just trying to play
our game.”

“We’re really, really talented,” conceded Dorsey, “and the
freshmen are playing really well. Shawn Taggart’s backing me up really great.
Look at the teams we’ve played, the hardest non-conference schedule in America,
and we dominated that. I don’t know how to act right now. I’m just happy for the
city. I go by my apartment and fans have been so excited, saying North Carolina
barely won. Now that they lost, I don’t know how they’re gonna act. Everybody’s
gonna go out and party tonight, but I’m not! I just hope we’re number one
Monday.”

Calipari has actually been here before, his 1995-96
Massachusetts squad spending several weeks atop the polls before falling to
Kentucky at the Final Four. After Saturday’s win, the coach was more willing
than his players to discuss the coveted ranking. “I said before the game, let’s
win the game, then we can talk about number one. I wanted [the players] to enjoy
this moment for the program.”

“It takes a village,” added Calipari, who notched his 198th
win as Tiger coach. “Coming together, everybody understanding they have a part
in this. You can’t have a program like this unless that building is full like it
was tonight. Let me tell you the significance of a non-BCS team being number
one. Tell me the last one. It’s unusual, for this program to do the things we’re
doing. Enjoy this. Live in the moment.”

Where were you for that solitary week in January 1983, when
sophomore Keith Lee and the Memphis State Tigers were the top team in the land?
(Or were you like every member of the 2007-08 Tigers and not yet a gleam in your
parents’ eye?) Calipari was a 23-year-old, first-year assistant coach at Kansas.
(Perfectly ironic that the Jayhawks are the only other undefeated team still
standing in 2008.) There was no such thing as a Memphis Showboat, Memphis
Redbird, or Memphis Grizzly in 1983. Willie Herenton wasn’t even mayor. But it
felt nice, didn’t it? That one week on the mountaintop of college basketball.

Sir Edmund Hillary passed away earlier this month, his
legend firmly in place for having been the first to survive a climb to the
summit of Mount Everest. “Well, we knocked off the bastard,” he famously said
upon returning to his base camp. More remains for the Memphis Tigers to “knock
off” if this basketball season is to fulfill the ambitious dreams of U of M fans
young and old. But for all those fans under the age of 25, enjoy this first view
from the mountaintop. What a climb it’s been.

• North
Carolina, Indiana, and Kentucky are considered by traditionalists as the
basketball hotbeds of the United States. But when you look at the college game
in 2008, the Volunteer State must be part of the conversation. Through Sunday,
the combined records of the University of Memphis, Vanderbilt, and University of
Tennessee come to 45-2. Which begs the question: When will Tiger coach John
Calipari get the Commodores on his schedule? Vandy and the Vols play this
Thursday night in Knoxville.

• The
sad truth to the ongoing (and growing) steroid controversy surrounding Roger
Clemens is that it comes down to what amounts to a modern-day cliche in
professional sports: an athlete’s inflated ego vs. reality as perceived by
everyone else.

We may
learn as early as February — when Clemens, among other players named in the
Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball, is scheduled to appear before a
Congressional hearing — just how much truth has been stretched in the Rocket’s
quite public defense against former trainer Brian McNamee’s allegations that
Clemens was injected with various performance enhancers over a three-year
period. But in all likelihood, we won’t, “sworn testimony” or otherwise.
(Remember that finger Rafael Palmeiro pointed his questioners’ way on St.
Patrick’s Day three years ago? Less than six months later, a player who had
“never, ever” taken steroids was suspended . . . having tested positive for
steroids.)

Clemens
will deny ever touching the juice. McNamee, presumably, will insist he has told
the truth all along. So what we baseball fans have is a case of dueling egos:
that of a trainer who — if he’s lying — is seizing his one, desperate
opportunity at national fame by outing the most famous client he’ll ever have
against that of a Hall of Fame-bound pitcher who, having struck out a few
hundred too many, perhaps, believes his version of “truth” trumps the real
McCoy.

Am I the
only one who wishes these types would find the same island, somewhere in another
hemisphere?

• As the
New England Patriots march their way toward the second undefeated season in NFL
history, fans of America’s most popular spectator sport can be forgiven for
mourning the death of parity. But then take a look at the National Football
Conference. Regardless of who wins Sunday’s NFC championship game between the
Green Bay Packers and New York Giants, the NFC will send its seventh different
team in seven years to the Super Bowl. If the favored Packers win, it will be
eight teams in eight years — fully half the entire conference. And only one of
those teams — the 2002 Buccaneers — actually won the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Parity may be dead, but mediocrity is alive and well in the NFC.

• This
is going to be my only criticism of the mighty Patriots, whether or not they
finish their remarkable season unblemished. (By the way, they’d lose a Fantasy
Bowl to the 1989 ’49ers and the 1985 Bears.) The worst kind of cheater is one
who doesn’t NEED to cheat. President Richard Nixon had the 1972 election in his
hip pocket, yet still signed off on the infamous break-in of the Democratic
National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington,
D.C. Despite George McGovern’s having no chance at victory, the paranoid Nixon
extended himself to criminal lengths to assure himself the presidency for four
more years.

The New
York Jets, like apparently the rest of the NFL, had no chance of beating the
Patriots last September when Pats coach Bill Belichick was discovered to have
authorized the video recording of the Jets’ play-calling signals from the
sideline. The “extra step” on the part of this three-time Super Bowl-winning
coach is positively Nixonian, and my hope is that the transgression is not
forgotten by football historians, however extraordinary New England’s on-field
performance proves to be. Pay attention, Hall of Fame voters, when Belichick
becomes eligible.