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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.
