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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Bright Lights, Sowing Seeds

There’s a little more light every day. (Photo: Shara Clark)

“And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.” — Rumi

We could all use a little light right now. Sunlight, for sure, after a week of frigid temps and dangerously low wind chills following the arctic blast that swept much of the nation. It’s Monday evening as I write this, and patches of snow still cover most of my yard. But the rain has come to wash it away and I’m hoping there’s no trace left by the time I turn this over to the printer on Tuesday. Good riddance. By now, I assume we’re all weary of the precarious road conditions, the sound of dripping faucets (traded for the drip of melting icicles), and the inconveniences that came with precautionary power and water advisories. Like roots in the depths of winter, dormant, waiting for warmth and light. Spring can’t come soon enough. In the meantime, the sun has much work to do, and I reckon we’re in for another wet — yet, thankfully, way warmer — week.

Aside from the weather, we’re always looking for bright spots. Amid the flurry of often negative news, throughout the year the Flyer highlights artists, musicians, chefs, filmmakers, innovators, and more who make Memphis the mighty city it is. In this issue though, our annual 20<30 edition, we’ve sought to get to know some of the best and brightest young people making strides here. We sifted through an impressive pool of folks nominated by our readers — restaurateurs, mentors, business leaders, creatives, and professionals in a variety of fields — and it was no easy task to whittle them down to 20 finalists. Within these pages you’ll learn more about these 20 people under the age of 30 who — with their own shining lights — are forging a path toward a brighter future for us all, sowing seeds that will bear fruit for years to come.

In reading about their endeavors, especially this time of year, I’m given a little burst of hope. The nights are long and the trees are bare, but all around us seeds are sown — literally and metaphorically — awaiting germination. And as astrophysicist, author, and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson reminded us on TikTok (@StarTalk) earlier this month, “People think of winter as being dull and drab and dreary and cold, depending on your latitude on Earth, and I don’t think about it that way because every day of winter has slightly more sunlight than the day before it. So the winter months are — if you date it from the winter solstice, December 21st — each day shows more and more sunlight, and so for me that’s hopeful. It’s summertime we are systematically losing sunlight. So people say, ‘Oh the days get longer in the summer and shorter in the winter’ — the exact opposite is true.”

That’s a nice thought to keep as we move through the rest of winter. And as our 20<30 and other change-makers help shape the Memphis we want to see. Each day, more light.

While we may be hibernating for a while still, the roots are down there riotous. I wait anxiously with them, looking forward to the growth to come — and all the blossoms that will appear around the bend.

Categories
At Large Opinion

Non-Liquid Gold!

Songsak Paname | Dreamstime

“Non-liquid gold. You know where it was? Iowa. It’s called corn. They have, it’s non-liquid, that’s my thing, you have more NON-LIQUID gold. They said what is that? I said corn, we love that idea, you know it’s a pretty cool thought isn’t it? That’s a nickname in its own way, but we came up with a new word, a new couple of words, for corn.”

This was part of a speech Donald Trump gave in New Hampshire last week, just after he’d won the Iowa primary. He went on for more than an hour, free-styling, feeling the flow, singing the song of himself, like Walt Whitman on Adderall: “We’re going to place strong protections to stop banks and regulators from trying to debank you from your — your political beliefs, what they do. They want to debank you. We’re going to debank — think of this — they want to take away your country. Electric cars!” 

They want to debank your electric cars! Or something! Wake up, Sheeple! Also, “non-liquid gold”? Isn’t there a name for that already? Like, um, gold?

According to news reports, people began edging out of the room after 40 minutes, leaving The Donald to wander on unescorted through the echo chambers of his brain for another half hour. In a speech four days later, he repeatedly confused GOP opponent Nikki Haley with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If your elderly uncle were talking like this, you’d recognize that he’s tired and sundowning and that you needed to get him back to his assisted-living facility. Trump’s people? Not so much. They understand all too well that Trump babbling incoherently is like Trump shooting a man on Fifth Avenue. His hardcore base will lap it up and still follow him anywhere. They’re like Deadheads, only stupid. 

Look, fatigue can get to anyone. Trump had just spent a week in frigid Iowa, putting in long days of shaking hands, schmoozing, and speechifying. He’d also made an appearance in New York at his rape/defamation trial, where he muttered and scowled and ticked off the judge. Then he’d traveled to Florida to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral, before then flying to New Hampshire to shake hands, schmooze, and speechify some more. That kind of schedule would exhaust any normal human, much less an out-of-shape 77-year-old facing four looming court dates and 91 felony charges while trying to run for president in his spare time. 

It’s all so absurd. Iowa’s primary is essentially meaningless. So is New Hampshire’s. Here are a few numbers to consider: Iowa has 2.1 million registered voters, including 631,689 Democrats and 718,901 Republicans. Around 110,000 Republican voters participated in the caucuses. Trump won 56,260 votes — 51 percent of Republicans who voted — or a whopping 2.6 percent of Iowa’s registered voters. 

Here are some of the next day’s Big Media headlines: “Trump Gets Blowout Win in Iowa!” “Record Winning Margin for Trump!” “Trump Trounces Rivals!”

We’re being played, my friends — hustled for clicks, views, engagement. The Iowa Republicans who caucused are 98 percent white. Fifty percent were older than 65. Fifty-one percent were born-again Christians or evangelicals, and two-thirds (66 percent) believed Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 presidential contest. Sixty percent favored a nationwide ban on abortions. 

The Iowa caucuses are not a “barometer” of anything except what a tiny handful of old, white, rural Midwesterners want. Don’t believe me? Just ask President Cruz, who won Iowa in 2016, or President Santorum (2012), or President Huckabee (2008).

And New Hampshire is just more of the same — 94 percent white, mostly rural, and with even fewer voters than Iowa. But the national media will have spent countless hours of airtime and created millions of words of reportage, conjecture, and spin on this meaningless ritual by the time you read this. President Bernie Sanders would like a word. 

It would all be comic opera, if it weren’t so terrifying. A presidential candidate from one of the two major political parties is clearly morally and mentally unqualified to hold the office, and the national media treat the situation as though it were politics as usual. If Trump is reelected, an entire administration, an entire country, and the rest of the world, will all be trying to do a work-around, pretending like Trump’s impulsive blather is coherent and meaningful.

“Yes, Mr. President, we’ve informed the British prime minister and his wife that we’ll be serving the president’s favorite dish — non-liquid gold on the cob.” 

Categories
Book Features Books Music Music Blog Music Features

Inside John Michael McCarthy’s Teenage Tupelo

Over the past 30 years, Memphis comic book artist, sculptor, and filmmaker John Michael McCarthy, aka Mike McCarthy, has taken self-mythologizing to a level few others have matched, often weaving elements of his compelling personal history into fantastic scenarios drawn from the B movies, comics, and pop icons of his youth. That’s especially true of what’s arguably McCarthy’s greatest work, the film Teenage Tupelo, released in 1995 by Something Weird Video. 

Ostensibly telling the tale of a young, buxom single mother’s odyssey through Tupelo’s underground, circa 1962, as she comes to terms with an unwanted pregnancy, it’s chiefly an homage to the low-budget flicks (think Roger Corman or Russ Meyer) that captivated young McCarthy as he grew up in Elvis Presley’s hometown, echoing those films’ visceral impact via Darin Ipema’s pitch-perfect, mostly black-and-white cinematography and a sizzling soundtrack by surf rock-crime jazz kings Impala. 

The film became a cult favorite in the ’90s, championing the burgeoning garage aesthetic of that era. No prior knowledge of McCarthy’s personal history was needed to savor the raw shock of the film’s visuals and sounds. Its staying power was confirmed in 2020 when Portugal’s Chaputa Records revived Impala’s soundtrack on vinyl, then again last May when the film was remastered and released on Blu-ray. But if the latter’s bonus director’s commentary hinted at the many layers of influences behind the film, that was nothing compared to what came next: a coffee table tome which publisher Fantagraphics Books describes as “a mammoth volume dedicated to one of the last underground sexploitation films of the 20th Century.”

With more than 300 generously illustrated pages, this would be a monumental tribute to any film, yet in this case, beyond honoring McCarthy’s vision, it’s a tribute to the entire Memphis scene of the ’90s. The fact that it’s a compendium of “essays, reviews, articles, and interviews” rather than a single narrative is actually a strength, as the book offers many voices, some from the era, some looking back in hindsight. Impala’s Scott Bomar, for instance, writes movingly of recording with the legendary Roland Janes. There are also reminiscences by the star of the film, D’Lana Tunnell of Texas, and the three supporting actors from Memphis, Kristen Hobbs, Sophie Couch (Christine Gladney), and Dawn Ashcraft (who most Memphians know as McCarthy’s wife at the time, Kimberly Ashcraft). These essays — and accompanying photos — are especially “revealing” as the four women describe McCarthy cajoling them into performing topless, and the spirit of gonzo transgression in which they did so. One might thus consider both the film and this book as bold shots across the bow in the “free the nipple” movement. 

The introduction by the Commercial Appeal’s John Beifuss sets the context perfectly, and the Memphis Flyer is well-represented with writings by Greg Akers, Chris Davis, Susan Ellis, John Floyd, Andria Lisle, and yours truly. Also on display is a letter by McCarthy’s biological father, Terry Blair Carr, published by the Flyer in 2008, though no one knew of that connection at the time. 

And that is where the personal, emotional heart of the book resides. Most of the essays are by McCarthy himself, and while many of them, bursting with wordplay, concern the process of indie filmmaking, the director, an adopted child, also delves deeply into the private family history that obliquely inspired the film. As he ruminates on the parents who raised him as well as his search for his biological parents, the book becomes a profoundly moving detective story. A further essay by Tunnell, in which she reveals that she too was adopted, resonates with this, marking both the book and the film as expressions of very heartfelt histories. 

Part of the mystery and allure of these histories is where they overlapped with the mythic realm of Elvis Presley, and his presence throughout the book lends the proceedings an epic glow. The result is a rich tapestry woven from the families, friendships, fetishes, and fandom of the last century in the land that McCarthy calls “Mythissippi,” but also in Memphis itself. And, as a celebration of the latter, the milieu in which McCarthy’s vision took root, this volume is unparalleled. Far from being mere vanity projects, the film and the book are emblematic of an evolving community. As Bomar writes, “if I were to stumble upon a time machine, I would dial in Mike McCarthy’s Memphis, TN, in the ’90s.” 

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Grizzlies Defeat Raptors

Jaren Jackson Jr. goes up for a bucket against the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2024. (Photo by: Vaughn Ridley/NBAE via Getty Images)

On Monday night in Toronto, the Memphis Grizzlies secured their first wire-to-wire victory of the season by beating the Toronto Raptors 108-100. Memphis improved to 12-12 on the road while just being 4-15 at home on the season.

Memphis seems as if it has been cursed for most of the season with multiple key players dealing with injuries. In their abscence, Jaren Jackson Jr., the longest-tenured player on the roster, continues to dominate opponents and is at times unguardable. He was in his bag against the Raptors and finished with 27 points on 12-for-22 shooting, six steals (career-high), five assists, and four rebounds in 32 minutes.

The reigning Defensive Player of the Year now has 5+ assists in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.

Luke Kennard added a season-high 19 points and dished out seven assists. Kennard converted on 5-of-13 from the three-point line, and seems to have found his rhythm as of late.

Vince Williams Jr. continued to be dominant on both ends of the floor, adding 18 points and 10 rebounds (7-of-11 FG) for the first double-double of his career.

Jon Konchar scored six points, and had five rebounds, five blocks (career-high), and four assists.

Tid-bits

Every player that entered the game for Memphis recorded an assist.

Analysis

In my summation, with half the season gone, the Grizzlies have nothing left to play for. The chances to make the play-in tournament are all but over. And the team still might not have a poor enough record to get a lottery pick.

The NBA Trade Deadline is fast approaching: February 8, 2024 (3 p.m. CT). Memphis is linked to a number of players in trade rumors, but it would surprise me if the Grizzlies make a major trade at this point. I do think minor trades will likely happen. Memphis needs to solidify its bench for seasons to come.

With a healthy Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Jackson Jr., this team is hard to beat, but with better role players, they would be championship contenders. For the rest of the season, Memphis should just continue to develop the young talent on the roster to have them prepared for next year.

Next Up

The conclusion of the Grizzlies four-game road trip is Wednesday night in Miami against the Heat. Tip-off: 6:30 p.m. CT

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

MLGW Lifts Boil Water Advisory

Credit: MLGW

Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) has lifted the precautionary boil water advisory for all its customers.

“There are no restrictions on the use of drinking water supplied to all MLGW customers,” said the company in a statement. “The action has been taken in consultation with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) after assuring water safety standards have been met.”

The company initially entered a precautionary water boil following “recent freezing temperatures that caused water main breaks and private property leaks that caused low water pressure in MLGW’s water system.”

MLGW has advised customers to turn on their main water valve if it has been closed, flush any faucet a minimum of two minutes, and to “begin with the faucet that is highest up” in their homes and move to the lower ones.

Customers are also asked to get rid of any ice made during the water boil notice and to check their water filters.

If customers notice that their water is discolored, they should flush water pipes until water runs clear, and should also avoid washing clothes.

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News News Blog News Feature

Slate of Hate: More to Come

State Capitol (Photo: Tennessee State Government)

As more bills are being introduced in the state’s General Assembly legislative session, the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) has continued to update its “Slate of Hate 2024.”

Prior to the start of the session the advocacy group had become aware of bills that they deemed as “discriminatory” and added them to the list. These included bills that would potentially ban Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, as well as access to LGBTQ+ content.

On Tuesday, a bill was filed in the Tennessee legislature that could prohibit gender-affirming resources in local education agencies (LEAs) or public charter school.

Senator Paul Rose (R-District 32) filed SB 1810 which would require school agencies to report any request for “an accommodation to affirm the student’s gender identity to be reported to a school administrator and to the student’s parent.”

“[SB 1810] prohibits an employee of an LEA or public charter school from knowingly providing false or misleading information to a student’s parent regarding the student’s gender identity or intention to transition to a gender that differs from the student’s sex at the time of birth,” reads the bill’s summary.

The bill, if passed, would allow parents and the attorney general to take “civil action” against the “noncompliant LEA or public charter school.”

This isn’t the first bill introduced this session by Rose that has found its way on the list. He also introduced SB 1738, which was passed on first consideration. 

Under SB 1738, adoptive or foster parents are not required by the department of children’s services to “support a policy on sexual orientation or gender identity that conflicts with the parent’s sincerely held religious or moral beliefs.”

The summary of the bill is not yet complete, so it is unclear what is defined as “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Other pieces of legislation that have found their way on the list included HB 1634 and HB 1661.

According to TEP, HB 1634, introduced by Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), “removes specific sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination protections at school in favor of more general language.” This includes removing the definition of “gender identity” for “purposes of the family life curriculum.”

HB 1661 could potentially have a “chilling effect” on access to “diverse materials” in libraries the group said in an Instagram post.

“This bill authorizes the residents of a district to circulate a petition for signatures for the purposes of prohibiting each library within a district from displaying, distributing, or making readily accessible to minors any content or material in possession of a library that is specified in the petition as not meeting contemporary community standards,”  reads the bill’s summary.

The bill would also require libraries to “immediately” remove the material petitioned from “places and locations accessible to minors.”

Social media users have criticized this bill, arguing that this would not stop minors from accessing certain materials.

“Have these legislators ever heard of the internet?” said a user named Stevesmotherman,  “Kids do and search it very efficiently. They are exposed to waaaayyy worse.”

The full Slate of Hate 2024 can be found here.

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News News Blog News Feature

Tennessee Has $717M of Unspent Funds for Needy Families

State Capitol (Photo: Tennessee State Government)

Five years ago, a conservative think tank made an explosive revelation: Tennessee leaders had allowed a key anti-poverty program to amass a $730 million surplus —dollars from the federal government that never reached the struggling families for whom they were earmarked.

Fast forward to today: the state currently has a surplus of $717 million in the same federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program — known in Tennessee as “Families First.” The size of Tennessee’s TANF balance dwarfs every state but one.

Officials with the state’s Department of Humans Services say they are making progress in putting the unspent funds to use.

In the coming years, all but $190 million of the amassed funds will be distributed in the form of multi-year grants to community groups, transferred to a health department nurses for newborns program and paid to IT contractors to overhaul the agency’s aging computer system. New grant awards announcements are expected this spring.

“Over the course of the next three to four years we will see a consistent reduction in those unexpended balances as grant funding is distributed,” said Danielle Cotton, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, which manages the Families First program.

Critics, however, have questioned the lengthy timeline that has elapsed since the existence of the surplus was first brought to light in 2019, and the consequences of withheld resources for Tennessee’s working poor.

“The goal seems to be to give community grants to organizations when we know that TANF funding can go directly to the people who really need them,” said Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Nashville Democrat who has a bill this year to mandate cost of living increases for the cash payments given to families, similar to the automatic adjustments linked to the governor’s salary.

“These dollars keep piling up when we have one of the most food insecure states in the nation,” Campbell said.

TANF is a federal program that provides an annual block grant to every state. Its purpose is to help lift families with children out of poverty and towards self-sufficiency. Tennessee receives about $190 million each year. The federal government places no timelines on when states must spend their annual allotment.

There are approximately 29,000 Tennesseans enrolled in the program — more than 23,000 of them children, according to the most recent department data publicly available.

Each state sets its own priorities, but uses a portion of the federal funding to send monthly cash stipends to low income families with kids.Tennessee’s monthly cash payment for a family of three averages $387. It is among the lowest TANF cash payments in the nation.

States may also use the funding to provide grants to community groups that provide services to working parents — services that include child care, transportation and job training.

In 2019, the Beacon Center, a conservative-leaning think tank based in Nashville, revealed the state had routinely failed to spend its annual $190 million allotment for more than a decade, amassing the then-largest surplus in TANF in the nation: $732 million. (The unspent funds are reserved for Tennessee’s use by the federal government: they do not accrue interest for the state.)

An immediate public outcry followed. And after initially defending the program’s spending decisions, Gov. Bill Lee changed course, pledging in early 2021 to make TANF reform one of his top legislative priorities.

The resulting “TANF Opportunity Act” was enacted with bipartisan support later that year. It addressed the accumulated reserves by capping any TANF surplus at $190 million in “unobligated funding.” It also increased the then-average family-of-three payment from $277 per month to the current $387. And it set time limits for the state to spend its annual TANF allotment.

DHS officials noted last week that the current $717 million in reserves are all obligated or in the process of being obligated for specific current and future purposes, in compliance with the law.

“Every dollar of the $717.5 million has a budgeted line item,” Cotton said. Several community grants are “in the contractual process for final obligations.”

The 2021 legislation also created a Families First community advisory group tasked with recommending reforms and monitoring outcomes of the spending decisions.

DHS Commissioner Clarence Carter, tapped by Gov. Bill Lee to lead the department in January 2021, detailed his ambitious approach at the time.

“We are using the TANF program to redesign Tennessee’s safety net,” Carter said at the advisory group’s first meeting in August 2021.

“Instead of a knee jerk response to, OK, we’ve got $700 million and let’s just get that money out the door, folks came together and were very thoughtful about what’s the most impactful way we can put those dollars into play and really have better results,” Carter said.

At the outset, however, the department faced challenges in distributing the hundreds of millions of dollars accumulated in its reserves.

The goal seems to be to give community grants to organizations when we know that TANF funding can go directly to the people who really need them.

– Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville

The funding distributed from the TANF reserve to community organizations providing safety net services comes with strict rules that require agencies to follow complex federal mandates as well as show measurable improvements for working families.

Cotton, the DHS spokesperson, said only a few agencies were willing or able to take on the grants.

“There are a limited number of organizations that serve our fellow Tennesseans in the public safety net, and even fewer organizations that want to comply with the requirements and regulations of a federal grant,” said Cotton, the DHS spokesperson.

“As such we have noticed that we are often reaching the same or similar audience with more and more opportunities but very few new participants,” she said.

As a result, earlier this year lawmakers amended the TANF legislation, extending deadlines for DHS to distribute the federal funding.

Instead of a requirement that DHS fully expend its annual $190 million allotment every 12 months, lawmakers extended its spending deadline to 18 months each year.

The law also extended the original legislation’s three-year deadline for the department to develop, implement and evaluate pilot programs with communities organizations from three years to four years, or until the 2026-2027 fiscal years.

And instead of a December 2025 deadline for the advisory group to issue a report on TANF reform progress, the new law gives the group another year, setting a new December 2026 deadline.

“Frankly it took us a little while longer than I anticipated, than the legislation anticipated, to get these organizations up and running,” Rep. David Hawk, who sponsored the law, told a legislative committee last year.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

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News News Blog News Feature

MLGW Lifts Water Conservation Order, Boil Water Advisory Remains

Credit: MLGW

Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) lifted its water conservation order Monday morning as “water service and pressures return to normal,” meaning customers are no longer required to limit water consumption.

However, the utility said all MLGW customers should continue to boil potable water before use.

That boil requirement will be lifted once MLGW has completed water safety tests. The utility said its laboratory started testing the water supply Monday for quality and clarity. Samples must incubate for 18 to 24 hours before results are available. 

When the test results are ready, MLGW will send them to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) to confirm that the water quality meets standards. Then, with TDEC’s approval, MLGW can lift the advisory.

Over the past week, MLGW said it has located and repaired 56 broken water mains, responded to more than 4,000 residential and commercial customers who reported broken pipes, and shut off nearly 100 fire suppression systems.

As pressure is restored, some MLGW customers may experience discolored water. MLGW said those customers should let their water run until it is clear.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “Seeds” by Tony Manard

“Don’t know if I still qualify as a Memphis guy since I moved to Ripley, Mississippi, but this one was recorded here at Five and Dime and Buntyn Presbyterian,” says Tony Manard. “Overdubs and mixing were done in my little home studio I built in a school bus.”

Yes, Tony, Memphis still claims you! You may have moved the “Cuss Bus” out of the city limits, but can’t get away that easily. Especially when you make a good music video! The gorgeous stop motion production features Andrea Manard’s paintings and collage work.

“I wrote the song with Michael Graber,” says Manard. “Stax legend Willie Hall is on drums. It was released New Years Day. I chose that date because its about setting intentions and growth.”

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Talented Teasers?

Penny Hardaway (Credit: Wes Hale)

Are the Memphis Tigers a legitimate Top-10 team, Final Four contenders? Or are they the biggest teasers east of the Dallas Cowboys? Nineteen games into the 2023-24 season, it seems the answer to one of these questions will ultimately be in the affirmative.

Sunday’s loss at Tulane — the Green Wave’s first upset of a Top-25 team since the Clinton presidency — changed the Tigers’ season, and compounded last Thursday’s loss at home to USF. A team that started the week undefeated in a less-than-respected American Athletic Conference now has a two-game losing streak and, worse, merely 12 regular-season games left to improve its resume for those who hand out seeds for the NCAA tournament. Memphis, you might note, has never reached the Sweet 16 seeded lower than sixth.

Last Thursday night at FedExForum could have been an anomalous nadir. With the arena virtually empty — the university publicly urged fans to stay home and off the icy roads — Memphis looked all of its number-10 ranking in taking a 20-point lead into the second half. Then they seemed to hit black ice as a unit and allowed USF to storm back, tie the game with less than a minute to play, and win the contest on a Kasean Pryor free throw with five seconds to play. (There’s brutal irony in a team from South Florida knocking off the Tigers while fans were home dripping their faucets.) The Tigers’ late-game hero Jahvon Quinerly committed a turnover in the game’s closing seconds and missed a desperation three-point attempt at the buzzer. If empty seats could boo, they would have.

The loss was especially bizarre, as it came four days after Memphis looked like their predecessors from 2008 or 1985, both Final Four years. The Tigers scored 112 points in beating Wichita State, the most on the road for this program in 69 years. Against USF, they couldn’t crack 80. The Tigers drained 19 three-pointers in overwhelming the Shockers, a program record. Against the Bulls, they missed 22 of their 28 shots from long range. Memphis lost despite outscoring USF 42-18 in the paint and 21-2(!) on fast breaks. The numbers don’t make sense, but the loss is permanent and will cost Memphis its spot in that hallowed Top 10.

As long as Quinerly and David Jones remain healthy, the Tigers will enter March with an arsenal most teams — “power conference” or otherwise — would envy. Jones (21.7 points per game) is the leading candidate for AAC Player of the Year. Right behind him may well be Quinerly (14.0 points, 4.7 assists). Were it not for Quinerly’s game-winning treys against Tulsa and SMU, the Tigers might have a losing record in league play. Jones took a three-point shot that could have won Sunday’s game at Tulane. He missed, as stars sometimes do. How will the Tigers process two straight gut punches as they wait a week before returning to play (Sunday at UAB)?

Following the Tigers’ narrow escape against SMU on January 7th, Hardaway emphasized the joy he took in seeing his team improve while winning. Beats the “learn from our losses” track every day of the week. And the Tigers are certainly better for their recent 10-game winning streak. But Hardaway also suggested this group of veteran transfers may actually be too confident, that they feel like any obstacle or deficit can be overcome, and this can sometimes compromise group effort. A home loss to a team with a NET rating of 146, you gotta believe, might help reduce that overconfidence intangible.

Another intangible to track with these Tigers: team chemistry. Following the USF loss, Hardaway suggested internal strife was impacting who he could put on the floor and when. If this is the case (more than two months into the season), the likelihood of a full recovery — let alone a Final Four run — seems remote. The sixth-year coach may have the greatest challenge of his career on his hands: Getting the most out of a talented team before the players on that team sabotage the mission. That would be a cruel tease, indeed.