Tag: basketball

Grizzlies Fall to Unicaja Malaga, 103-99

Post author By John Branston
Post date October 9, 2007

A full house of almost 10,000 fans at Martin Carpena Arena in Malaga, Spain, got what they came for on Tuesday — drama and entertainment in equal doses — as host Unicaja defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 102-99 in the third of four NBA Europe Live games involving Euroeague teams.

It was a thriller full of shift changes from start to finish. Unicaja shook off an early double-digit deficit to take over with defense in the second quarter. Unicaja led by a high of 15 points, 69-54, midway through the third quarter, but Memphis erased all of that deficit before the start of the last one. By the time its 8-29 run was over, Memphis was up 73-82, but not even that lead was safe as Unicaja roared back thanks to back-to-back triples from Davor Kus and 6 points in crunch time by Boniface Ndong to hold on for the victory.

Kus, who was a perfect 4-for-4 at the foul-line in the last 13 seconds, led Unicaja with 20 points. Marcus Haislip had a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Ndong had one of 16 and 12. Daniel Santiago followed with 14 points, while Berni Rodriguez and German Gabriel had 13 each.

Players trained in the Euroleague led the way for Memphis, too, as Juan Carlos Navarro debuted with 21 points on 5-for-8 three-point shooting, while Pau Gasol had 18 points and 8 rebounds. Mike Miller followes with 17, while Rudy Gay added 14 and Hakeem Warick 11. Unicaja’s domination of the boards, where it took 59 rebounds to 37 for Memphis, proved crucial.

FROM MY SEAT: Just Thinking…

Post author By Frank Murtaugh
Post date October 7, 2007

A few
not-so-random thoughts from the world of sports:

• I
admire coach Tommy West and the University of Memphis football program for the
strength they showed in playing last week’s game against Marshall, as
scheduled, in the aftermath of Taylor Bradford’s murder. The marching band’s
rendition of “Amazing Grace” at halftime may have been the most poignant
moment I’ve experienced at the Liberty Bowl.

I
strongly disagree with the decision to play less than 48 hours after a member
of the team was shot and killed, but if three hours in helmets and pads in
front of 25,000 friends helped ease the pain, even briefly, the effort was
worthwhile.

It’s
now the responsibility of the U of M administration, of course, to be
proactive in raising awareness about gun violence in Memphis. Our flagship
educational enterprise simply must focus attention on this city’s single most
damning weakness. However isolated or “targeted” the administration considers
Bradford’s murder, guns taking the lives of young Memphians is epidemic. The
university owes this larger battle (and far more than a football game) to the
memory of Taylor Bradford.

•
Having caught my first glimpse of the 2007-08 Memphis Grizzlies at last week’s
public “Lunch Time” scrimmage, I’ve got a name for you: Casey Jacobsen. Mike
Conley and Darko Milicic will be popular new faces at FedExForum and will play
large roles in determining how close this team is to playoff contention. But
the sharp shooting Jacobsen — a college star at Stanford who cut his pro teeth
in Europe — is going to be among the most popular Grizzlies in the season
ahead.

• Can
SEC football get any better? The 12th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs go to Tennessee,
ready to put a beat-down on the sagging Vols, having won their last three
games in Knoxville. Instead, UT discovers it can run the ball and whips the
Dawgs by 21 in a game that wasn’t that close.

Then a
few hours later, top-ranked LSU finds itself on the ropes against the
defending national champions, only to rally with one fourth-down conversion
after another, scoring the winning touchdown with less than two minutes to
play. Don’t bet against these Tigers the rest of the season. (And how many
Mid-South football fans were shedding tears over Florida being eliminated from
the national-title hunt the first week in October?)

•
Tradition will take a beating in the National League Championship Series later
this week. The senior circuit’s two historical whipping boys — the Cubs and
Phillies — both went down in three-game sweeps, and at the hands of two clubs
(the Diamondbacks and Rockies, respectively) that weren’t playing baseball as
recently as 1992.

Consider these “historical” factoids. The greatest player in Arizona history —
the currently hobbled Randy Johnson — has pitched in more games as a Mariner
than he has as a Diamondback. In 10 years of baseball, Arizona has changed its
uniform design more often than the St. Louis Cardinals have in 116 years. As
for the Rockies, they aim to reach their first World Series having still never
finished atop their division. Bless the wild card.

Even
with tradition out the window, the NLCS will be a healthy introduction for
many fans to some of the best young players never seen east of the Rocky
Mountains. Colorado’s Matt Holliday (.340 batting average, 36 homers, 137
RBIs) is — with Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins — one of two viable NL MVP
candidates. Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (.291, 24, 99) is a likely
Rookie of the Year winner. And rightfielder Brad Hawpe (.291, 29, 116) could
stand — in full uniform — at Times Square and not be recognized.

As for
Arizona, reigning Cy Young winner Brandon Webb (18 wins, 3.01 ERA) would be
making commercials if he played in New York, and centerfielder Chris Young (32
homers at age 23) will be a perennial All-Star by 2010.

So
forget the uniforms, the swimming pool in one ballpark and a humidor in the
other. (Mark this down: If Colorado wins the pennant, we’ll see the first snow
delay in World Series history.) Sit back and enjoy some great baseball.

• How
does a King lose his kingdom? He starts by wearing the opponent’s baseball cap
to a playoff game in Cleveland. How tone-deaf must LeBron James be to show up
at Jacobs Field in a Yankees lid? Here’s a thought for the next time the
Bombers come to Ohio for a game, LeBron: Yankee boxers.

Tags baseball, basketball, Casey Jacobsen, football, Grizzlies, Murder, National League Championship Series, SEC, Sports, Taylor Bradford, Tigers, Tommy West, University of Memphis, University of Tennessee, violence

Sports Sports Feature

Calipari, U of M, China Exchange in The New York Times

Post author By John Branston
Post date September 21, 2007

The New York Times weighs in with a story on Memphis Coach John Calipari’s innovative China-Memphis basketball exchange:

In a move that may someday help expand the exposure of college basketball in China, the University of Memphis signed an agreement with the Chinese Basketball Association.
Skip to next paragraph

Memphis Coach John Calipari traveled to Beijing with university and city officials for the announcement of the deal, which will include Calipari’s running a series of coaching clinics and camps throughout China in the next five years.

Also, 15 men’s and women’s coaches chosen by the Chinese Basketball Association will go to Memphis for 10 days in October to learn from Calipari and his coaching staff. They will evaluate how Memphis, which could be ranked No. 1 entering this season, runs its program. One of the Chinese coaches will stay with the Tigers for the season.

Read the rest of the Times story.

Tags basketball, Chinese Basketball Association, Coaching, John Calipari

Sports Sports Feature

ESPN: CUSA Poised for Comeback, Thanks to Memphis

Post author By John Branston
Post date September 14, 2007

From ESPN.com: It was deader than an armadillo trying to cross a six-lane Texas highway.

That was the consensus on the University of Memphis when Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, Marquette and DePaul packed up their toys for the Big East, and Charlotte and St. Louis bolted for the Atlantic 10. Most people presumed the Tigers, left with no one to play with, would fade into the basketball backdrop.

Instead, Memphis not only has lifted itself into a possible preseason No. 1 perch, it has pulled its entire conference along with it. Conference USA, tagged when the league broke up in 2005 as a one-bid league for eternity, is on the verge of becoming a multi-bid league again.

And it can thank the would-be basketball orphan Tigers …

Read the ESPN.com story.

Tags basketball, Memphis Tigers

Sports Sports Feature

FROM MY SEAT: Just Thinking…

Post author By Frank Murtaugh
Post date September 10, 2007

• As
disheartening as it was to read of the Tiger basketball program’s latest
appearance on the police blotter, it was that much more discouraging — though
somehow not surprising — to find Joey Dorsey’s name in the mix. When freshman
Jeff Robinson and transfer Shawn Taggert were arrested on Beale Street in the
wee hours of September 2nd, some margin might have been granted to a pair of
kids not yet aware of the responsibility that comes with the quasi-royalty of
being Memphis Tiger basketball players. (Having been on campus a year, though,
Taggert gets less margin than does Robinson.)

But Joey
Dorsey? The 23-year-old senior “leader” of a team with national title hopes?
Having been previously connected with transgressions large (bar brawls in
February and June) and small (pouring water on another U of M student), Dorsey’s
track record already made him a lightning rod for controversy. Even if he was,
say, handing out 20-dollar bills, for the 6’9″ center of the city’s flagship
basketball institution to jump on top (!) of a bar is well beyond any boundaries
of taste and civility (at least this side of the Coyote Ugly staff).

I, for
one, can’t figure Dorsey out. I recall his humble post game assessment as a
sophomore on areas he needed to improve upon for his team to advance deeply into
the NCAA tournament. When I tried to touch on the same area last winter, he held
up his hand and proclaimed his policy of not speaking with the press. From
there, he proceeded to compare Ohio State’s Greg Oden to the Biblical David with
Dorsey himself in the role of Goliath . . . in front of the national press.
However lacking Dorsey may be in the details — and message — of scripture, he’s
apparently just as shallow when it comes to his conduct after dark. It’s gonna
be an interesting year covering the Tiger cagers.

• When I
saw Pete Sampras win the 1996 Kroger St. Jude championship at The Racquet Club
of Memphis, I told myself that — at age 26 — I had already seen the greatest
tennis player I’d ever see. From his serve to his forehand, from his net game to
his decade-long consistency, Sampras was a standard I placed on a pedestal
beyond reach of mortal players.

Then
along came Roger Federer. In winning his fourth straight U.S. Open — on the
heels of winning his fifth straight Wimbledon title in July — the 26-year-old
Swiss titan has made a tennis court his canvas, his opponents merely part of his
medium of choice. Whether it’s power (he out-aced Andy Roddick, remember) or the
surgical precision of his groundstrokes, Federer brings a beauty to a sport that
has been customarily bludgeoned in recent years by power-serving sluggers who
can’t cover half the court if their service is returned. Next time you watch
Federer play, count the times he stumbles or grunts. (Wouldn’t you think the
countless players — men and women — who incorporate screams with every stroke
might look at Federer and reconsider their volume as wasted energy?) With 12
Grand Slam titles to his credit, Federer may well break Sampras’ record of 14
next year. It seems the only challenge ahead of this racket-toting magician is
Rafael Nadal’s supremacy at the French Open and a calendar-year Grand Slam
sweep. Don’t bet against him.

• On
July 19th, I took my 8-year-old daughter to her first night game at AutoZone
Park. It happened to be Rick Ankiel’s 28th birthday. When Ankiel reached first
base after his second at-bat, the stadium organist serenaded the Thursday-night
crowd — and Mr. Ankiel — with the familiar jingle of “Happy Birthday.” I
remember how complicated it felt to try and explain to Sofia how exceptional it
is for a baseball player who has reached the highest level of his sport as a
pitcher to metamorphose into a power-hitting outfielder . . . and return to the
major leagues. That conversation was, well, kid stuff compared with the topic of
human growth hormone. Is a third-grade mind ready for a summary of HGH?

• The
39-19 loss suffered by Southern Miss at Tennessee Saturday is not a good sign
for Conference USA. It’s never easy to win in Neyland Stadium, but when the
preeminent program in C-USA loses by 20 to a team generally considered the third
best in the SEC’s Eastern Division, the recruiting gap between these conferences
is growing, not shrinking. Try convincing a blue-chipper life as a Golden Eagle
— or as a Memphis Tiger — would be better than that of a Vol, or a Gamecock, or
heavens, a Wildcat.

Tags baseball, basketball, joey dorsey, Rick Ankiel, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis, Tigers

News

Two Tiger Players Plead Not Guilty in Beale Street Incident

Post author By John Branston
Post date September 4, 2007

(AP) -Two University of Memphis basketball players pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of disorderly conduct and inciting a riot related to a nightclub scuffle over the weekend.

Shawn Taggart and Jeff Robinson appeared briefly in Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court. Their

The two were arrested after police responded to a disturbance outside the Plush Club on Beale Street early Sunday. Club security accused Taggart of starting a fight, though police said they later refuted that.

While being detained by officers, Taggart was accused of yelling obscenities and agitating a crowd that had gathered outside the club. Robinson also was charged with assault because he approached a police officer aggressively and used verbal threats, said police spokeswoman Monique Martin.

The incident prompted coach John Calipari to impose a curfew and bar them from visiting any nightclub.

Robinson, 19, is a freshman shooting guard from Columbus, N.J. Taggart, 22, is a 6-11 forward from Richmond, Va., who transferred last season from Iowa State. Neither has played a game for the Tigers.

Tags ban, basketball, Beale Street, charges, curfew, Jeff Robinson, Memphis Tigers, Plush Club, Shawn Taggart

Sports Sports Feature

Garcia Commits to Basketball Tigers

Post author By John Branston
Post date September 4, 2007

Another highly regarded prep star has committed to John Calipari’s U of M Tigers. The news comes on the heels of an embarrassing brush with the law by several Tigers at the downtown Plush Club.

From the Chicago Sun-Times: In recent weeks, coaches from Kentucky, Arizona and Ohio State had called Angel Garcia, trying to get involved with the East Chicago Central star. Garcia, tired of the phone calls and the recruiting process, decided he had had enough over the weekend. So he called Memphis coach John Calipari and put and end to his recruitment. He’s going to wear blue next year and play for the Tigers.

“He just wanted to put all this behind him and concentrate on his academics and basketball,” Eric Cole, who coaches CAPS All-Stars, Garcia’s AAU team.

No team had recruited Garcia harder than Memphis. Calipari saw him in an open gym last October and offered him a scholarship immediately.

Read the Sun-Times story.

Tags Angel Garcia, basketball, John Calipari, Memphis Tigers, recruitment

Sports Sports Feature

Basketball Tigers To Take On Big Apple Tourneys

Post author By John Branston
Post date August 22, 2007

Still more than two months till college basketball season tips off? Posh, says SI.com’s Luke Winn. In his latest blog, Winn ranks the upcoming tournaments that help shape the college hoop season. And the Memphis Tigers just happen to be scheduled to play in the top two.

Writes Winn, “New York is not necessarily the best place for a college basketball writer (like myself) to live during January, February, and March. …

“In November and December, however, a wonderful phenomenon occurs: the best of college hoops simply comes to us in Manhattan. I spent this morning — once I finished my last college football preview piece, that is — looking through hoops schedules with the intention of returning to regular blogging. And I’ve come to the pleasant realization that the top three early-season events are all at Madison Square Garden, just a short subway ride away.”

Sweet, Again

Post author By Frank Murtaugh
Post date March 22, 2007

For at least a week, the Tennessee legislature should consider replacing the three stars on the state flag with basketballs. For the first time in the history of the NCAA tournament, all three regions of the Volunteer State will be represented in the Sweet 16, with the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Memphis each two wins shy of the Final Four. Better yet, with Ridgeway High alum Derrick Byars starring for the Commodores and White Station’s Dane Bradshaw starting for the Vols, Memphis will have a say in this event, dammit, one way or another.

As for the Tigers’ second-round win over Nevada Sunday, it was as gutsy as any 16-point victory you’ll ever see. When the Tigers’ top scorer, Chris Douglas-Roberts, went down with an ankle injury with eight minutes to play, Tiger apologists had their excuse should the U of M wilt against the Western Athletic Conference champions. Instead, Memphis outscored the Wolf Pack by nine the rest of the way.

Guts, you say? With the Tiger lead down to two points, sophomore Antonio Anderson took the plank, er, free-throw line and dropped a pair through the twine, lifting the chin of every foul-shot-fearing fan between New Orleans and Memphis. When Joey Dorsey — he of the sub-50-percent ratio for the season — made his first free throw to extend the lead to five, one got the feeling the U of M had a vice grip on this one. When Anderson saved the ensuing miss from going out of bounds — retaining a valuable clock-killing possession for Memphis — the Tigers seized enough momentum to carry them to the final buzzer.

Guts? Find the smallest Tiger on the floor Thursday night and you’ll see the term personified. Dorsey and Douglas-Roberts (missing free throws, injured, or otherwise) are the most valuable Tigers. Anderson and Jeremy Hunt are clutch at both ends of the floor. But this is fast becoming Andre Allen’s team.

It takes some doing to join the club of elite Memphis point guards. Recent history has seen Andre Turner, Elliot Perry, Chris Garner, and Antonio Burks provide the electric pulse for NCAA tournament teams. (Some would include Penny Hardaway on this list, though Hardaway’s greatness shouldn’t be confined by any positional boundary.) Despite being, technically, Willie Kemp’s backup, Allen made an imprint on the Tiger wins in New Orleans that was second to no one. A steal and driving layup by Allen were key to a 10-2 run early in the second half of the first-round win over North Texas, a game in which the backup point guard played 36 minutes, compared with the starter’s nine. Allen’s hyperactive defensive presence in the backcourt establishes the standard for his teammates and serves as the pressure point through which Memphis opponents must begin their half-court offense.

“Andre’s motor is going 100 miles per hour,” said Coach John Calipari after the Tigers won the Conference USA tournament March 10th. “The greatest thing ever to happen to Willie Kemp is Andre Allen. Willie can’t cost us a game. He won’t cost us a game, because I won’t leave him in long enough. I’ll bring in Andre.”

Energy — and guts — will be a prerequisite to winning the South regional. Thursday night in San Antonio, the best player on the court will be Texas A & M guard Acie Law. The Aggies will be playing in their home state and in the Sweet 16 for the first time since Michael Jordan was a junior in high school (1980). With enough defensive help from Anderson — and a reasonably healthy CDR — the Tigers might escape the long arm of Law, and you couldn’t ask for a juicier foe in the regional final, regardless of who wins the Ohio State-Tennessee contest. If the favored Buckeyes are victorious, Memphis fans will be booing the very man-child they hope to cheer (as a Grizzly) next season: Ohio State’s freshman center, Greg Oden. And if UT wins? Merely a chance to avenge the 18-point drubbing Memphis suffered in Knoxville in December.

Here are the Memphis Tigers, with 24 consecutive wins and — for the first time since 1985 — a second straight dance card in the NCAA’s Sweet Sixteen. Seems they deserve better than a four-word cliché for their performance to date … and their chances ahead. But it’s a great cliché: no guts, no glory.

Tags basketball, Memphis Tigers, NCAA tournament, preview, Sports, University of Memphis