Tag: NCAA tournament

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Dancin’ Time for Memphis Tigers

Alex Lomax (photo by Larry Kuzniewski)

Ahhh. Now this feels like March. Thursday in Portland, the Memphis Tigers will play Boise State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The game will take place just shy of eight years since Memphis last played in the Big Dance (a second-round loss to Virginia on March 23, 2014). It’s hard to imagine in these parts, but there are Memphis high-school kids with virtually no memory of the Tigers playing in college basketball’s showcase. After all, it was two American presidents and a pandemic ago. 

In this season’s spirit of renewal, a few not-so-random thoughts on the Tigers’ return to Madness: 

• Just how long was the Tigers’ seven-year drought without a dance card? You have to go all the way back to 1972 to find such a dry period. Then Memphis State, the Tigers did not qualify for the NCAA tournament for 10 years, from 1963 through 1972. In 1972, though, only 25 teams qualified for the tournament. Without a conference championship, a program had little chance of competing for the big prize. Today, it’s a 68-team field. As many as six or seven teams from hoops-rich conferences like the ACC, SEC, or Big 10 make the field. There was no tournament in 2020 as the pandemic took hold, but the Tigers’ seven-year absence from this event is just about as long as we can take.

• It’s been even longer — 13 years — since the Tigers advanced to the tournament’s second weekend, the Sweet 16. Memphis won at least two tournament games four straight years, from 2006 to 2009, reaching the regional finals (“Elite Eight”) three times (2006-08), and the 2008 championship, where the Tigers lost to Kansas in overtime. The program enjoyed a similar four-year run from 1982-85 (the Keith Lee years), reaching the Sweet 16 each season and the Final Four in ’85, where they lost to Villanova in the national semifinals.

• Penny Hardaway is the ninth coach to lead Memphis to the NCAA tournament. He appeared as a player in the 1992 and ’93 tournaments, helping the Tigers reach the Elite Eight as a sophomore. No Memphis coach made it to the Big Dance in his first season at the helm. It took Penny four.

• Larry Kenon scored 34 points in the first round of the 1973 tournament, setting a single-game Memphis record that stood for 36 years. Roburt Sallie — hardly a name that rolls off the tongue of Tiger fans — found his range in the opening game of the 2009 tournament and scored 35 points to establish a new standard.

• The Tigers will be led by a point guard who grew up in Memphis and wears number 10 on his jersey. For fans with some mileage on their tires, this should look familiar. Andre Turner led the Tigers to the NCAA tournament four consecutive years (1983-86), hit a game-winning shot on their way to the 1985 Final Four, and established a career assists record (763) that will never be broken. If Alex Lomax conjures the Little General this month, their could be a lot to celebrate.

• How unique was freshman Jalen Duren’s 21-point, 20-rebound performance in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament? In four full seasons as a Tiger, the great Keith Lee never had a 20-20 game. Ronnie Robinson had three in three seasons. Larry Kenon remarkably had seven 20-20 games in his only college season, helping the Tigers reach the 1973 Final Four. Enjoy Duren in the Big Dance. He’ll be dunking lobs in the NBA a year from now.

Categories
Cover Feature News

“The Game Chose Me”

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

We take the word king seriously in Memphis. This is the city where Elvis Presley rose and Martin Luther King Jr. fell, the former providing an international brand, the latter an eternal wound. Only with more than 30 years of hindsight does Jerry Lawler seem to have earned his chosen moniker in the quasi-sport of professional wrestling. King is royalty in this town, to say the least.

Larry Kuzniewski

As a sophomore basketball prodigy at White Station High School, Joe Jackson had “King of Memphis” tattooed across his chest. He’s been fighting to meet that standard ever since.

The high school credentials were indeed regal. Jackson led the Spartans, under coach Jesus Patino, to three straight Class 3-A championship games, scoring 35 points as a junior against Raleigh-Egypt to win the 2009 title. (The Spartans fell to Melrose — a team led by Jackson’s future college teammate, Adonis Thomas — in the 2010 championship.) Over the course of his four years in green and gray, Jackson scored 3,451 points, the second most in Shelby-Metro history and fourth most in Tennessee history. Jackson became only the second Memphis basketball player to earn All-America recognition from both McDonald’s and Parade, the two most prestigious such teams in the country. (The first was Northside’s Richard Madison in 1984.) As a consensus top-15 recruit, Jackson ignored suitors across the country and made the decision his hometown wanted and expected when he committed to play for second-year coach

Josh Pastner and the Memphis Tigers.

“It’s been quite a ride,” says Jackson, as he embarks on a final postseason as a college player. “Especially my last two years. Being able to play at home, you don’t realize what a blessing it is, until you have to leave your hometown and get a career going.”

Longtime Tiger booster — and proud U of M alum — Harold Byrd has watched Jackson grow up, both as a player (Byrd sits a few rows behind press row at FedExForum) and as a community asset. And Byrd is unabashed in describing Jackson’s importance to the Memphis program.

“Joe and Elliot Perry had their choices of schools to attend but didn’t even think of going anywhere else,” says Byrd. “Other coaches might get a player or two over time, but Memphis, for the most part, owns Memphis. And that’s because of the legacy Elliot, Joe, and others have nurtured. The players feel and see the love of the fans, the high regard former players occupy in the city … the hurricane-force delirium swirling around them daily like movie stars. When a [local] player plays for Memphis, the resonance and impact of being a Tiger is one that permeates his entire life.”

Larry Kuzniewski

“I didn’t fully understand it,” says Jackson, reflecting on the intensity of the spotlight on Tiger basketball in Memphis. “How severe it was going to be. Not until I got here. I wish I would have. I wouldn’t have let so much get to me [freshman year]. People want you to do this, do that. When everybody knows you, it’s a good thing, but it can be a bad thing, too. I spent two years just trying to understand that.”

Jackson will finish his college career with achievements only a select few Tigers can claim. He and Perry are the only Tigers to accumulate 1,500 career points and 500 career assists. He and Keith Lee are the only Tigers to twice be named MVP of a conference tournament. (As a freshman, Jackson clinched the 2011 Conference USA (C-USA) title and an unlikely NCAA tournament berth for the Tigers by burying two free throws with 7.8 seconds left in the game against UTEP on the Miners’ home floor.) The only Tigers to make more free throws than Jackson — Perry, Lee, and Larry Finch — have their jersey numbers hanging from the FedExForum rafters. In leading Memphis to an undefeated run through C-USA in 2012-13, Jackson was named the league’s Player of the Year. Entering this week’s American Athletic Conference tournament, Jackson is eighth on the school’s scoring chart with 1,655 career points.

Jackson takes considerable pride in what his Tiger teams have accomplished — he’s particularly attached to that unlikely 2011 C-USA title — but his devotion to basketball goes deeper than the standard “love of the game.” In many respects, Jackson’s devotion to the sport has been a business decision.

“The game chose me to play,” says Jackson. “I didn’t necessarily choose it. I know I can play basketball. I want to be able to make money off this game. I’ve got two younger sisters, and their father isn’t in their lives. My grandma is about to retire. There are a lot of family issues I can help with. I’m smart enough to get a regular job, too, but I’m young. Fresh legs.” (For what it’s worth, Jackson says his favorite college class was accounting.)

“I think Joe has exceeded expectations,” says Pastner. “He’s the most scrutinized player in the history of this program. There have been some great players here, but no player has come in with Twitter, Facebook, and the amount of coverage via TV, radio, and print. And in his hometown. When he got here, there was no upper class; we were just trying to hold it together. His class has won over 100 games, and Joe graduated in three years.”

So why do some feel Jackson has come up short as a college player? Armchair analysts love the Joe Jackson phenomenon for its extremes. After the Tigers beat Louisville on March 1st — their second victory over the reigning national champs in less than two months — some chose to focus on how poorly Jackson played, that he wasn’t on the floor for the Tigers’ 15-1 run to close the game. These analysts didn’t mention that Jackson led Memphis in scoring and assists when the Tigers won at Louisville on January 9th.

“Joe wants to win. He’s a warrior, a competitor,” says Memphis senior guard Michael Dixon.

Jackson won 109 games as a Spartan. Through the end of the Tigers’ regular season, he’s won 105 with the University of Memphis. Jackson has been a winner, and a difference-maker. If the Tigers reach 25 wins this season (they’re 23-8 entering the AAC tourney), it will be eight years in a row for Jackson’s teams. Nonetheless, there have been stumbles.

Larry Kuzniewski

On New Year’s Eve in 2011 — Jackson’s sophomore season with the Tigers — the U of M beat Charlotte at FedExForum with no Joe Jackson to be seen. He wasn’t sick, injured, or suspended. Just unhappy. (He’d taken only two shots and been held scoreless in the Tigers’ previous game against Robert Morris.) He returned and helped his team beat Tennessee four days later, but came off the bench the next 14 games behind Antonio Barton. It was no place for a king.

“I was so stressed out,” says Jackson. “I don’t think I can get to a lower point in life than that. I have family here, and I wasn’t raised with a silver spoon. They depend on me, and I don’t mean financially. I’m the lift they get when they feel I’m doing well. And when things don’t go well … My first year here, we were just trying to fix this program. Just because Joe’s here, doesn’t mean everything’s going to be dandy and gold.”

“He was struggling,” says Pastner. “It was strictly basketball. He was listening to a lot of people, and he wasn’t two-feet in on the caravan. I told him to step away, take 24 hours. Don’t come to the game, and decide if you want to be two-feet in. I didn’t want to lose Joe, but no one’s ever bigger than the program. He came back and, to his credit, it may be something that helps him the rest of his life. He shut out the negative that was in his ear. No more blame game. When he eliminated that mental clutter, he really took off.”

“I’ve seen Joe do a lot of crazy things, and that just added to the list,” says Memphis senior guard Chris Crawford.

The Tigers trailed Gonzaga by 11 points with 13:45 to play on February 8th, Joe Jackson’s 22nd birthday. In front of more than 18,000 fans at FedExForum and a national TV audience — ESPN’s “GameDay” crew was on the scene — the Tigers appeared to be the lesser team in a Top 25 match-up that was significant for each team’s RPI ranking. Bulldog center Przemek Karnowski — all 7’1″ of him — received a pass on the low block from teammate David Stockton. The Polish giant rose to the rim for a slam dunk — only to be met by Jackson. The 6’1″ point guard (as he’s listed in game programs) deflected the ball just enough for Karnowski to lose possession. The crowd roared, and Memphis outscored Gonzaga 29-12 the rest of the way.

After the game, the birthday boy was typically understated in describing a play most Memphis fans will remember as The Block. “Shaq Goodwin has a bad habit of gambling,” said Jackson with a smile. “He fronted the post, and I knew that was John Stockton’s son making that pass. I just tried

to make a play on the ball. Honestly, I was trying not to get dunked on; he was so close to the rim. I jumped to block it, and I was successful that time. That kind of changed the game.”

Pastner’s favorite Jackson moment came on Senior Day in 2013, when the Tigers hosted UAB with a chance to complete an undefeated season in C-USA play. “When Joe got here he was not a good 50-50 guy,” says Pastner. (A “50-50” ball is loose and could be recovered by either team.) “That day he won eight 50-50 balls. One time the ball went past halfcourt, and Joe was running with a UAB player. He dove face first, got the ball, and called timeout. Joe came to the bench and I gave him a huge hug. He said, ‘Coach, all I was thinking was that you’ll show that play over and over in Monday’s film session.’ It was a prized moment.”

“Joe’s the leader, our number one. He does what he’s supposed to do,” says Memphis sophomore forward Shaq Goodwin.

Larry Kuzniewski

Maybe that’s the elusive quality in defining the fabled legacy of Joe Jackson: what he’s done vs. what he’s supposed to have done. Does Jackson need a deep NCAA tournament run to cement his place in the pantheon of Tiger stars? Consider the case of Perry, a member of anyone’s Mt. Rushmore of Tiger greats. He may be one of only two Tigers to score 2,000 points, but Perry only reached the NCAA tournament twice and won a single game in the Big Dance (as a freshman in 1988). Jackson and teammate Chris Crawford will become only the sixth and seventh Tigers to play in four NCAA tournaments. (The previous five: Keith Lee, Andre Turner, Baskerville Holmes, Antonio Anderson, and Robert Dozier.)

Pastner’s take: “The only thing that’s missing for Joe — because he’s racked up a lot of individual hardware — is a deep NCAA tournament run. It’s ‘The Road to the Final Four,’ not ‘The Road to the Regular Season,’ so I get that. Players are judged on what they do in the NCAA playoffs. But anyone in the profession understands the long haul of a regular season and all the success and numbers Joe has put up. There’s no reason Joe’s number shouldn’t be hanging from the rafters when all is said and done. But the final chapter hasn’t been written yet.”

“I understand now,” says Jackson. “It was never ‘Joe Jackson isn’t good enough.’ It was just too early with too many expectations. That’s all it was. It’s not easy to make it to the Final Four. I think we have a chance; we just have to take care of business. It’s on us. Everything has to come together at the right time.”

As Jackson’s college career nears the end, Byrd recalls fondly a chance encounter — in traffic — when the player was still an underclassman. Jackson had pulled up next to Byrd at a stoplight and began waving at him, a huge smile on the rising star’s face. “Joe reminded me of a sweet little kid,” says Byrd, “unsure, looking for acknowledgment and approval. I’ve often thought of this chance meeting, knowing the pressure Joe has felt as the player, carrying the weight of hopes and expectations for one of the most demanding fan bases in the country.”

And about that tattoo. “People took it the wrong way,” says Jackson. “I know Penny Hardaway is the best player to come out of Memphis. But if you’re going to look at [a tattoo] every day, it should keep you confident. Who doesn’t want to be a king?”

Like Larry Finch, Jackson grew up in Orange Mound. Like Penny Hardaway, Jackson learned right from wrong at his grandmother’s side. Like Finch, Hardaway, and Perry, Jackson chose to play college basketball under a microscope in front of friends and family, embracing the love he came to know as a youth along with the expectations he knew would come the first time he donned a Tiger uniform. Those expectations have followed Jackson for four seasons now, somehow growing with every season-ending disappointment he and his team have met in the NCAA tournament. Joe Jackson has one more March as a Tiger. One more Big Dance. What they say is quite true: Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Sweet, Again

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.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Full of Glee

Mr. Leprechaun: Turn that frown upside down! The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have a lot to be happy about these days. To wit: The university was recently named the 20th best university nationwide by U.S. News & World Report; the 2006 football team did Touchdown Jesus proud with a 10-3 record; super QB Brady Quinn looks to be a high pick in the upcoming NFL draft; and the men’s and women’s basketball teams are lacing up their tennies as they prepare for March Madness. So is it any wonder that the University of Notre Dame Glee Club is touring the States spreading the gospel?

These merry sons of Notre Dame will be appearing this Saturday at the Church of the Holy Spirit. The all-male choir will perform a cappella hits from the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods, and they will shake down the thunder with folk songs, barbershop ditties, and African-American spirituals.

There’s no charge to hear these lads “sing her glory and sound her fame/Raise her gold and blue and cheer with voices true.” (They’ll surely belt out the Shea brothers classic “Notre Dame Victory March” along with everything else.)

Not a Notre Dame fan? Don’t fight it. With the school’s glee club here on St. Patrick’s Day, how much more perfect can it get? For this day, at least, the town’s taps will be pouring green beer, and it’ll be “Rah Rah for Notre Dame” for everybody.

University of Notre Dame Glee Club, Church of the Holy Spirit, 2300 Hickory Crest. Saturday, March 17th, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Shall We Dance?

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

They are the two most confounding words in any sports debate: “Yeah, but … ” The 1972 Miami Dolphins are the greatest Super Bowl champion ever. Yeah, but they played a soft schedule. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls are the best NBA team ever assembled. Yeah, but they didn’t have a center. Babe Ruth was the greatest slugger baseball will ever know. Yeah, but he played before the game was integrated.

The 2006-07 University of Memphis basketball team has some legitimate reasons to harbor dreams of the school’s first national championship. For every one of these factors, however, that ugly qualifier tarnishes the luster of hope Tiger fans have held throughout the winter. Can the expectations and potential of a special team — the South Region’s second seed — be realized during the only month that really matters in college basketball? Or will reality consume a team still a few variables short of championship caliber? Questions like these are why they play the games.

Here’s a look at the reasons to believe:

• The U of M ran roughshod over Conference USA, and, to a degree, the nation has to accept the Tigers as legitimate. If you look at the much-ballyhooed RPI rankings, C-USA isn’t even among the country’s 10 best conferences. As weak as the league appeared when the likes of Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, and DePaul jumped ship, it was that much weaker in 2006-07. C-USA will have but one representative in the NCAA tournament.

But what a torch-bearer.

Memphis went 16-0 in conference play this season, winning by an average margin of 18.5 points. They reeled off three more victories to win the league tournament and extend their nation-leading (and school-record) winning streak to 22 games. And their only three losses came against teams you’ll see in the Big Dance.

Does the relative weakness of C-USA competition diminish the talents of Coach John Calipari’s Tigers? It’s sort of a tree-falling-in-the-forest question, isn’t it? You can’t fault a coaching staff for recruiting the best players it can, league rivals be damned. How exactly this group would fare in the ACC, SEC, or Big East is a hypothetical weight no team should have to bear. Until March, when the big boys become the competition.

Larry Kuzniewski

• Yeah, but … No team wins a national championship having nourished itself on B-league prey. Over the last quarter-century, only two teams have won titles outside the major conferences (UNLV in 1990 and Louisville in 1986). The fact is, if Memphis advances to the second round of the NCAA tournament, the Tigers will likely face a better team than any of their C-USA brethren. This means Memphis must win five consecutive games against competition superior to anything they’ve seen in order to be crowned champion.

• As talented as last season’s team was, this year’s squad is deeper and better. The 2005-06 Memphis team was one to remember, with a pair of first-round NBA draft picks (Rodney Carney and Shawne Williams) and a third player who made the all-conference team (Darius Washington). They won 33 games, reached the Elite Eight, and finished the season ranked among the country’s top 10.

Three supporting players for that team — Chris Douglas-Roberts, Antonio Anderson, and Robert Dozier — are now sophomores and form the leadership of the current squad. A fourth sophomore — Kareem Cooper — would have been the starting center for most C-USA teams but served as Joey Dorsey’s backup for the Tigers. With junior Andre Allen helping freshman Willie Kemp cut his playmaking teeth and Jeremy Hunt returning to the program and starring in a sixth-man role, Memphis has a multi-pronged unit that is perfect for Calipari’s quick hook and, when needed, message-delivering mass substitution.

During the 2006 C-USA tournament, Calipari smirked as he mentioned a common reply that comes when he delivers an admonishment to a player: “I’m trying.”

Larry Kuzniewski

Joey Dorsey

“Then I’ve got to find someone who can try a little harder,” said the coach. Depth is about options for a coach, and Calipari is dealing with more options than he’s had in his seven years at the Memphis helm. From freshman sharpshooter Doneal Mack to the massive Pierre Niles (who lost considerable minutes upon Cooper’s return in mid-December), Calipari doesn’t tolerate sloppy or lazy play, because he doesn’t have to.

• Yeah, but … When March Madness arrives, the value of depth is an inflated factor. We need only look at the two Tiger squads that reached the Final Four to pull the wool off the mythic importance of depth. The 1973 Tigers had but two players who made any impact off the bench (Bill Cook and Wes Westfall). As for the 1985 team, it was so dominated by its magnificent starting five that Willie Becton and Dwight Boyd would not so much as break a sweat in some games. It’s not the number of players. It’s the players, stupid.

• It’s time for Joey Dorsey to become a household name. Other than the man-child that is Ohio State’s Greg Oden (a potential Tiger opponent in the South Region finals), it’ll be hard to find a big man with the ability to impose himself on another team like the Tigers’ muscle-bound junior center from Baltimore. From his climb up the U of M shot-blocking charts to his increased value on the offensive end, C-USA’s 2007 Defensive Player of the Year brings a fury to his game that is a direct reflection of his coach’s impassioned style on the sideline. He’s a living, breathing double-double.

A recent trend in college basketball has seen a rebirth of the big man as the (literal) centerpiece for championship teams. While it wasn’t that long ago we saw guards like Arizona’s Mike Bibby and Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves lead the way for their teams’ one shining moment, the last three years have been big man’s parties: Emeka Okafor with Connecticut in 2004, Sean May with North Carolina in 2005, then Joakim Noah with Florida last year. Guards remain integral to the tournament mix, and the six in Calipari’s rotation will have much to say about how many games the Tigers get to play in the dance. But Dorsey is the difference-maker, the one player opposing teams will sweat over in their matchup plans.

• Yeah, but … Dorsey gets in foul trouble, and he can’t shoot free throws. If the Tigers are fortunate enough to have their big man on the floor for the last five minutes of a tight game, they better keep the ball away from him. It’s in the hands of 46 percent free-throw shooters where title dreams go to die.

Larry Kuzniewski

Chris Douglas-Roberts

• Jeremy Hunt is the storybook hero we’ve all been waiting for. He missed 10 games his freshman season due to a foot injury and infection. He tore the ACL in his left knee to end his sophomore season prematurely. He tore his right ACL during the NIT to end his junior season and endured months of rehab. He was permanently suspended before his senior season after his involvement in a domestic assault and a Beale Street brawl.

But back he came. Having earned his bachelor’s degree despite all the distractions, Hunt returned for a fifth year in the U of M program and has been among the two or three best sixth men in the country. In a narrow victory over Southern Miss at FedExForum on January 27th, there was a five-minute stretch in the second half when Hunt took over the contest. A steal, a blocked shot, a three-pointer, and a charge taken for an offensive foul. Hunt did everything that afternoon and willed his team to victory in a game they shouldn’t have won. It’s the kind of grit his coach preaches, his fans adore, and teams require to win six straight games in March.

• Yeah, but … This is Jeremy Hunt. Keep rooting for him, but it’s hard to see a happy ending based on his track record.

• John Calipari is a championship coach, just minus the hardware. He’s aiming to take his fourth team to the Elite Eight (he did it twice with UMass). He’s won at least 20 games seven straight seasons in Memphis. He’s made 10-game winning streaks a habit in a sport where they’re terribly hard to come by. He’s recruited stars from well beyond the Mid-South, making the U of M a national destination for players and media. He’s weathered personnel storms, from the lost (Sean Banks) to the found (Hunt). And he’s made an NBA arena feel like a natural fit for a college basketball program. The only thing John Calipari is missing seems to be a national-championship ring. Why not this year?

After clinching the C-USA regular-season championship on February 22nd, Calipari brought up a subtle — for Calipari — adjustment he’s made in coaching this year’s squad.

“This is going to be one of those years when I’m not putting my head in the sand,” he said. “Normally, you go on a run of games and you don’t want to screw it up, so you put your head in the sand; just get to the next game. But the problem with that is you’re a train wreck waiting to happen. If you want to get things you’ve never [gotten], you’ve got to do things you’ve never done. For me, that means I’m not sticking my head in the sand. There’s too much at stake for everyone.”

• Yeah, but … Calipari will never make the Hall of Fame based on his credentials with X’s and O’s. It’s hardly noticeable when you’re winning one blowout after another, but what happens when there are two minutes to play on a neutral court, Tigers down by three, and no one in a blue-and-white uniform can make a free throw? The Tigers survived at Gonzaga when Calipari put Hunt back on the floor for overtime and his senior shooter got hot. An offensive rebound — after a missed free throw, folks — saved the day at SMU. How the Tiger players will respond to the crucible of a late-round nail-biter in the NCAAs is a roll of the dice.

• It’s good to be the hunted. There has been exactly one game this season when the Tigers took the floor as the underdog: December 20th at Arizona. (Minus one of their two top scorers and not ranked in the Top 20, Gonzaga — even playing at home — didn’t qualify as a favorite in its narrow loss to Memphis on February 17th.) Being the team everyone else circles on their schedule is a prime motivator, and it’s kept the Tigers sharp when they might otherwise have taken a night off. Tight, hostile environments such as East Carolina, Southern Miss, Central Florida, and UAB can be deadly to winning streaks, and the Tigers won handily in each of those venues. Memphis may play in a weak conference, but no team in the country wears a target on its back like the U of M.

“[Coach Cal] is real big on intensity,” says Douglas-Roberts. “His favorite saying is, ‘Carry a swagger, not an arrogance.'”

• Yeah, but … It’s better to be the hunter. This is the one qualifier Calipari himself would embrace. If the Tigers can get through the first weekend of the NCAA tournament — and overlook Nevada at your own risk — they’ll be the underdog. Once in the Sweet Sixteen, every expert from Billy Packer to Dick Vitale will question the integrity of the Tigers’ record and whether or not they truly belong among the sport’s elite. As this happens, you’ll be able to see (and hear) the chip on Calipari’s shoulder. And it will be the topic of every pre- and post-practice speech the Memphis coach delivers — until the Tigers lose or are crowned national champions.