Desmond Bane lets it fly from beyond the arc. (Credit: NBAE/Getty Images)
It’s freezing here in the 901, but the Grizzlies did their part keeping us warm Thursday night by scorching the Phoenix Suns 125-100 in a wire-to-wire win. And so, it is my distinct pleasure to inform you that after a brief two-game losing streak, the Memphis Grizzlies are back to their winning ways.
Let’s get into it.
First things first: The best part of the night was the return of Desmond Bane. Bane returns to the lineup after missing the previous 18 games with a sprained toe.
It also marks the first time this season that the Grizzlies were able to play with their desired starting five.
Phoenix was missing Devin Booker but that hardly puts an asterisk next to this victory. Memphis was the best team on the court from wire-to-wire and dominated the game on both ends of the floor.
The Grizzlies remain at the top of the Western Conference with a 20-11 record, now tied with the Denver Nuggets.
Thursday night’s victory also put head coach Taylor Jenkins (148) ahead of former coach Dave Joerger (147) as the second-most winningest coach in Grizzlies franchise history. Lionel Hollins holds the record with 214 regular season wins, but I will be shocked if Jenkins does not surpass it during his tenure in Memphis.
During the game, no Grizzlies starter played more than 28 minutes and they got a big boost from the bench unit led by Brandon Clarke and Santi Aldama.
By The Numbers:
Lots of good stuff from this one, including a better than usual showing from the free throw line. I will overlook ten missed free throws when they win by 25 points.
Jaren Jackson Jr. led the team with 24 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks, along with Brandon Clarke who put up 24 points, 10 rebounds, and two steals from the bench in his best scoring game of the season.
Clarke also had a career-high free throw shooting game, going 10 for 10 from the foul line. Shoutout Canada!
Desmond Bane put up 17 points, 3 rebounds, and two assists in his return from injury. He struggled from the beyond the arc only shooting 2 of 8 from distance. But he too had a perfect night from the charity stripe, going 7 for 7.
Dillon Brooks contributed 16 points, 10 of which came in the first quarter. Also notable is that Brooks only had 9 shot attempts.
Ja Morant had a quiet night offensively, but he elevated his teammates, finishing with 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 11 assists.
Who Got Next?
In a franchise first the team will be playing on Christmas Day. Expect it to feel like a western conference semifinals rematch in the Bay as the Grizzlies face off against the Golden State Warriors.
Tip-off will be at 7 PM CST. There will not be a local broadcast so tune in on ABC or ESPN.
And just like that, it’s another year gone. With the snap of a finger, 12 months have flashed by and, gulp, is it the end of December already? Every year since 2020, we’ve wondered if maybe, just maybe, this upcoming year will be the one where we all shake off the doldrums of a post-Covid reality, rush out to the street en masse, and burst into glorious song and dance. Maybe not quite so much exuberance, but things are certainly ramping up. A completed Tom Lee Park is on the horizon, our local music scene is going strong, Memphis sports are gearing up for championship runs, and mayoral hopefuls are quietly slipping the gloves off. If that’s enough to get you giddy with anticipation, well, you’ve earned it. Prepare to take off the handbrake, and read on for our predictions for 2023.
(Top) Tom Lee Park (Photo: Memphis River Parks Partnership)
Breaking News
Tom Lee Park
Maybe the most anticipated opening of 2023 is the renovated, completely re-imagined Tom Lee Park.
The massive, $61 million project is expected to completely transform Memphis’ riverfront, drawing visitors — locals and tourists alike — to see it. Gone will be the flat, wide-open plain of grass between the Mississippi River and Riverside Drive. It will be replaced with low hills, native plants, lookouts, bathrooms, sports and recreation areas, play equipment, concessions, and more. When the project was announced back in 2019, the new design was described as “a blend of landscaping and architecture meant to mimic and restore some of the 30-acre river park’s natural ecology and better connect the city to the river.”
The anticipation of the park’s opening comes with both excited expectation and some anxiety. The new park design is expected to better connect the park with the rest of Downtown Memphis, to the delight of city leaders. All of those tourists will come at the delight of Downtown business owners.
However, the new design will bring growing pains for Memphis in May. The organization has already predicted a much smaller festival in the park and, maybe, higher prices for festival-goers to pay for the higher fees for using the park.
Memphis River Parks Partnership officials said in September that the project was halfway complete. The park has to at least be ready enough to host Memphis in May in a few short months. Officials said a grand opening of the park will be held after May’s events.
The park’s opening was one major reason travel magazine Condé NastTraveler named Memphis one of the top places to visit in 2023, one of only two places in the U.S. — Toby Sells
Memphis Sports & Events Center (Photo: Frank Murtaugh)
Memphis Sports & Events Center
Expect to (probably) see the inside of the brand-new and newly opened Memphis Sports & Events Center (MSEC) in 2023. The $60 million facility was built in 18 months and will be the centerpiece of the new sports tourism hook for Liberty Park (or the Mid-South Fairgrounds if you’re old-timey).
At 227,000 square feet, the MSEC has a footprint the size of four football fields. Each of two wings features eight basketball courts that can convert into as many as 32 volleyball courts. The north wing includes stadium seating to accommodate 3,500 spectators, along with four VIP suites and boxes for media and recruiters.
The center is a gamble by city leaders that it will attract new visitors to Memphis via youth sports travel teams for indoor sports like basketball, volleyball, and more. Funding for the center, though, is expected to come from tax revenues generated from a zone around the facility, presumably enough to pay for itself. — TS
Moth Moth Moth (Photo: Moth Moth Moth)
Outlawing Drag
The state of Tennessee saw numerous controversies regarding drag shows in 2022. In September, what was advertised as a “family-friendly” drag show at the Museum of Science and History (MoSH) was canceled after a group of Proud Boys showed up to the event armed. The Jackson Pride drag show was limited to participants aged 18 and older after weeks of battling between event organizers and lawmakers in Jackson, Tennessee.
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) recently filed legislation for the 113th Tennessee General Assembly that could potentially make drag performances in Tennessee a crime. This legislation would define drag shows as “adult cabaret” and would prohibit these performances in public places.
The bill also goes on to make performing in “adult cabaret performance” on public property or “in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult” a Class A misdemeanor. Repeat offenders face a Class E felony.
Local LGBTQ+ activists in Memphis such as Moth Moth Moth (Mothie for short) have voiced their concerns over social media and are actively working to raise awareness and fight back.
“This is a slippery slope that aims to force drag artists into our homes and LGBTQIA+ people out of public sight,” said Mothie in a Facebook post. “How can you fight this? Call your reps. And scream at them.”
It might be a while before this sticks, as the legislature does not reconvene until January. If passed, the law would take effect in July 2023. — Kailynn Johnson
Jim Strickland (Photo: City of Memphis)
On the Political Horizon
Much of the New Year will be devoted to the selection of a new mayor and city council by Memphis voters. The quadrennial process, which actually got under way in the late months of 2022, will formally conclude on Thursday, October 5, 2023. Long before the resolution of that contest, however, the actual first election of the year, a special election for the state House District 86 seat, will have already occurred. The primary date for the special election, which was called to decide a successor to the late Barbara Cooper, who died in October, is January 24th, with the general election scheduled for March 14th.
A referendum on the November 8th ballot allowing for a third term for the Memphis mayor and members of the city council was rejected by the city’s voters, thereby foreclosing on a possible re-election bid by Mayor Jim Strickland and ensuring that a new face would be at the helm of city government, come October 5th. The reality of an open seat also made it likely that the mayoral field would swell to include numerous challengers, several of whom had announced in late fall and early winter, with more expected after the turn of the year.
The first gauge of true candidate viability will come on or around January 15th, when end-of-the-year financial disclosures will be required of the mayoral hopefuls, with information on their campaign war chests to be made publicly available. Several of the so-far announced candidates — notably Sheriff Floyd Bonner, former County Commissioner and NAACP head Van Turner, and president/CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission Paul Young — are thought to have good fundraising prospects, with the potential to scare off rivals. Race is unlikely to be a factor, since all the actual or rumored candidates to date have been African Americans — a development consistent with the city’s demographic profile. Gender could be important, however, especially if either school board chair Michelle McKissack or state House Democratic leader Karen Camper stay in the race and get up a good head of steam. A few long-odds candidates, already in or thinking about it, include former TV judge Joe Brown and former County Commissioner Justin Ford.
In Nashville, the Republican legislative supermajority, somewhat further entrenched after redistricting, remains in charge, and two bills that are aimed at the state’s LGBTQ+ community have already been filed, and, with administration acquiescence if not outright support, will doubtless go to the head of the class. One would prohibit gender-affirmation surgery on behalf of transgender youth; another would place serious restrictions on public drag shows. Legislation to update the revenue sources undergirding the IMPROVE transportation act sponsored by former Governor Bill Haslam in 2017 is considered urgently necessary, especially in anticipation of the forthcoming needs of Ford’s BlueOval project at the West Tennessee megasite. Governor Bill Lee has made it clear, however, that further increases in the state’s gasoline tax are off the table.
Meanwhile, the version of the Shelby County Commission elected in August is Democratic-controlled (nine Democrats vs. four Republicans) and conspicuously more liberal (in every sense of the word) than the GOP establishment in the state Capitol. In a meeting just before Christmas, the commissioners put together a wish list of financial favors it wants from the state that may have hard going with the parsimonious Lee and his legislative leadership.
The commissioners’ list includes millions for Regional One Health (long known as The Med and, now as then, regarded as financially ailing) and more millions for new schools, a new jail, sewer expansion, mental health, and broadband improvements. All in all, the requests add up to $1.2 billion.
For some decades now, tension has developed between spokespersons for Shelby County and the state political establishment (regardless of political-party issues). Especially in view of the state’s apparently ever-mounting efforts to limit local options, the coming session should underscore these further. — Jackson Baker
Artina McCain (Photo: Courtesy Artina McCain)
Rock On: Live Music in 2023
With in-person performances roaring back to life over the past year, there are plenty of concerts to look forward to in 2023, though the various viral hazards still at large may still yet cause cancellations. For starters, of course, New Year’s Eve shows are just around the corner, including Blind Mississippi Morris and band at Blues City Cafe, Louder Than Bombs at B-Side, the Memphis Funk-N-Horns at Neil’s Music Room, and a double header of Formerly Known As and Twin Soul at Lafayette’s Music Room. With Jerry Lee Lewis’ recent death, many will likely flock to Hernando’s Hide-a-Way as they ring in 2023 with Jason D. Williams, who carries the Jerry Lee torch in his own inimitable way.
As January rolls on, local venues are bringing the entertainment without a pause. Lafayette’s general manager Julien Salley Jr. says, “It’s pretty exciting to see our ticketed shows return to full speed after what Covid did to us. Beyond a heavy schedule of the best local artists in Memphis, we also have incoming: Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche, Samantha Fish, Tab Benoit, Marc Broussard, Adelitas Way, Smile Empty Soul, and a ton of other exciting acts.”
Meanwhile, even more exquisite concerts will grace Memphis concert halls. The Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC) already has the likes of Tommy Emmanuel, Stacey Kent, and The Milk Carton Kids in January; Neko Case, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Pilobolus, and Samara Joy in February; and Step Afrika!, Marie-Stéphane Bernard, and Anthony Wilson in March.
Crosstown Arts will host more classical concerts than ever in the new year, including the Mahogany Chamber Music Series, three shows curated by Artina McCain that spotlight Black and other underrepresented composers and performers. There’s also the intriguingly titled “Mozart and Electric Guitar Concerto” by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Iris Collective’s “Spacetime.” But it’s the jazz curation that should win Crosstown medals, as they begin with guitarist Jimmy Bruno, then go deep in March when Crosstown’s “jazz month” will include another guitar giant, Peter Bernstein, as well as Marc Ribot, The Bad Plus, Deepstaria Enigmatica, singer Morgan James, and James Sexton’s The Otis Mission.
Of course, the rock world choogles on, so keep checking the offerings at Hernando’s, Growlers, Hi Tone, Bar DKDC, Young Avenue Deli, Railgarten, the Cove, Lamplighter Lounge, and B-Side. If you’re thinking big, Graceland Live will keep bringing the national touring acts — like Cinderella’s Tom Keifer and Mr. “Pretty Little Poison,” Warren Zeiders, in February. The Orpheum and Halloran theaters have even more on deck, from the Black Love Live soul concert to Don Bryant and the Bo-Keys, not to mention Mark Edgar Stuart’s ongoing songwriter series, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros., the McCrary Sisters in February, and a smashing lineup of Buddy Guy, Patti Labelle, Van Duren, and John Mellencamp in the months to follow. — Alex Greene
Timothée Chalamet returns in Dune: Part Two.
Future Film
There was much kvetching about the future of the theater business in 2022, as box office returns ranged from extraordinary (Top Gun: Maverick made $1.5 billion) to job-killing (Disney’s $100 million loss on Strange World cost CEO Bob Chapek his career). But 2023’s release calendar looks a little more stacked, money-wise, than 2022’s pandemic-ravaged offerings. January starts strong with M3GAN, a creepy doll robot horror movie, and a reboot of the ’90s hip-hop classic House Party. February has Soderbergh sprinkling stripper fairy dust with Magic Mike’s Last Dance, the year’s first Marvel movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and a true story whose name says it all, Cocaine Bear.
In March, star Michael B. Jordan takes to the ring as director of Creed III. Memphian Henry Gayden returns as writer for the sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Keanu Reeves kicks all kinds of ass in John Wick: Chapter 4, and Chris Pine leads an attempt to translate Dungeons & Dragons to the big screen with Honor Among Thieves. April dawns with The Super Mario Brothers Movie, featuring the other, lesser Chris — Pratt — as the Italian plumber, for some reason. Chris McKay helms Renfield, starring Nicolas Cage as freakin’ Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as the vampire’s thrall. Later, a new crew takes on the Deadites in Evil Dead Rise, and the beloved Judy Blume novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret finally gets an adaptation.
The big guns come out in May, when James Gunn takes his final bow as a Marvel director with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and Fast X brings all the family back together to drive fast some more. In June, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse will test if Marvel can keep its Spider-streak alive. The next week, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will no doubt supply me with fodder for an entertaining pan. June 16th, everyone who’s anyone (Swinton! Cranston! Hanks! Goldblum!) will be in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, while walking PR crisis Ezra Miller tanks The Flash. The month ends with Harrison Ford’s swan song as the world’s favorite archeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
In July, Tom Cruise hopes to repeat 2022’s box office triumph with Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. July 21st brings the strangest pairing of any weekend, with Christopher Nolan’s biopic of the man who invented the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer, and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. For the record, I’m up for both. August slows down with a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flick, Disney’s long-delayed Haunted Mansion, and Blue Beetle. In a September with The Equalizer 2, The Nun 2, and The Expendables 4, the only potential bright spot is the latest installment of Branagh’s Agatha Christie kick, A Haunting in Venice. Kraven The Hunter leads October, and Saw X rounds out Halloween weekend. Return to Arrakis on November 3rd with Dune: Part Two (if you thought the first one was a snoozer, this is where all the good stuff happens). Was anyone asking for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? At least DreamWorks’ windfall from Trolls 3 will help pad Justin Timberlake’s retirement account. Currently scheduled for December is Timothée Chalamet in Wonka, a remake of The Color Purple, and a currently untitled Ghostbusters sequel, before the year squishes to a close with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. — Chris McCoy
Penny Hardaway (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
2023 Tip-off: Memphis Sports
It’s the Sweet 16 or bust for Coach Penny Hardaway and his Memphis Tigers basketball team. This is especially the case for the nine(!) seniors that make up virtually the entire rotation for the fifth-year coach. New arrival Kendric Davis — a transfer from SMU — could pull off the rare feat of winning his league’s Player of the Year honors two years in a row for different teams. If Davis stays healthy and continues to excel, and supporting veterans like DeAndre Williams and Alex Lomax make the right kind of impact, reaching the NCAA tournament’s second weekend for the first time since (gulp) 2009 is within reach.
Three questions will follow the Memphis Grizzlies into 2023. Can Ja Morant win the MVP award (would be a franchise first)? Yes. Can the Griz win the freakin’ NBA championship? Yes. The third question is the most problematic: Can the Memphis Grizzlies ever play at full strength? The team has climbed to the top of the Western Conference standings without playing a solitary game featuring Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Desmond Bane all in uniform. Should the team be able to unleash their big-three on the rest of the NBA for a sustained stretch — preferably into May and June — there may be a large parade this summer on Beale Street.
The Memphis Redbirds will take the field for their 25th season in a refurbished AutoZone Park, a brand-new playing surface complemented by a brand-new video board. And the St. Louis Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate may feature two of the top prospects in all of minor-league baseball. Slugger Jordan Walker — a third-baseman and outfielder — could make the club’s big-league roster out of spring training despite his tender age (20). Shortstop Masyn Winn is another elite young talent, with an arm that makes many pitchers blush. The Redbirds are looking to make their first playoff appearance since joining the International League in 2022. — Frank Murtaugh
Memphis 901 FC are coming off their best-ever season after making it to the USL Eastern Conference semifinals. With titans in defense, midfield, and attack, coach Ben Pirmann unlocked the full potential of this squad, who were a penalty kick away from the conference finals. Pirmann will unfortunately no longer lead the team next season, having accepted an offer from USL rival Charleston Battery FC. Next year it’s Scotsman Stephen Glass, who has previous coaching experience in America with MLS side Atlanta United and its USL affiliate Atlanta United 2. And crucially, the organization has gone to great lengths to retain key players. Rather than building from scratch, star striker Phillip Goodrum (21 goals last season), midfielders Aaron Molloy and Laurent Kissiedou, defender Graham Smith, and captain Leston Paul, among others, will all return. Memphis came close to reaching the conference finals. For the following year, taking that next step is a distinct possibility. — Samuel X. Cicci
“If I could put exercise in a pill and sell it, I’d be the richest doctor in the world.”
— Dr. Jeff Warren, Memphis City Council
To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, the Mid-South recreation community took a giant leap Saturday when the Memphis Sports & Events Center (MSEC) opened its doors in the heart of Liberty Park. Where Memphians once rode the Zippin Pippin during a visit to Libertyland, they’ll now dribble basketballs, spike volleyballs, and compete in futsal tournaments. Drive by the facility and you can virtually hear the squeak of sneakers.
“Sports tourism and Memphis youth, that’s what this is about,” said Mayor Jim Strickland at a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by dozens of supporters and officials, but also, significantly, dozens of young volleyball and basketball players. “My kids played youth sports, and rarely could we play in Memphis. We didn’t have a facility. Hundreds of thousands of people will come to Memphis every year because of this facility, spending money, creating jobs. It will be a national destination. All Memphis kids will be welcome here. Nothing builds quality young people like team sports.”
At 227,000 square feet, the MSEC has a footprint the size of four football fields. Each of two wings features eight basketball courts that can convert into as many as 32 volleyball courts. The north wing includes stadium seating to accommodate 3,500 spectators, along with four VIP suites, and boxes for media and recruiters. It’s the kind of space — enormous but buzzing with activity — that makes you wish you were 13 years old … or the parent of a 13-year-old.
Remarkably, the MSEC was completed in 18 months, the heavy lifting under the guidance of Turner Construction. It cost $60 million and was paid for under a Tourism Development Zone (TDZ) classification, with $10 million contributed directly by the state of Tennessee. Designed by local architecture firm brg3s, the complex is shaped also for cheer and competitive dance tournaments, with a scarcity of vertical beams to allow the necessary air space for such events. (If you’ve seen cheer tournaments, you know such space is a premium.)
The MSEC immediately becomes the centerpiece of Liberty Park. (You’ll show your age if you call this area “the Fairgrounds.”) Along with Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (now home to both the Memphis Tigers and USFL’s Memphis Showboats), the Kroc Center, and the Children’s Museum of Memphis, the facility breathes new life into an area that has seen activity decline since the closures of Libertyland and the Mid-South Coliseum. And there’s more to come, Strickland highlighting an 18-acre private development that will include a hotel.
“We were missing opportunities in the emerging and growing youth-sports market,” said Kevin Kane, president of Memphis Tourism. “For indoor sports, we used various facilities throughout the community. But we’re [transitioning] to huge youth sports, thanks to this facility. It’s a game changer. Everybody will benefit. Memphis is the big winner today, the tax base, and from an economic development standpoint.”
The MSEC is not only for kids. Adult leagues for basketball and futsal will begin play in January. (Futsal is a form of indoor soccer played on a “field” the size of a basketball court.) There are multipurpose rooms that can host birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, and other such fun. And two dining areas. You could spend all day at the MSEC and leave wanting a little more.
Fittingly, local sports-media legend Jarvis Greer greeted the crowd for Saturday’s grand opening. To no one’s surprise, he seemed like the most excited man in the place. And Jarvis gets it. Youth sports matter, as much for what comes after youth as during our playing days. If exercise is good for the body, mind, and soul, Memphis just got considerably healthier. And without a pill.
Senior guard Kendric Davis (photo by Larry Kuzniewski)
In more than a century of University of Memphis basketball, we have never seen a team like coach Penny Hardaway’s current roster. Particularly in the era of “one-and-done” NBA-bound talent, the Tigers’ collection of seniors — essentially Hardaway’s entire rotation — is extraordinary. In Saturday’s win over Ole Miss, nine of the ten players who took the floor for the home team at FedExForum were classified as seniors. (The outlier was redshirt-freshman Johnathan Lawson.) Contrast this with the end of the 2021-22 season, when only one Tiger was saluted on Senior Day. That player (Alex Lomax) is onceagain a senior this season.
There are a few qualifiers to this outbreak of senioritis in the Memphis program. The pandemic restrictions of the 2020-21 campaign (one that ended with an NIT championship for Memphis) led to an extra year of eligibility for college players nationwide. Thus you see Lomax playing an unprecedented fifth full season in blue and gray. Three of his senior classmates — Kendric Davis, DeAndre Williams, and Elijah McCadden — are also enjoying that “5th-year senior” classification. And no fewer than six of the nine seniors in the Tiger rotation are transfers, having played for other programs before arriving in Memphis. Malcolm Dandridge and Jayden Hardaway (Penny’s son) will join Lomax this season as the only players to suit up four years under Hardaway. Being a senior these days is different from what you remember about high school (or college).
How is this veteran roster impacting the culture and competitive strength of the Tiger program? It’s hard to imagine the group being rattled, either by small-scale disappointment (Seton Hall’s buzzer-beating bank shot to beat them in Orlando) or larger issues like a significant injury or losing streak. This group has seen a lot. Those nine rotation seniors entered this season with a combined total of 29 college seasons under their belts. The ten Tigers who played in the loss to Gonzaga during last season’s NCAA tournament had a combined 15 full seasons behind them. Memphis may or may not have the best talent in the American Athletic Conference. But it will be hard to find another team in the entire country, let alone the AAC, to match the Tigers’ “battle-tested” metric.
“They’re definitely taking on my personality,” said Hardaway (the coach), after last week’s win over North Alabama. “They really want to win. They have chips on their shoulders because they feel like they haven’t gotten the respect they deserve. Coming together as a team, we gained some guys who know how to play and want to win. That’s what you’re seeing.”
Penny’s personality — certainly that collective chip balanced on Tiger shoulders — will come in handy as the Tigers face three more SEC teams in eight days (December 10-17). Memphis remains unranked, a peripheral threat, at least in the minds of AP voters. A win over Auburn (currently ranked 11th) or Alabama (8th) would move the Tigers closer to the national conversation.
Then, of course, there’s the American Athletic Conference and dreams of a first AAC title for Memphis. In the way will be the Houston Cougars, the top-ranked team in the country. The Tigers and Cougars won’t meet on the floor until February 19th (in Texas), then the regular-season finale at FedExForum (March 5th). Lots of basketball to play between now and then, games that need to be treated as building blocks toward something larger. That will require a steady, mature, game-to-game approach. The kind of intangible seniors are known for.
If you land tickets for that Senior Day showdown in early March, be sure and get to the arena early. The ceremony will take some time.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of my World Cup championship. Watching the daily coverage from Qatar brings happy memories of the summer of 1982, when Italy beat West Germany for what many consider the greatest trophy in all of sports. And yes, that Italian team — the Azzurri — was my team. I’ve carried their iconic blue in my heart for four decades now.
Some backstory: My family spent the 1976-77 academic year in Torino, at the foot of the Alps in northwest Italy. My father was researching an era of Italian economics history as he pursued his Ph.D. I spent second grade in a private school where English was spoken as much as Italian, and I embraced the exotic of it all. I was just old enough for some memories to remain in full color today, including, ironically, those of a soccer team known worldwide for the black and white stripes on its uniform.
Juventus is the New York Yankees of Italian soccer. They’ve won more Serie A championships (36) than any other club and belong with Manchester United and Real Madrid in the pantheon of international soccer titans. And Juventus was my home team during our year in Torino. Before I discovered the likes of Roger Staubach and Ted Simmons, Roberto Bettega and Romeo Benetti were my first sports heroes. I collected soccer cards (they were actually stickers), counting each Juventus player I landed as a jewel, particularly that of Dino Zoff, to this day one of the greatest goaltenders to ever don gloves on the pitch. That ’77 team won the prestigious UEFA Cup (beating Manchester United and Manchester City on the way), and Dad and I were part of a happy riot on the streets of Torino.
Fast-forward five years, and I’m 13 years old, tuning in for what coverage I could find of the World Cup in Spain. And there on my grandmother’s TV screen in east Tennessee, I see … Dino Zoff. Tending goal for Italy! There’s Claudio Gentile. There’s Gaetano Scirea. There’s Marco Tardelli. My Juventus friends, names and faces I hadn’t seen in five years — my cognitive lifetime and from another continent — were beating Argentina, and Brazil, and Poland, and finally the Germans to win the country’s first World Cup in 44 years. It was electrifying, particularly for a boy just entering the world of organized team sports. Three years later, I played in a Vermont state championship for my high school team. We lost, but for one afternoon, I felt like an American Bettega.
I’ve watched the World Cup every four years since 1982, some years more engaged than others. When the U.S. qualified in 1990 (for the first time in 40 years), it felt like a gap had been closed between “world soccer” and the kind I’d grown familiar playing here in the land of baseball, basketball, and tackle football. Italy reached the 1994 World Cup final (played here in the States, a month after I married a former all-state soccer player from Vermont), only to lose to Brazil on penalty kicks. The Azzurri finally won another World Cup in 2006 (this time beating France on PKs). Five members of that team played for Juventus, but we define heroes differently as grown men. There was no Dino Zoff in goal.
You won’t find the Azzurri in Qatar. Italy didn’t qualify for each of the last two World Cups, akin to America not qualifying for the World Baseball Classic. (There are 13 European squads in the 32-team field.) This somehow magnifies the joy I retain from 1982, knowing time, place, and moment seldom converge for the kind of precision I celebrated 40 years ago. A team of precision will win the World Cup on December 18th, just in time for you to include a Brazil jersey (or Spain, or France … ) in the stocking of that favorite fan in your life. Me, I’ll likely have my Juventus scarf nearby for the championship match. No Italy in this year’s field? No problem. I won the World Cup 40 years ago and the thrill lives on.
Memphis is going to get a USFL team! The USFL, in case you’re not familiar with the latest iteration (I wasn’t), is a professional football league that had its debut season last spring with eight teams, all of which played their games in Birmingham, Alabama — which is weird, since the teams were supposedly affiliated with other cities. The Philadelphia Stars take on the Pittsburgh Maulers in Alabama in April? How does that setup not draw huge crowds?
Anyway, next spring, according to a newly signed agreement (obtained by the Daily Memphian via an FOIA request) between the city of Memphis, Liberty Stadium managers Global Spectrum, and the USFL, Memphis gets a piece of this sweet gridiron action. The new Memphis Showboats will play in the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, along with the possibly mighty Houston Gamblers, who will also call Memphis their home field. (When the Gamblers and the Showboats hook up, will both teams wear home uniforms? Tune in next spring and find out!) The Showboats will mostly be made up of players from the now-defunct Tampa Bay Bandits USFL team, which folded after one season.
Dear reader, you may be forgiven if you are less than enthralled. I am myself extraordinarily underwhelmed. They should have called this team the Memphis Deja Vu because we’ve all been here before. Memphis is no stranger to start-up, wonky-league football teams, having been home to no less than seven through the years. Let me refresh your memory, in case you don’t still have the souvenir jerseys: Memphis Southmen, WFL (1974-75); Memphis Showboats, USFL (1984-85); Memphis Mad Dogs, CFL (1995); Tennessee Oilers, NFL (1997); Memphis Maniax, XFL (2001); Memphis Express, AAF (2019). This list doesn’t include the Memphis Pharaohs, an Arena League team that played in the Pyramid for a season in the 1990s.
Suffice it to say that all Memphis professional football teams should be required to have the words “The Short-Lived” above the team name on the jerseys. Two years for a Memphis pro football team is an “era.”
Reportedly, the prime mover for this latest Excellent Adventure in Football Fantasy is FedEx founder and chairman Fred Smith, who, bless his heart, has wanted a professional football franchise for his home city for decades. Remember the Memphis Hound Dogs, the city’s well-funded 1990s Hail Mary pass at the NFL? Smith was part of that ownership group, along with cotton magnate Billy Dunavant, billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, and Elvis Presley Enterprises. Despite the undeniably rockin’ name and lots of money, Memphis lost out to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers, who had the good sense to choose cat names.
Smith then became part of the ownership group of the (obligatory “short-lived” descriptor goes here) CFL Memphis Mad Dogs, who entertained the city, sort of, for one season. Oh, Canada.
Anyway, at last week’s announcement, when Smith and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland posed awkwardly, jointly holding an orange-ish football and wearing too-small Memphis Showboat hats, it had a kabuki theater, been-here-done-this feel. Lord help us. Who’s fired up for April minor-league football, y’all? Show of hands.
By all accounts, the city’s financial commitment to this silliness is fairly minimal: some minor upgrades to the stadium and providing office and practice space to the team — which is apparently going to be the Pipkin building. The last time most Memphians were there was when we were driving through to get Covid shots in 2020. Good times!
It should be noted for historical purposes that the original USFL lasted three (whoo!) entire seasons (1983-85). Three consecutive Heisman Trophy winners signed with the league, including Georgia senatorial candidate Herschel Walker (who said last week he would rather be a werewolf than a vampire). The league played its games in the spring for two seasons, but one influential team owner pushed relentlessly for the league to shift its games to the fall. “If God wanted football in the spring,” the owner said, closing his case, “he wouldn’t have created baseball.”
The ensuing move to a fall schedule doomed the league, which could not compete for fans or TV eyeballs with the NFL and college football. The owner whose business acumen destroyed the original USFL? It was New Jersey Generals owner Donald J. Trump. A stable genius, even back then.
Seth Henigan: Bowl-bound. (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
This being a week for giving thanks, we should count our blessings for the bounty of big-time sports raising the Memphis smile index to record levels. In the ever-fluctuating world of athletes and coaches — injuries (we’ll get to those) and firings around the next corner — it’s rare to find so much optimism, even confidence, throughout a single city. Count the win totals as they climb and consider: the Memphis Showboats are back.
The University of Memphis football program secured a ninth consecutive bowl berth last Saturday with a win over North Alabama. Now 6-5 with a single regular-season game left to play (this Saturday at SMU), coach Ryan Silverfield’s squad endured an ugly four-game losing streak, the kind of skid that typically kills a season. Yet it appears Memphis will play a 13th game after all.
On the hardwood, coach Penny Hardaway has somehow built a Tiger roster that could exceed its preseason hype. A trio of veteran transfers led by Kendric Davis lends a “grown-up” feel to a Memphis team already stocked with a pair of “seasoned” leaders in Alex Lomax and DeAndre Williams. Davis outscored the entire VCU team in the first half of Sunday’s win at FedExForum. He’s a legitimate All-America candidate.
And, of course, we have the Grizzlies. After Sunday’s loss at Brooklyn, the Griz are 10-7, good for sixth in the Western Conference. This despite playing 17 games (all of them) without once suiting up every member of their big-three: Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Jaren Jackson Jr. As Jackson plays his way toward full strength, and with Bane’s presumed return in a couple of weeks, it’s hard to find a team in the entire NBA, let alone the Western Conference, capable of slowing the Grizzlies’ rise. Until, that is, we watch Morant helped off the court with another lower-body (this time, his left ankle) injury.
The NBA season is a slog, friends. Even if Morant misses a month, he’ll have more than three to play before the postseason begins. The defending champion Golden State Warriors are under .500 (8-9). The longtime face of the league (LeBron James) takes the floor for a 5-10 L.A. Lakers outfit. Optimism? If the Grizzlies can reach the playoffs at full strength, another second-round exit in 2023 would be a disappointment.
And then we have the Showboats! Those of us who remember the brief (1984-85) stint of the original ’Boats know USFL action at the Liberty Bowl was about as much fun as a fan could have with his clothes on. I attended a sold-out battle with the Birmingham Stallions in June 1984 during a visit to see my grandmother. It remains one of the most exciting sporting events of my life. The new operation is going with new colors and a new logo, but I’ll be the first in line if the Showboats sell retro gear on game days. Will Memphis have an appetite for spring football? During a Grizzlies playoff run and the start of baseball season? It’s hard to tell. But there’s something to be said for a positive vibe in sports. And the Memphis Showboats’ vibe has long outlived their presence in this town. Again with the optimism.
In addition to the Tigers and Mustangs on the gridiron, the holiday weekend will feature three Tiger basketball games (Penny’s squad will play at the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando), and a pair of Grizzly contests (New Orleans at home Friday, then at New York Sunday). Thanksgiving sports is more, in fact, than the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys. Relish every moment, and pass the gravy.
• A remarkable streak will come to an end this season for the University of Memphis football program. Every season since 2016 (so six straight, through the 2021 campaign), the Tigers featured either a 1,000-yard rusher or a receiver with 1,000 yards through the air. The streak began with Anthony Miller hauling in 1,434 yards worth of receptions in 2016, and will end with Calvin Austin’s total (1,149 yards) last year. Even more astounding, in three of these seasons (2017-19), the Tigers had both a runner and receiver top 1,000 yards. Prior to this epic statistical era, the program record for such a streak was three (DeAngelo Williams’ three 1,000-yard rushing seasons from 2003 to 2005). Before the streak began, Memphis had only had a single 1,000-yard season by a receiver (Isaac Bruce in 1993).
Entering this Saturday’s game against North Alabama, Asa Martin leads Memphis with 331 rushing yards. Tight end Caden Prieskorn tops Tiger receivers with 480 yards. The Memphis offense has become “committee” oriented, among the explanations for the team’s 5-5 record. Stars win football games. They also draw fans.
• It’s hard to celebrate punters. In 2013, Tom Hornsey won the Ray Guy Award and first-team All-America honors as he shattered punting records for Memphis, but the team finished 3-9 for a sixth consecutive losing season. Fans don’t stand up and cheer when their punter trots onto the field. (They actually do the opposite.) A punter’s “success” is dripping with irony.
But it’s time we acknowledge the season Memphis punter Joe Doyle is having. The senior is second in the entire country with an average of 47.3 yards per punt, a figure that would break (barely) the Tiger record of 47.2, set by Spencer Smith in 2015. Better yet, 12 of Doyle’s 40 punts have pinned the Tigers’ opponent inside their own 20-yard line. And that’s where punters earn their trophies. A booming leg is one thing, and a cloud-seeking football can be fun to watch in flight. But can a punter “flip the field” when a team’s offense stalls? Joe Doyle can.
• The late Danton Barto will be saluted Saturday when his jersey number (59) becomes the seventh to be retired by the Memphis program. Barto’s Tiger record for career tackles (273) hasn’t been approached since he played his last game in 1993. He’ll join John Bramlett and Charles Greenhill as the only defensive players to receive the program’s ultimate honor, and he’s only the third Tiger to have played since 1990 and get his jersey retired (along with Isaac Bruce and DeAngelo Williams).
The Tigers will also salute a departing group of seniors, players who have enjoyed a level of success Barto didn’t. How many fans will be at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium to applaud these past and present Tiger heroes? A visit from an FCS opponent (North Alabama) the week before Thanksgiving is not a recipe for a large crowd, and Memphis has yet to see 30,000 fans in the stadium this season. Perhaps a 1 p.m. kickoff will help, but it will be chilly (forecast: low-40s), and won’t impact the standings in the American Athletic Conference. A sixth win, though, would clinch a ninth straight season of bowl eligibility for Memphis, an unprecedented run in these parts. It would be the kind of day that would fill Danton Barto with pride.
Brandon Thomas takes a handoff from Seth Henigan. (Credit: Larry Kuzniewski)
• Fourth and foul. Nothing spotlights (or exposes) a head football coach like the make-or-break decision of a fourth-down play. Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield made two such calls last Saturday that went awry and contributed to the Tigers’ seven-point loss to 25th-ranked UCF. With the game tied at 7 in the first quarter and the Tigers inside the Knights’ 10-yard line, Memphis faced fourth-and-one. Silverfield passed up a gimme field goal (three points) and called a running play in the shotgun formation. Taking the ball from quarterback Seth Henigan five yards behind the scrimmage, running back Brandon Thomas was stuffed short of the first down. UCF took over possession.
Then late in the third quarter, the score again knotted (21-21), Memphis faced fourth-and-16(!) from the Knights’ 39 after a lengthy delay to review a targeting penalty on the Tigers’ reserve tight end, John Hassell. (Do these kind of problems hit other programs?) A Henigan pass fell incomplete and UCF scored on its next possession, taking the lead for good. After the game, Silverfield said his team was not adept at “pooch punting” and felt they wouldn’t gain enough yardage in the exchange of possession. Needless to say, the Tigers gained no yardage in turning the ball over (again) on downs. Silverfield owned the calls, as he should. They don’t look good in the rearview mirror.
• This ain’t horseshoes. It’s easy to agonize over how close the Tigers might be to a 6-3 record, or even 7-2 (instead of 4-5). Blown leads and late losses to both Houston and East Carolina. Then consecutive defeats against teams ranked 25th in the country (first Tulane, then UCF). Memphis scored more points last Saturday (28) than any other team has against the Knights this season. But questionable calls, a missed (short) field-goal attempt, and two turnovers generally lead to losses, so Memphis is riding its longest losing streak (four games) in nine years. Making matters worse, all four losses are to American Athletic Conference teams, so the best Memphis can finish in the league is an even 4-4. This is a significant drop for a program that recently played in the AAC title game three straight seasons (2017-19).
Silverfield was here for those glory years as an assistant to Mike Norvell. Following Saturday’s loss, he acknowledged the Memphis fan base deserves better. “I respect our fan base, because they care,” said Silverfield, “and the expectations for this program aren’t what they were two years ago. I [hope] they will hang with us and continue to believe, because the players do. We’ll come out all right, I promise you that. The young men are staying true to this university. Everyone will show up Thursday [to play Tulsa] and continue to fight.”
• Bowl or bust? Silverfield mentioned the “noise” around the Memphis program. To translate: “Noise” means speculation a head coach could be replaced if wins aren’t secured, and soon. There are a lot of empty seats at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on game days. (Attendance last Saturday was 28,048. The stadium seats more than 50,000.) Football remains the revenue engine of a university’s athletic department, so unsold tickets mean less to invest in women’s soccer or men’s golf. The face of the football program is outsized and inflated, but such is the nature of an industry that gobbles up television dollars for more than four months.
The Tigers can gain bowl eligibility for a ninth straight season with two wins in their final three games. It’s hard to envision Silverfield being retained if they don’t. Memphis will beat North Alabama (1-8) on November 19th. Which means they must beat Tulsa (3-6) at home this Thursday or SMU (5-4) on the road on November 26th. Bottom line: Thursday’s game is a must-win for Ryan Silverfield. The two best feelings in sports are winning a championship and ending a losing streak. Here’s hoping a wobbly Memphis football program can achieve the latter against the Golden Hurricane.
The pinnacle of the Coach Penny Hardaway era at the University of Memphis — now four years and counting — was halftime of the Tigers’ NCAA tournament game against Gonzaga on March 19, 2022. Playing in the program’s first “March Madness” since 2014, Memphis led the country’s top-ranked team by 10 points, a spot in the Sweet 16 (for the first time since 2009) there for the taking. Alas, Tiger shooting went cold, the Zags rallied, and another season ended for the U of M and its considerable fan base.
Among the 10 players who played in that game for Memphis, seven have moved on. And here’s the twist to that reality: All seven could have returned for another season in blue and gray. Everyone knew star freshman Jalen Duren was “one and done” and he was chosen by Charlotte with the 13th pick in the NBA draft (then traded to Detroit). Josh Minott went to Minnesota in the second round and Lester Quinones also found his way to the pros (Golden State, as an undrafted free agent). But also gone, via transfer, are Landers Nolley, Tyler Harris, Earl Timberlake, and last year’s recruiting sensation, Emoni Bates. Those seven players would make a rotation all but certain to qualify for another Big Dance. Instead, Hardaway was left to build his fifth roster virtually from scratch.
Such is life with the transfer portal in modern college hoops. Hardaway pivoted quickly and lured the 2022 American Athletic Conference Player of the Year — point guard Kendric Davis — from SMU. Davis led the AAC with 19.4 points per game last season and will be playing for this third program in five years (he spent the 2018-19 season at TCU). Two other transfers — both guards — may well find themselves in Hardaway’s starting lineup for the season opener at Vanderbilt (November 7th): Keonte Kennedy (late of UTEP) and Elijah McCadden (Georgia Southern). Kennedy averaged 14.1 points and pulled down 6.1 rebounds per game last season for the Miners while McCadden’s numbers with the Eagles were 11.7 and 4.6, good enough for the Sun Belt’s Sixth Man honors.
“We’re an older group,” acknowledges McCadden (a fifth-year senior), “so we’re gelling. We know what we’re here to do. We want to win. We have one main goal, and not a lot of years to grow together. We’ll make the most of the short time we have.”
There will, in fact, be a few familiar faces in uniform for the Tigers. Guard Alex Lomax has spent a full decade — since middle school — playing for Hardaway and returns for a fifth college season. (Remember, players were granted a bonus year of eligibility when the pandemic restricted play in 2020-21.) Then there’s forward DeAndre Williams, back for a third season with the Tigers at the tender age of 26. Williams was second to Duren on last year’s team in both scoring (11.1 points per game) and rebounds (5.8). Expect both figures to grow this season for Williams, named (along with Davis) to the AAC’s preseason all-conference team.
“As a unit, they have to do more than play basketball,” says Hardaway. “They have to hang together off the court. Understand each other on all levels. That carries over. They have to develop an identity early: Who do we want to be? And live up to that identity every single night. I want it to be about toughness. And defense.”
Even with the roster turnover, the offseason was good to Hardaway. The program is finally out from under a three-year cloud, an NCAA-mandated agency (IARP) all but absolving Hardaway from wrongdoing in the recruiting of James Wiseman. So no suspension and no exclusion from upcoming NCAA tournaments (should the Tigers qualify). Then in October, the U of M announced a six-year contract extension that should keep Hardaway on the Memphis bench at least until 2028. Plenty of time for this city’s most famous basketball son to win his first conference title (the Tigers were picked to finish second, behind Houston) and get his alma mater back to the Sweet 16 or, dare it be dreamed, the Final Four.
