Tag: Sports

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From My Seat Sports

FROM MY SEAT: America’s Fatal Flaw

• Until
November 26th, their only link was a shared name and sport of choice. Sadly,
though, Taylor Bradford of the Memphis Tigers and Sean Taylor of the Washington
Redskins will now forever be linked for having been shot and killed during the
2007 football season. Which is actually a troubling connection, in my eyes. Why
do murder victims need to be elite athletes for us to pay attention to gun
violence in this country? And if the connection is going to be made, what might
the sports world do to help the problem?

Here’s a
radical idea. (If young men being shot and killed before their 30th birthday
doesn’t merit a few radical thoughts, I’m not sure what does.) Instead of a
league (or college conference) “mourning” with a victim’s family and fans by
dutifully playing the next scheduled games — the show must go on, we’re told —
why not blackout the games league wide for a day, and capture the attention of a
nation all too willing to find the next news item after another young person has
been killed by gunfire?

This
will never happen, of course. Too much money to lose. (And don’t doubt for an
instant the variable team owners and athletic directors consider first when
making this kind of decision.) But just consider the impact it might have, if
thousands — millions? — of sports fans were forced to take pause and consider
the epidemic of gun violence in our country. To weigh the importance of the Big
Game, relative to a human life. To not simply see another athlete fill the role
of the fallen victim, with a black patch on his uniform to pay “tribute.”

The real
tribute men like Taylor Bradford and Sean Taylor deserve is more attention given
to the plague gun violence has become. If their higher profiles might help
remove a few guns from the hands of people with no business carrying them,
they’d have a bigger win than any they ever experienced on the gridiron.

• Junior
safety Brandon Patterson has been an integral part of the 2007 Memphis Tiger
football team, now headed for the New Orleans Bowl on December 21st. Patterson
is second only to Jake Kasser in tackles and has three interceptions to his
credit. But last week he became a different kind of star. Patterson was named a
second-team Academic All-America by ESPN the Magazine. According to U of M
athletic media-relations director Jennifer Rodrigues, Patterson is the first
Tiger to earn such an honor in 15 years. A native of Germantown, Patterson holds
a 3.7 GPA and is working toward a master’s degree in business administration.
He’s worthy of applause.

• Those
in favor of a playoff system for the highest level of college football are going
to have a field day over the next month. When both the number-one (Missouri) and
number-two (West Virginia) teams in the country lost last Saturday, the
floodgates opened for at least eight teams that could claim as much right to a
“national-championship game” berth as the other seven. The only undefeated team
in the country — Hawaii — is ranked 10th by the AP poll, not even among the
eight teams I see as worthy of a shot (though not what amounts to a two-round
bye in a playoff system) at the national championship. LSU and Ohio State will
face each other for the BCS title. But convince me they’ve had better seasons
than Oklahoma (the Big 12 champ and twice conquerors of Missouri), Georgia
(10-2, hottest team in the SEC, including the Bayou Bengals), Kansas (one loss,
compared with LSU’s two), Southern Cal (10-2, Pac 10 champs), Missouri (two
losses to Oklahoma are no worse a blemish than LSU’s one loss to Kentucky), or
West Virginia (their loss to Pitt was the biggest fluke in a season of flukes).

All we
need to fix this mess is a three-week playoff, with the eight teams above
playing quarterfinals and semifinals at traditional bowl sites, then the BCS
championship game for a winner-take-all. Here’s hoping the Rainbow Warriors put
a whuppin’ on Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and LSU beats Ohio State. Tell an
undefeated team another club is champion with two losses, because I couldn’t.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

All Have Won …

… And all must have prizes. We’re talking about the bounteous blessings that the holiday season has bestowed upon various local university athletic departments.

Closest to home is the University of Memphis, which (besides having one of the top-ranked basketball teams in the nation) finished its football season in a blaze of unexpected glory, winning five of its last six games to finish 7-5, becoming thereby bowl-worthy. In its finale against Southern Methodist University, Tommy West’s Tigers thrilled all who beheld the game with a triple-overtime victory. The team’s prize? A visit to the New Orleans Bowl and, one hopes, a bumper recruiting crop for next year.

Then there’s the University of Tennessee Volunteers. They won their heart-stopper against the University of Kentucky, triumphing finally in four overtimes, no less, 52-50, when the Vols stopped a two-point effort by the Wildcats, victors against mighty L.S.U. in a previous multiple-overtime game this year. All the Volunteers gained from Saturday’s game was the Eastern Conference championship of the Southeastern Conference. And a place in the SEC title contest. That’s all.

Speaking of L.S.U., those other Tigers from Louisiana State had long since recovered from their licking by Kentucky to regain the number-one ranking in the nation, until they encountered on Saturday yet another football team with a strong local following. This was the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, who played either well over their heads or up to their potential in downing the Bayou Bengals, 50-48, in, yep, another triple-overtime affair.

In the process, Razorback quarterback Darren McFadden surely enhanced his credentials for the Heisman Trophy. Meanwhile, the Razorbacks en masse enhanced their credentials for the Cotton Bowl with the victory. There was one cloud over Arkansas’ holiday sunshine, however: the resignation of longtime head coach Houston Nutt, victim of some passing strange northwest Arkansas soap opera which we don’t pretend to understand.

Mississippi State’s Bulldogs had suffered three straight losing seasons under head coach Sylvester Croom. But— eureka! — they emerged from Saturday’s Egg Bowl contest against arch-rival Ole Miss with one of the strangest come-from-behind victories we’ve seen in quite a while. That was owing to Rebel coach Ed Orgeron’s bizarre decision, with a 14-0 lead and 10 minutes left, ball at midfield and fourth and one, to go against logic and the odds in an effort to make a first down. Bad idea. The Bulldogs got the ball, the momentum, and the game, as they made two quick touchdowns and kicked a last-second field goal — 17-14 and over and out for Orgeron, who was let go as Ole Miss coach the next day.

So, is the University of Mississippi, winless in its SEC games for the first time since 1982, the only sad sack in the holiday saga of Mid-South college football? Actually, Arkansas’ loss became Mississippi’s gain with the hiring on Tuesday of the aforesaid Nutt as Rebel coach. Not since the late Johnny Vaught has Ole Miss possessed a football mentor with the record and reputation that Nutt, voted Coach of the Year in 2006, will bring. Nutt is what you might call glad tidings for the once-mighty Rebel program — the ghost of Christmas future, as it were.

Congratulations, all, and pass the cranberry sauce.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

FROM MY SEAT: In Which Our Online Sports Columnist Reaches a Milestone

CREDIT: jb

A weekly
columnist must be careful in measuring the life span of his or her work. The
math is precisely the opposite of the way we examine a car’s “life”: it’s the
age, not the mileage. This being my 300th column in this corner of cyberspace, it’s not so much the nice round number that matters, but all that’s happened to the sports world — and naturally, my world — since Week 1 back in February 2002.

Allow me
a few lines of self-indulgence (or bewildered attempts at perspective):

• “From
My Seat” has now been a part of my life longer than was high school or college.

• I’ve
got to be careful in calling this space “my baby,” as it happens to be older
than my actual daughter, Elena.

• While
I’ve spent most of my 30s wondering when I’d finally find inspiration for my
first book, I’ve now written — cumulatively — more than 180,000 words for a website that archives the copy. Not exactly a leather-bound bestseller, but let’s just say my keyboard is ready for the real deal.

Among the attractions that brought me to sports in the first place was the beauty of
numbers, and how they reflect — maybe even illuminate — the games we watch and
the athletes we cheer. St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa reduces baseball
games down to the cold, hard numbers we all read each morning in the newspaper.
A win goes in the left column, a loss in the right. Add them up at season’s end,
and the best teams will reveal themselves.

Which
has me considering some Memphis sports numbers, less than or greater than 300,
but all of significance over the last five years.

• 0 —
Number of coaching changes by the University of Memphis football and men’s
basketball programs. The current seven-year stretch without a change atop the U
of M’s flagship teams is the longest since Zach Curlin coached BOTH programs
from 1924 to 1936. There’s much to like about stability, particularly in the
fickle world of big-time college sports.

• 66 —
Number of wins by the Tiger basketball team over the last two seasons.

• 61 —
Number of Tiger basketball wins over the FOUR seasons before John Calipari
arrived in 2000.

• 6,026
— Number of rushing yards by former Tiger All-America DeAngelo Williams from
2002 to 2005.

• 6,039
— Combined total of yards by the Tigers’ leading runners over the NINE seasons
before Williams arrived on campus.

•
633,129 — Number of tickets sold by the Memphis Redbirds in 2007, the lowest
total in eight years at AutoZone Park, and a figure that has the Redbird brass
scrambling for new promotional ideas for 2008.

•
397,339 — Highest baseball attendance in Memphis history before AutoZone Park
was opened in 2000. The Redbirds have been pitiful on the field for some time
now, but baseball in the Bluff City is alive and well. Wait till the Cardinals
finally fuel their farm system.

• 3 —
Number of former Sam’s Town 250 winners competing in this year’s NASCAR Nextel
Cup Chase for the Championship (Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, and Kevin
Harvick). The ST250 is the most underrated sporting event in the Mid-South, and
I’m not sure what’s second.

Numbers,
of course, only scratch the surface in the stories the sports world provides.
Watching Anthony Reyes shut down the Round Rock Express one night, then win Game
1 of the World Series merely a few weeks later provided a rather direct link
between AutoZone Park and the St. Louis Cardinals’ 10th world championship.

If you
saw Darius Washington miss those two free throws that cost his Tigers — his city
— the 2005 Conference USA tournament championship and an NCAA tournament berth,
there’s no number to represent the heartbreak . . . or the courage Washington
showed in leading his team to the Elite Eight a year later.

And how
about the taken-for-granted number search Memphis sports fans get to enjoy every
winter now: our place in the NBA standings. Right before our eyes, the Bluff
City went big league! This column space came into being as the Grizzlies wrapped
up their first season at The Pyramid. May it still be here when the first
championship parade turns from Beale to Front Street.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

FROM MY SEAT: Don’t Look Now, But…

• The Memphis Tiger football team is two wins from bowl eligibility, and with three of their remaining four games at home. Ask anyone other than coach Tommy West if he or she felt the 2007 squad would be fighting for a bowl berth after their 36-point loss at UCF on September 22nd and you’ll either see a head shake or know you’ve found a hopeless dreamer. The fact is, the first and most important step for West’s program to take toward national respect is to compete in Conference USA. Which means they have to beat the likes of Rice and Tulane, even on the road. Saturday’s win in New Orleans � on a last-minute touchdown pass by Tiger quarterback Martin Hankins � is precisely the kind of game Memphis is notorious for losing.

This Saturday at the Liberty Bowl the U of M will host the one team they trail in C-USA’s East Division. And they’ll be underdogs against the East Carolina Pirates. But consider these numbers: the Tigers have outperformed the Pirates in total offense (419 yards per game to 355) as well as total defense (428 yards allowed per game to 437). With a 1 pm kickoff and the home team playing for first place, Saturday’s attendance will say a lot about the Tigers’ hold on this region’s football attention. Mark this down: the team with the fewer turnovers wins.

• John Calipari isn’t the only University of Memphis coach recruiting well beyond the Mid-South region. Women’s soccer coach Brooks Monaghan is fielding a team this fall with players from 12 states and three countries. I saw a terrific match Sunday between the top two teams in Conference USA, the Tigers (now 12-3-1 overall) dropping a double-overtime affair to UCF at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex. With two regular-season games to play, Memphis is now 5-1-1 in C-USA play, trailing only the 6-1-1 Knights. Junior Kylie Hayes has already broken the 13-year-old program’s record for career goals with 34. Only four of Monaghan’s 30 players are seniors, so this is a team that should challenge for an NCAA tournament berth for years to come.

• A few observations from the 2007 World Series:

This year’s Series was the sixth straight to feature a former Memphis Redbird on the field. Adam Kennedy played for the Angels in 2002; Braden Looper pitched for the 2003 Marlins; Albert Pujols was among several former ’Birds who fell to Boston in 2004; Cliff Politte was in the bullpen for the 2005 White Sox; Yadier Molina and 11 other Cards won last year’s championship; and J.D. Drew played rightfield for the 2007 Red Sox.

• It’s a shame the country was denied seeing one of the hottest teams in baseball history take on the mighty Red Sox when the Series opened last week. Having won 21 of 22 games � a streak unmatched over the last 70 years � the Colorado Rockies had their sizzle turn to fizzle by an eight-day layoff between their sweep of Arizona in the National League Championship Series and Game 1 of the Fall Classic in Boston. It’s just not right to see a team penalized for dominating its opposition in earning a pennant.

So here’s the solution. When I’m general manager of a pennant winner someday, and my team has as many as three � let alone eight! � days off in October, there will be a roundup in our farm system. Twenty-five players � of my manager’s choice, based on our club’s scouting reports of the potential Series opponent � will report to our home stadium for a series of exhibitions. The teams will play daily, with free admission for fans. Concessions open with as much championship gear as we can sell. We’ll set up our starting rotation so our ace is on track for Game 1 of the Series, and these games will be played to win. Keeping score, strategy, platoons, bullpen activity, the works.

As simple as the notion seems, it’s a profound truth: to play baseball well, a team must play baseball games. The Rockies may as well have been playing in February when the World Series opened. And it showed.

• There’s a famous story of Marilyn Monroe returning from a tour of overseas performances at U.S. military bases. When she gets back, she tells her husband, Joe DiMaggio, “You’ve never heard such cheering!� The Yankee Clipper pauses a moment before replying, “Oh yes, dear, I have.�

In watching and reading media coverage of “Red Sox Nation� and its adoring relationship with Boston’s baseball team, one gets the impression that no such love affair can be found west of Fenway Park. That no fan base has such an appreciation for its team’s history, legends, successes and failures like those � primarily in New England � who cheer on Manny, Tek, and Big Papi. That no one has experienced the profound visceral joy of witnessing greatness in the home team’s uniform like that in Beantown.

I lived four years in Boston, but I’ve spent 38 as a member of Cardinal Nation. And yes, Boston, we have.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

FROM MY SEAT: Just Thinking…

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.

Categories
Best of Memphis Special Sections

Media

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

A precedent was set this year, as one man topped three categories and placed in two others. There has never been a sweep like this in any section of the Best of poll since it started in 1994. That man is Chris Vernon, host of “The Chris Vernon Show” on AM 730 ESPN. (Full disclosure: Flyer music and film editor Chris Herrington has a regular slot on the show.) Last year, Vernon’s single appearance in the results was a tie for third place in “Best Sports Show.” So how did Vernon become the man of nearly all Memphis media in just one year? He did campaign hard, asking his listeners to include him while making their Best of picks. But, really, only the voters know for sure.

Best TV News Anchor

1. Joe Birch, WMC-TV, Channel 5

2. Claudia Barr, WREG-TV,
Channel 3

3. Donna Davis, WMC-TV,
Channel 5 — tie —

Dee Griffin, WPTY-TV, Channel 24

Joe Birch gives Action News 5 a TV-category sweep in Best of Memphis. Sage, with a magical voice, some might say Birch is the Väinämöinen of Memphis TV, but that would just be silly.

Best FM Station

1. WEVL-FM 89.9

2. WXMX-FM 98.1, The Max

3. WMC-FM 99.7, FM 100

When WEVL 89.9 calls itself “listener supported,” they aren’t kidding: They got enough support to take this year’s top prize. WEVL’s stable of excellent and diverse programs and volunteer hosts makes a great case, but Friday night’s Cap’n Pete’s Blues Cruise might have been enough to do the trick by itself.

Best AM Station

1. WREC-AM 600

2. AM 730 ESPN

3. WHBQ-AM 560 — tie —

WWTQ-AM 680

With its potent mix of national programming (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity) sandwiched between local drive-time shows (Memphis Morning News, Mike Fleming), WREC-AM 600 has daytime news and commentary covered. Add overnight spooks and conspiracy theories with George Noory and the rest of Paul Harvey’s story, and you’ve got an AM station lots of folks want to lend their ears to.

Best Drive-Time Show

1. Drake & Zeke, WXMX-FM 98.1, The Max

2. The Chris Vernon Show, AM 730 ESPN

3. Karson & Kennedy, WHBQ-FM 107.5

Since relocating to 98.1 from Rock 103, Drake and Zeke have taken over the morning FM airwaves. The comedy duo is ersatz coffee for Memphians in need of waking up before punching the clock. Sports reporter and sidekick Marky B spikes the concoction with salt.

Best Sports Show

1. The Chris Vernon Show, AM 730 ESPN

2. Sportstime with George Lapides & Geoff Calkins, WHBQ-AM 560

3. Morning Rush, WHBQ-AM 560

Vernon’s show is Memphis’ vote for best sports talk. But that’s not all …

Best Radio Talk Show

1. The Chris Vernon Show, AM 730 ESPN

2. Mike Fleming, WREC-AM 600

3. Drake & Zeke, WXMX-FM 98.1, The Max

Vernon’s show also has been named best talk in all of radio. But that’s not all …

Best Radio Personality

1. Chris Vernon, AM 730 ESPN

2. Drake and Zeke, WXMX-FM 98.1, The Max

3. Ron Olson, WMC-FM 99.7, FM 100

Winning the Triple Crown of Memphis radio, Chris Vernon has also nabbed the best personality prize. We’re pretty sure Vernon set up a booth in front of the Flyer offices asking people to vote for him on the way in, not unlike a high-schooler dreaming of being homecoming queen. We’re touched that you care, Verno! Also, at Vernon’s request, please make the following adjustments to your life: When playing 20 Questions, acceptable categories are now Vegetable, Mineral, or Chris Vernon. When talking about a dance club, you should now begin its name with the possessive phrase “Chris Vernon’s.” For example: “Chris Vernon’s Raiford’s Hollywood” and “Chris Vernon’s Backstreet.” Finally, in voting for next year’s Best of Memphis, Chris Vernon asks you to remember that he may be eligible for all kinds of nontraditional categories. To name but a few: Best Kid-Friendly Restaurant, Best Grizzlies Player, and Best Memphis Failure. Congrats, Chris!

Best Newspaper
Columnist

1. Geoff Calkins, The Commercial Appeal

2. Wendi C. Thomas, The Commercial Appeal

3. Tim Sampson, Memphis Flyer

What’s great about Geoff Calkins goes beyond his sports columns, which are often tinged with social commentary and give Memphians something to ponder while eating their Wheaties. It’s that readers can call him up on his radio show, Sportstime, on WHBQ-AM 560, and sing his praises or give him what-for. Now that’s service!

Best TV
Sportscaster

BOM 1. Jarvis Greer,
WMC-TV, Channel 5

2. Greg Gaston, formerly of
WPTY-TV, Channel 24

3. David Cera, WMC-TV, Channel 5

The sports director for WMC-TV Channel 5, Jarvis Greer has been a fixture on Memphis TV screens for decades. He looked great all those years on tube television. He looks even better on plasma and LCD.

Justin Fox Burks

Best Weatherperson

BOM 1. Dave Brown, WMC-TV, Channel 5

2. Ron Childers, WMC-TV, Channel 5

3. Jim Jaggers, WREG-TV, Channel 3 — tie —

Joey Sulipeck, WHBQ-TV, Fox 13

A paternal, benevolent force, with powers over the wind and rain and thunder: That’s right, Dave Brown is the Ukko of the Memphis TV broadcasting pantheon.

Justin Fox Burks

1st Place: Best Weatherperson

Best Memphis-Themed Web Site

1. MemphisFlyer.com

2. LiveFromMemphis.com

3. CommercialAppeal.com

You like us! You really like us! Actually, as far as we’re concerned, the best part of our site is the reader comments. It takes a village to kick so much ass.

Best Memphis Blog

1. Paul Ryburn’s Journal,

http://www.paulryburn.com/blog/

2. Verno’s Blog,

http://chrisvernon.blogspot.com/

3. Two Cents with Randy Malone,

http://memphissport.typepad.com/randy/ — tie —

Rachel & the City,

www.rachelandthecity.com/

Whenever we see Paul Ryburn out and about in downtown Memphis, sipping a brew at the Flying Saucer or strolling along South Main, why is it we feel we’ve spotted a famous person? Is it another product of the Internet age, where bloggers are celebrities? Or is it just the great neighborhood advocacy work Ryburn does on his Web site?

Categories
Best of Memphis Special Sections

Arts & Entertainment

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Watch more than one episode of a reality show such as “Super Nanny” or “Project Runway” or “Dog Whisperer” or any of the home-design shows (or “Flava of Love,” for that matter), and you’ll notice a theme: Consistency matters. The winners of this section are a reminder of that point. Of the 13 categories, 11 of the first-place winners were in the same spot last year. One exception was in the “Best Local Athlete” category, for which there was no clear winner. But it’s the other category — “Best Sports Team” — which is particularly telling and proves the consistency maxim. Last year, the Grizzlies ruled. This year, after a very disappointing season, they’re in third place behind the (undeniably hot) University of Memphis men’s basketball team at number one and the Memphis Redbirds (who had an awful season themselves) at number two.

Best Golf Course

1. The Links at Galloway

2. TPC at Southwind

3. The Links at Overton Park — tie —

Spring Creek Golf Course

Tucked into one of our city’s nicest neighborhoods, Galloway has been one of our city’s finest courses for almost half a century. A recent multimillion-dollar renovation made something good even better, with much nicer fairways, greens as flat as a pool table, a lovely clubhouse that replaced the stone-covered building — all in a parklike setting.

Best Museum

1. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

2. Memphis Pink Palace Museum

3. Children’s Museum of Memphis — tie —

Dixon Gallery & Gardens — tie —

Stax Museum of American Soul Music

The oldest art museum in Tennessee continues to draw crowds to its galleries. Originally a tiny jewel box in Overton Park, a massive expansion project helped turn the Brooks into one this country’s top museums.

Best Art Gallery

1. David Lusk Gallery

2. Jay Etkin Gallery

3. D’Edge Art & Unique Treasures

We’ve spent many fine evenings attending openings at David Lusk, which features an outstanding roster of artists. They also host an absolutely-have-to-be-there event for Memphis art lovers — “The Price Is Right,” an annual sale of works for under $1,000.

Justin Fox Burks

Best Live Theater

1. Playhouse on the Square

2. The Orpheum

3. Theatre Memphis

Jackie Nichols’ Playhouse on the Square has consistently presented top-notch performances for more than a quarter century. Operating out of the old Memphian movie theater on Cooper, Playhouse is in the midst of erecting a state-of-the-art facility across the street, which will provide them even greater opportunities.

Best Movie
Theater

1. Malco Studio on the Square

2. Malco Paradiso

3. Muvico Peabody Place

We can remember when the only thing that stood behind Paulette’s was a parking lot. Then Malco had the idea to construct a “boutique” theater, one with intimate auditoriums and featuring films that somehow missed the larger circuits. Well, that gamble paid off, big time, and Studio on the Square is without question one of the best places in town to watch a movie.

Best Casino

1. Horseshoe Casino

2. Grand Casino

3. Sam’s Town

Our readers must feel lucky at the Horseshoe, a perennial Best of Memphis winner. Horseshoe also features some of the coolest musical and comedy acts on tour.

Best Picnic Spot

1. Shelby Farms

2. Overton Park

3. Chickasaw Gardens Lake/Pink Palace Museum

On weekends, it’s getting harder and harder to find a nice quiet spot to set down a blanket and have a picnic, but we agree that Shelby Farms probably offers the most choices, and it is an amazing thing to “get away from it all” even though you are still smack-dab in the middle of everything.

Best Place To Meet Singles

1. Church

2. Online

3. Beale Street

This category certainly told us a lot about our readers. We’d hoped that those of you who went to church did so for spiritual enlightenment and not to check out the hot chick or guy in the choir.

Justin Fox Burks

1st Place: Best Live Theatre

Best Free Date

1. Mississippi River

2. Shelby Farms

3. Memphis Zoo on Tuesdays

We hope that everyone who listed “Mississippi River” meant watching the river from the safety of Tom Lee Park or some other vantage point, or maybe even boating in it (though not too many people we know seem to do that, for some reason). At any rate, we hope you didn’t mean swimming in it.

Justin Fox Burks

1st Place: Best Free Date

Best Family
Entertainment

1. Memphis Zoo

2. Redbirds Game

3. Children’s Museum of Memphis

The Memphis Zoo seems to be a hit with our readers for any number of reasons. Perhaps because it really is one of the best zoos in the country.

Best Sports Team

1. University of Memphis Tiger
Basketball

2. Memphis Redbirds

3. Memphis Grizzlies

We’re anxiously waiting to see if the Tigers get a #2 — even #1 — preseason ranking, but no matter how they play, Coach Cal’s Tigers have captured the hearts of Memphians.

Justin Fox Burks

1st Place: Best Family Entertainment

Best Grizzlies
Player

1. Pau Gasol

2. Mike Miller

3. Rudy Gay

When the Grizzlies first came to town, all anyone talked about was a fellow named Shane Battier. But a lanky Spaniard also began to pile up points in the paint, and when Battier jumped ship, Gasol quickly became the fan favorite. We keep hearing all this talk of trades, but new coach Marc Iavaroni insists Gasol is here to stay. We hope so.

Justin Fox Burks

1st Place: Best Grizzlies Player

Best Local Athlete

READERS’ CHOICE

Pau Gasol

DeAngelo Williams

Mike Miller

Loren Roberts

John Daly

Chris Douglas-Roberts

One of our colleagues, who knows quite a bit about sports in Memphis, recently declared that if Memphis ever put up a statue to its greatest athlete, it would have to decide between Larry Finch or Pau Gasol. Coach Finch didn’t garner many votes this time, and nobody drew enough votes for us to declare first-, second-, or third-place finishes, but our readers love their sports, naming players from basketball, football, and golf.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

FROM MY SEAT: Just Thinking…

• 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.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

So Far So Good

CREDIT: (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

In their first major decision since taking over stewardship of the Grizzlies franchise, new front-office honcho Chris Wallace and head-coach-with-clout Marc Iavaroni did the right thing during last week’s NBA draft, selecting Ohio State point guard Mike Conley Jr. with the fourth pick.

Up until draft time itself, there were still conflicting reports that had the Grizzlies taking, variably, Florida center Joakim Noah, Florida swingman Corey Brewer, or Conley. I’d been pushing Conley for a couple of weeks, and, by that time, my sources indicated he was the most likely pick. So I was happy to see it happen.

Conley is a lightning-quick playmaker with excellent court vision and poise. He’ll be able to push the ball up the court and set up teammates for good shots in transition. In the half court, he should be able to use his quickness to come off screens and get into the paint, where his ability to make shots with either hand evokes San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker. But Conley is also a long-limbed, opportunistic defender who, in concert with second-year point guard Kyle Lowry, will allow the Grizzlies to apply defensive pressure for 48 minutes a game. The Grizzlies needed a triggerman to enable Iavaroni’s preferred style — uptempo basketball predicated on aggressive, attacking defense — and they found him.

Conley was thought to be a reach at #4 in some circles — unproven conventional wisdom about not taking point guards high in the draft that, like so many other unfounded sports clichés, refuses to die. But in the days before the draft, ESPN.com analyst John Hollinger published what is certain to be a highly influential study about what factors of college basketball production are indicators of pro success. Among the areas Hollinger found to be indicators were high steal rates (which indicate pro-level athleticism), playmaking (an indicator of offensive skill and decision making as measured by an advanced statistic Hollinger calls “pure point rating”), and production relative to age.

Conley was a prolific ball hawk at Ohio State (more than two steals a game), boasted a higher pure point rating than any prospect in the draft (and the fourth best of any college prospect in the past six years), and was the leader and clutch scorer for a 35-4 national title contender as a 19-year-old freshman. By Hollinger’s measure, Conley graded out as the third best prospect in the draft (after Kevin Durant and Greg Oden).

Before Hollinger dropped what is likely a transformative piece of hoops scholarship, I published my own modest, Griz-draft-specific study on Beyond the Arc at MemphisFlyer.com/Grizblog. I looked at the recent success rates of prospects similar to the ones the Grizzlies were looking at, focusing on Top 10 picks of the past 10 years. Based on that sample, players of Conley’s type — highly regarded pure point guards — were much more likely to meet expectations in the NBA than players similar to Noah or Brewer.

Of the 17 point guards who have been Top 10 picks in the past decade, 13 of them have developed into all-star caliber players or quality starters. Of the mere four who haven’t, two of them were elite prospects whose careers were sidetracked by major injuries (Jay Williams and Shaun Livingston). Throw those players out, and the success rate of Conley types was 13 to 2.

The message of Hollinger’s study and my own? Not only did Conley have the most potential of any player available to the Grizzlies in last week’s draft. He was the safest pick.

Conley also looks like a probable fan favorite — no small consideration for a team trying to fix fissures that have erupted between the franchise and its fan base over the past couple of years.

For starters, the bright, personable Conley has copious regional and local connections: He was the ball boy on the 1994 Arkansas Razorback college basketball national title team. His mother’s family is from West Helena, Arkansas, and he has family in Bartlett. As an uptempo point guard, Conley (along with Lowry) will make Grizzlies games more entertaining this season. And, as a Beyond the Arc reader pointed out before the draft, Memphis hoops fans have a history of embracing dynamic point guards from Andre Turner, Elliot Perry, and Antonio Burks at the University of Memphis to Jason Williams with the Grizzlies. With any luck — and it won’t take much — Mike Conley Jr. should be the next in line.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

On the Draft

A potentially momentous offseason for the Memphis Grizzlies commences this week with the NBA draft. Picking an unlucky fourth after posting the league’s worst record a year ago, the Grizzlies may have missed out on a sure thing (in the form of elite prospects Greg Oden and Kevin Durant) but now find before them a dizzying array of options. Here’s an attempt to see through the rumors, smoke screens, and general uncertainty for a glimpse of what might happen Thursday night and what it might mean — in the form of three key questions.

If the Grizzlies pick fourth, what are the options?

The Grizzlies are held hostage somewhat by the Atlanta Hawks, who pick third. The Hawks are likely to tab Florida power forward Al Horford, who has emerged as the consensus number-three prospect in the draft. Then again, the Hawks have shocked us before.

The Grizzlies love Horford and would pick him if he somehow slips past number three — and I wouldn’t be surprised if a trade led to Ohio State point guard Mike Conley Jr. or Chinese forward Yi Jianlian going third instead. But, assuming Horford is off the board, the Grizzlies are likely to choose among four prospects: Conley, fellow Florida players Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer, and North Carolina’s Brandon Wright.

The thought here is that Conley — a pure point guard with the quickness, handle, poise, and court vision to be a star — is the prospect with the highest ceiling.

Noah seems to be a perfect fit for the Grizzlies. He’s an active rebounder and defender who doesn’t need a lot of touches to be effective. The hitch: He may not be quite good enough to pick at number four. If you’re picking that high in a good draft, a team should be looking for a star. Noah reeks of role player.

Brewer and Wright are long shots that shouldn’t be counted out. Brewer is perhaps better equipped to impact the game on both ends of the floor than any of these players and fits new coach Marc Iavaroni’s preferred style. Wright is raw and would seem to duplicate Gasol’s strengths and weaknesses but has as much raw talent as anyone in the draft after Oden and Durant.

The hunch here? Conley gets the nod over Noah.

Will there be any trades?

Draft day trades could turn everything upside down, but right now a truly major trade — i.e., dealing Gasol — seems unlikely. New lead executive Chris Wallace scouted Gasol heavily while in Boston and Iavaroni is a noted big man’s coach. It seems unlikely the new regime will deal Gasol before having a chance to work with him.

More likely would be a trade involving another established player — with Mike Miller, Hakim Warrick, and Stromile Swift the likely subjects — to acquire either a young power player to pair with Gasol (Denver’s Nene and Utah’s Paul Millsap might make some sense) or another draft pick.

What will the pick mean?

The week after the rookie draft, the NBA’s free-agent period will begin with the Grizzlies poised to be one of the few teams with significant money to spend. And make no mistake, the draft and free agency are connected. What the Grizzlies think they can do in free agency is likely to influence what they do on draft day. For that reason, the Grizzlies’ draft pick should be a tipoff as to what player — or at least what type of player — the team will target in free agency.

If Noah, Brewer, or Wright are the pick and no other trades are made to net a point guard, then expect the Griz to target Milwaukee Bucks point guard Mo Williams, long thought to be the team’s preferred free-agent prize.

But if Conley is the pick (as I suspect), then the Grizzlies will look elsewhere in free agency. Addressing the long-acknowledged need for a more physical presence in the paint would seem to be most likely. But the options among power players in this free-agent class are meager. Instead, don’t be surprised if the Grizzlies go after one of the talented young swingmen available, such as Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace or Seattle’s Rashard Lewis.

Chris Wallace seems to prefer accumulating the best talent available for the Grizzlies rather than focusing on positional needs. Iavaroni prizes versatility. In Phoenix, Iavaroni was used to working with unconventional lineups. So, don’t assume the Grizzlies do the obvious this summer.

For up-to-date news and analysis before, during, and after the draft, go to Beyond the Arc, the Flyer‘s Grizzlies blog at MemphisFlyer.com/grizblog.