Friday, March 28, 2008

Final score

Go Tigers!

I am inside Reliant Arena watching the Stanford/Texas game. Lots of
burnt orange.

Sent from my iPhone

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

And we're off!

It's that time again. And I'm already angry.

Every poll that asks which 1 seed will be the first to lose? You know the answer.

Some analysts (like ESPN's Hubert Davis) are calling for the Tigers to be upset by Mississippi State in Round Two. Or certainly by Pitt. Or for goodness sake, Texas. No way we're going all the way. Dick Vitale thinks we'll lose to Texas, too, though his call seems to be based on geography, not on basketball talent.

Gregg Doyel from cbs sportsline does think we'll make the Final Four, if only because he thinks Stanford will upset Texas and we can beat Stanford. Should Texas beat Stanford, though, he doesn't sound too confident.

Check the brackets of 14 national insiders from ESPN, SportsIllustrated.com and Sportsline.com. Only three of them think Memphis will reach the Final Four. Only ESPN's Digger Phelps picks Memphis to win it all.

It's irksome.

But there are a few people I don't hate right now. Like Digger Phelps, my shirt/highlighter matching friend that seems to love us. Another of my new favorite people is Dick Jerardi, writer for the Philadelphia Daily News who has Memphis winning it all. I'm also quite fond of Kevin Scarbinsky, who writes for the Birmingham News, and says,

I've seen Memphis in person twice, and that's what a national champion looks like.

The nation is going to find out about Memphis, whose only loss this season came by four points against a Tennessee team that won the SEC regular-season title and earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The nation is going to find out that Memphis can win from ahead or behind, in close games or blowouts, with offense or defense. The Tigers have the players to win a title, and they have the hunger after losing in the Elite Eight the last two seasons.


The Tigers play Friday night at approximately 8:40pm. It is to tip off thirty minutes following the end of the game before, so that time could change significantly. If you need a schedule of all games, you can check here. That page includes NIT games.