Chatter

Pieces in Place predicts an Elite Eight finish for the Tigers.

Blessing in Disguise is a nice piece about Darius Washington. Hard to believe it's been 4 years.

Remember Memphis: Jay Bilas has his eye on the Tigers.

Willie Kemp is finding his way and owning his game.

Looking toward the Vols

Check Me Out

I did a little Q & A on the Final Four with the good folks over at Thirtyfive Seconds. They're doing a series on the Final Four and I was proud to be representing Memphis. Read it all here:

Final Four Preview: Memphis Tigers

Maybe True Blue Speaks of Heart More than Blood

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

By Geoff Calkins (Contact)

Well, we do eat with our hands.

I mean, it's true, isn't it?

We eat barbecue -- with our hands.

We eat ribs -- with our hands.

We eat Pronto Pups -- with our hands.

In Los Angeles, they raw eat fish with chopsticks. Tell a Memphian to eat something with a stick and chances are he'll skewer it, batter it and dunk the whole mess in boiling oil.

So you can understand why people all over the country are having a hard time understanding what Memphis is doing at this year's exclusive Final Four gathering in San Antonio.

North Carolina, UCLA and Kansas are the right kind of people. Memphis is, well, here's Joe Gergen, from Newsday:

"If we were talking families here, the first three would be the Rockefellers, the Carnegies and the Stanfords," Gergen wrote. "Memphis would be the Clampetts."

It's true too. We don't have all the things those UCLA people have.

Elly May: I hear they got smog.

Granny: What's a smog?

[pause]

Jethro: I reckon it's a small hog.

Better hope that The Rendezvous doesn't get a hold of it.

But the point is, we Memphians are viewed as interlopers, trespassers and party crashers, too.

"It's the blue bloods vs. the blue collars," said Memphis coach John Calipari, whose grandparents -- you may have heard this -- came through Ellis Island.

UCLA, North Carolina and Kansas have won 17 NCAA men's basketball championships between them.

Memphis won the NIT not long ago.

"Combined with UCLA, there's like 11 national championship between us," Calipari said.

UCLA has all 11.

Nice try, John.

UCLA is John Wooden, the Wizard of Westwood. Kansas is James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.

Memphis is Calipari, giving out big screens in the upper deck.

USA Today ran a story Monday with the headline, "It's Memphis," explaining that the school is no longer called Memphis State.

The school's name was changed 14 years ago! Memo to USA Today: Memphis also has an NBA team. Or used to have one, anyway.

But why should anyone be expected to know stuff like this? We're fat Elvis and The Peabody ducks. A little too campy, a little too quaint and a little too gritty to know the secret handshake.

UCLA is all glamor and glitz. North Carolina calls itself a "public Ivy," whatever that is.

The "first graduate music therapy program was created in 1947 at Kansas," according to the school's Web site.

How about that? Kansas created music therapy.

Unless you count the blues, of course.

If the Final Four was a movie, we'd be Rodney Dangerfield in "Caddyshack."

If the Final Four was the House of Windsor, we'd be Lady Di.

If the Final Four was an awards show, we'd be Three 6 Mafia at ... hey, maybe there's a lesson there.

In 2006, Three 6 Mafia was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Nobody thought a raggedy Memphis rap group could win.

Three hours later, host Jon Stewart delivered the line of the night.

"For anyone keeping score, Martin Scorsese, zero Oscars," he said, "Three 6 Mafia, one."

So it's possible, isn't it? Especially this year of all years?

A beagle won the Westminster dog show. A former stripper won the Oscar for best original screenplay.

Who says a basketball team from Memphis can't win the NCAA championship?

And when it happens, really, no need for the rest of you to apologize.

In the words of Jed Clampett: "I reckon you done what you done because you didn't know we was who we was."

Dewey & Truman? No, UAB and Memphis

Looks like ESPN jumped the gun a little on Saturday night, publishing an article about our loss before the game was over... They should really know better. But what a game, right? And the aftermath.... I have faith that when UAB comes into the Forum for our Senior Day, our fans won't return the favor and start a brawl.

I didn't get to see the game (DirecTV really needs to carry CSS) and I don't know if I wish I'd seen it or if I should be grateful I missed it for the sake of my cardiac health. I will be able to watch the rest of the games this season, they are all on CSTV or ESPN.

Speaking of ESPN. Just a little mention of Saturday's game against the Vols. #1 vs. #2? SERIOUSLY? I just don't know if I can handle it. Thank the good Lord I am not going to the game, I might seriously LOSE MY MIND. I know that the Vols could beat us. But I also know we can beat the Vols. We can beat anyone in the country, in my opinion. It all depends on which team shows up, and we all know that the guys have shown up for the big games this year-- UConn, USC, Georgetown (I mean, come on), Arizona, Gonzaga... There is no way that the FedExForum won't be completely on FIRE and it should be one of the best basketball games EVER.

And I'll be here, trying to gather a few friends (nobody in this town cares about college basketball) wearing my "Hey Tennessee-- You Suck" t-shirt, yelling like crazy. Maybe the Tigers will hear me, all the way from here.

UT Martin- Finally!

Today's the day! Today's the day! Today's the day we can finally get down to business. I'm less than pleased the Tigers ended up as #3 in both the AP and the coaches' polls. That's lame. But it gives us something to strive for, I guess. Two spots up. Tarheels shmarheels.

So tongiht the Tigers play UT-Martin. Really? This is how we're going to kick off what should be THE GREATEST SEASON EVER? Okay. Baby steps. But we are favored by 37 points.

On the other hand, as Jim Masilek said yesterday:

History, however, shows that the Tigers' fortunes have varied wildly in the face of high expectations. For every smashing success -- the Final Four runs in '73 and '85 are obvious examples -- there is an equally spectacular failure to serve as a warning. Drexel, anyone?

You don't have to tell me. I was there for that Drexel debacle. I witnessed it, up close and personal. And it sucked. So I should know better than to have my hopes this high. But I can't help it! If you need help getting excited, think about this: 2 seasons, 2 Elite Eights, 66 wins, and? Derrick Rose. Read this article, or for a longer, historical perspective, this article. If you need help coming down from the rafters, you can read this one:

Dorsey may be the most important player on the team. Rose is more gifted, certainly. Chris Douglas-Roberts will score more points. But there's only one position where Memphis doesn't have a proven backup. That position is the one occupied by Dorsey. Does that make you sleep well at night?

Time to Get Fired Up

So the season is almost upon us. It's time to start thinking hoops.

I have created a Google Calendar with all the game dates and tip-off times (when available). You can click on the button in the sidebar to subscribe, and I'll update it as the schedule is changed.

Also, Memphis Madness (yeah, it's not at Midnight anymore) is tomorrow.


From Today's CA:
Tigers' madness never stops

Basketball team kept plenty busy in offseason

By Dan Wolken

...

Here are four things to know about Memphis Madness, which begins at 8p.m. CT Friday at FedExForum.

1. For a lot of Memphis fans in the city, Friday may be the only opportunity to see the Tigers in person this season. As of Wednesday afternoon, the school was down to about 260 unsold season tickets. Once they're gone, that's it for the year.

The only single-game tickets that will be available are unclaimed student seats. Plus, getting into Memphis Madness is pretty cheap: It's free, though canned food donations are encouraged, and seats will be available.

In most years, Memphis can expect a crowd of about 10,000 fans at Memphis Madness.

Coach John Calipari said he was hoping for "12,000 to 15,000 or more" on Friday, given the excitement about this team, which is ranked No.1 or No. 2 in several preseason polls.

And a full house would likely make a positive impression on the long list of elite recruits who will be in attendance.

2. So, who are the recruits? Well, basically every high school player from Memphis who is on the Tigers' radar has been confirmed as a guest at Memphis Madness. That includes St. George's guard Elliot Williams, who will be making his official visit to the Tigers.

Williams, a consensus top20 senior in the nation according to scouting services, has already visited Virginia, Duke and Tennessee and is expected to make his decision after the Memphis visit.

Briarcrest junior guard Leslie McDonald and White Station junior forward Farrakohn Hall -- both consensus top-75 players -- headline a long list of underclassmen coming to Memphis Madness, which also includes: Gentry Hines (Raleigh-Egypt), Tim Peete (Central), Greg Wooten (Briarcrest), Joe Jackson (White Station), Bobby Parks Jr. (Ridgeway) and Mardracus Wade (Mitchell), among others.

Memphis also will have out-of-town visitors from the 2009 high school class, including Christian Watford from Birmingham and Xavier Henry from Oklahoma City. Watford, a 6-7 small forward, is rated in the top 50 by most scouting services and is also very good friends with DeMarcus Cousins, a consensus top-five player in the class. Cousins was still considering visiting Memphis Madness as of Wednesday.

This will be Henry's second straight visit to Memphis Madness. A 6-6 guard rated No. 2 in the junior class by Scout.com, Henry's favorites appear to be Memphis and Kansas at this point. His father, Carl Henry, played at Kansas when Calipari was an assistant there.

Durand Scott, a 6-4 guard from New York rated as a top-50 junior, also is likely to be in Memphis on an unofficial visit this weekend.

All told, that's between five and seven potential McDonald's All-Americans.

3. The evening begins at 6:30 p.m. with a performance by the Memphis band and cheerleaders on the FedExForum plaza. Doors will open at 7 p.m., and players will be available for autographs until roughly 7:50 p.m. At 8 p.m. players will be introduced, and festivities will continue until about 9:30 p.m.

At some point in the event, Memphis will introduce the 15Chinese coaches who are in town observing the Tigers as part of Calipari's coaches' exchange. A few of the coaches, who played in the Chinese Basketball Association, will have a 3-point shooting contest against Memphis' players. The Tigers also will have a dunk contest and finish with a short intra-squad scrimmage.

4. Though the entire Midnight Madness tradition began in 1971 when Lefty Driesell held a real practice at Maryland just after midnight on Oct. 15, it's now nothing more than a showcase. In fact, the NCAA has even changed the rules to allow the madness to begin the evening before the official day when teams can start practicing.

As for the Tigers, the scrimmage will be organized, but probably not quite full speed. That's because they'll have to get up early Saturday morning to begin the real work with a string of two-a-day practices. Still, fans should be able to get just enough of a glimpse to whet their appetites for the Nov. 5 season opener.

"Our fans know this team," Calipari said. "They'll know how we play, but what they're wanting to see is the new guys too. Who got stronger from the old players? Who's better than they were a year ago? Who's improved?

"And then they'll want to see, what about this Derrick Rose kid, this Jeff Robinson kid and this Shawn Taggart kid? They'll want to leave the building saying, man, is Antonio Anderson better? Robert Dozier is so much stronger. That's what they'll want to say, and then they'll try to figure out where the other guys are."

8 more hours until we get to heaven...

Where hopefully Aggie boys get BEAT (they might get laid too, but that's a story for a different kind of blog).

According to this CA article, Jeremy's ready to light it up and the Alamodome is really big.

CDR's feeling better and might play tonight. He really wants to.

I would like Acie Law to go away. Really. That'd be great.

So, we're the underdogs. So, we're playing Texas A & M, a lower seeded team, not so far from their home. That's okay.

Seth Davis disagrees, and picks the Aggies to win by 1.

GO TIGERS!

p.s. If anyone out there gets the reference from the title and first line (besides you, Mom) let me know. I thought it was more well-known than it (apparently) is.

Today's Mishmash

Click the link to read the entire story...

Memphis aims to silence doubters
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A 24-game winning streak hasn't convinced everyone that Memphis is a legitimate national championship contender.

After all, the second-seeded Tigers didn't get much of challenge from their Conference USA rivals, none of which made the NCAA tournament. Counting North Texas and Nevada, the two teams Memphis beat to get to the South Regional semifinals, the Tigers have defeated five teams that made the NCAA's field of 65.

It's safe to say that Thursday's game in San Antonio against Texas A&M will be the Tigers' toughest test in months.

And Memphis could be without leading scorer Chris Douglas-Roberts, who is nursing a sprained left ankle. Coach John Calipari said he wasn't positive Douglas-Roberts would play.

"But I think he will," Calipari said after his weekly radio show Monday before a packed house of Tiger fans at a Memphis restaurant.

CDR ankle improving
University of Memphis star sophomore Chris Douglas-Roberts showed signs of progress Tuesday, according to team officials, but it was still uncertain whether his sprained left ankle would prevent him from playing in Thursday's NCAA South Regional semifinal against Texas A&M.

"He's planning on playing, but we'll have to see," coach John Calipari said. "I think he is (improving)."

Douglas-Roberts has been receiving nearly round-the-clock treatment since Memphis beat Nevada, 78-62, on Sunday to reach the Sweet 16. He suffered the injury with 8:11 to go in the game after jumping to tip a ball and landing on teammate Joey Dorsey's foot.

According to team officials, Douglas-Roberts was walking Tuesday without a protective boot. Douglas-Roberts was at the Finch Center late Monday night to receive treatment again and will continue to do so today in San Antonio.

Though Douglas-Roberts, the Tigers' leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, tells teammates he will play, his status likely won't be determined until Thursday.

Deja Vu
A year ago, the University of Memphis played an Elite Eight game against a lower-seeded opponent in that team's home state.

In the game, the top-seeded Tigers were defeated as much by No. 2 UCLA's stifling defense and their own inept shooting as by the pro-Bruin atmosphere inside The Arena in Oakland.

The stakes may not be quite as high Thursday when Memphis faces Texas A&M in a South Regional semifinal inside San Antonio's vast Alamodome. But the scenario facing the No. 2-seeded UofM looks familiar:

Tennessee Trio in Sixteen

Tennessee trio put Final Four bids, alliances on the line

By Gary Parrish

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- John Calipari has spent the past few years using an East Coast attitude to antagonize his friends from the eastern part of this state.

The Memphis coach has at different times insisted on no longer playing Tennessee, promised to only play the Vols on a neutral court and explained in detail why Bruce Pearl is at a disadvantage in attempting to come into his city and recruit.

John Calipari is from the East Coast, but he mixes it up in Tennessee. (Getty Images)

It started as friendly banter. It became heated dialogue.

So though Calipari remains more Pittsburgh than Memphis in many ways, one thing he inherited long ago is a disdain for Good Ole Rocky Top. It's a sizeable disdain, and the man has never wavered, privately or publicly.

Until now.

"All of their fans should be rooting for us and all of our fans should be rooting for them," Calipari said. "We should be cheering for each other."

Ah, strength in numbers.

It's a sensible strategy on the surface, considering the state of Tennessee has a numbers advantage in this NCAA Tournament. Memphis and Tennessee remain in the South Regional and Vanderbilt is in the East Regional -- meaning this state known more for its musical contributions to Rock 'n' Roll (Sun Studio), Country and Western (The Grand Ole Opry), Southern Soul (Stax Records), Rhythm and Blues (Beale Street) and Rap (Hustle and Flow) is the largest contributor to the Sweet 16 with three institutions that are just two wins from the Final Four.

"It's incredible," Calipari said. "What my man (Kevin Stallings) is doing at Vanderbilt is incredible, what Tennessee is doing is great and then we're hanging around, too. So it's kinda nice."

But can everybody play nice?

That's the question, and to fully understand why it's not as easy as it sounds you have to understand the state of Tennessee and the divisions that exist. For the most part, east Tennessee (Knoxville/UT) and middle Tennessee (Nashville/Vanderbilt) despise west Tennessee (Memphis/U of M), and vice versa. The people of Memphis believe the people of Nashville are snobs and the people of Knoxville are rednecks, and the people of Nashville and Knoxville both believe the people of Memphis spend most of the week robbing and shooting each other.

They are wild stereotypes, to be sure. But they exist.

Why didn't Harold Ford Jr. win his U.S. Senate race last year?

Analysts believed it wasn't just because he was a black man running in the south or a Democrat running in a conservative state. The real problem was Ford is a black democrat from Memphis, and that's a hell of a combination to overcome in the eyes of everything outside a 60-mile radius of Memphis.

Plus, Ford is a Tiger supporter; it's doubtful that helped in any way.

Which brings us back to the Sweet 16 and San Antonio, where Memphis and Tennessee fans have converged for the weekend.

The Tigers play Texas A&M in the first game Thursday just before the Vols play Ohio State. Depending on the outcomes and how much alcohol is consumed, don't be surprised if the two schools' contingents shimmy over to the Alamo and re-enact the famous 19th century battle at some point late Thursday night.

But Calipari has offered a truce.

"I'm not going to paint my body orange," he said. "But I might wear an orange shirt."

Gotta start somewhere. Baby steps and all that.

Anyway, when I heard this proposal I decided to call Pearl. I wanted to know whether he was down with the idea. So I asked whether he was down with the idea.

"I'm absolutely down with it," answered Pearl, who added he had already called to congratulate Calipari and Stallings. "Tennessee and Memphis are sister schools in a way, from the same system. So I don't think there's any question we should be rooting for each other."

And what if Memphis and Tennessee both win Thursday and play Saturday with a trip to the Final Four at stake?

"It would be great for the state," Pearl said.

"Then we draw the line in the sand and it's back to civil war," Calipari added. "But up until then we should be rooting for each other."

Bipartisan basketball at its finest.

But in a search to determine whether the notion of Memphis and Tennessee fans uniting is realistic, I bounced the idea off a man with ties to each school. His name is Keith Easterwood, and he's an AAU coach in the state of Tennessee who has worked with players in both programs and regularly talks with both staffs.

Can Memphis root for Tennessee? Can Tennessee root for Memphis?

"It's a nice warm fuzzy thought, but it goes against the grain for too many people," Easterwood said. "I don't think it's going to happen."

In other words, see you at the Alamo late Thursday night.

One Day to Go!

Get to know Buckets

ESPN's game preview

The best & worst case scenarios

Today's Chatter

The Hair

The Defense

The Matchup

The History

The Potential Game (scroll down to 6 Best (Potential) Games Before Atlanta)

The Hater

Various and Sundry

The asshat: Win Your Tournament Pool

The sad truth: Free Throws are Tigers' Achilles Heel

The inspiration: Imagine swish

The dare: South Region quick hits

The psych out: Predictions may keep Tigers humble

The Big Question: Are these Tigers better?


Get a bracket here.

Duh

From the Jackson (TN) Sun

Memphis the team to beat in C-USA

MEMPHIS - With No. 5 Memphis the clear favorite in the Conference USA tournament, the rest of the league's coaches are trying to make sure their teams remain motivated.

There's fourth-seeded Tulane closing with a 5-1 record to earn a first-round bye. SMU, the league's 11th seed, challenged Memphis before losing 64-61 in the final regular season game. Coaches are grabbing at anything to inspire a run at the tournament title and automatic bid that is their only hope of reaching the NCAA tournament.

Read the Rest...

Memphis a Mystery

From the N.Y. Times:

Despite Ranking, Memphis Remains a Mystery for N.C.A.A. Tournament

By THAYER EVANS

Memphis earned its first No. 1 seeding in the N.C.A.A. tournament and fell a game short of the Final Four last season. But the Tigers were hardly expected to achieve similar success this season after losing two top players from that team to the N.B.A.

Now, having won an N.C.A.A. Division I-best 19 consecutive games and being the first team to streak through Conference USA undefeated since 2000, the sixth-ranked Tigers (27-3) are poised to be seeded No. 2 or No. 3 in this month’s N.C.A.A. tournament.

“Whether they merit a No. 1 seed, I don’t know, but I do think they’re better than they were last year,” Rice Coach Willis Wilson said in a telephone interview.

As the Conference USA tournament starts on its home court Wednesday, Memphis is perhaps college basketball’s most mysterious highly ranked team.

The Tigers have victories against Kentucky (20-10), Mississippi (19-11) and Gonzaga (22-10), and their only losses are to Georgia Tech (20-10), Tennessee (22-9) and Arizona (20-9), all of whom were ranked at the time.

But 16 of their wins were in Conference USA, which is ranked 11th nationally in the Ratings Percentage Index, behind such leagues as the Mountain West, the Western Athletic Conference and the Atlantic 10.

As a result, Memphis, led by the sophomore guard Chris Douglas-Roberts and a stingy defense, is ranked eighth in the R.P.I., but its strength of schedule is 77th.

Read the rest...

Tigers burning bright as March arrives

From the AP wire:

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The Memphis Tigers are humming along, ranked sixth in the nation and enjoying the nation's longest winning streak at 17 games.

Imagine where they might be if Shawne Williams and Darius Washington hadn't gone to the NBA.

"Who knows how the scoring would've been?" senior guard Jeremy Hunt said. "We don't know. We think about it. But we don't ever get negative thoughts. We're just wondering."

It would be difficult for Memphis to improve much on this season.

The Tigers (25-3), who play Thursday night at UTEP, clinched a second straight Conference USA title outright last week for the first time in school history and have won three of the past four. Only Winthrop of the Big South Conference has gone undefeated in league play this season.

Read the Rest...

Propaganda Battle

Big article in today's USA Today!

Memphis still under radar

From Andy Katz' Blog on ESPN.com:

This is perfect for Memphis coach John Calipari.

The Tigers win a thriller in overtime at Gonzaga and the talk is more about the Zags than the Tigers.

The new polls came out and the Tigers moved up from eighth in the coaches' poll to seventh, and from ninth to seventh in the AP poll. In the coaches' poll, though, Kansas jumped over the Tigers, moving from No. 9 to No. 6.

You don't think this kind of stuff is perfect fodder for Calipari? Of course it is. Cal has a team that, for whatever reason, doesn't seem to be discussed on a regular basis as a high seed, let alone a Final Four team.

Once again, perfect for Cal, as he is relishing playing in a headline-less league in Conference USA.

"We probably should be five with what we've done," Calipari said Monday. "We lost 50 percent of our scoring (Shawne Williams, Rodney Carney and Darius Washington), two first-round draft picks (Williams and Carney), and look how we've responded? Our team is playing better as a team than we did a year ago. We may not have as much talent, but we're playing better."

A year ago, Memphis played its way to a No. 1 seed but had much more of a challenge within the conference from UAB, UTEP and Houston.

This season, the Tigers are cruising along at 12-0 (one of the only two remaining teams that are unbeaten in conference play, along with Winthrop in the Big South). But Memphis isn't booked for a No. 1 seed like a year ago, even though the Tigers look like they could go undefeated in C-USA and have wins at Gonzaga, against Oklahoma and Kentucky in Maui, and versus Ole Miss at home (wins that look and sound good, but are against teams that, save for Ole Miss, aren't playing as well as they did a year ago).

Calipari was quick to say that the perceived weakness of C-USA shouldn't hurt the Tigers since it didn't a year ago when it was a No. 1 seed. But the difference, and Calipari acknowledges this, is there aren't any other at-large hopefuls in the league.

"People are waiting for us to drop one game, to see us lose," Calipari said. "We're not talking about the streak [in C-USA]. But we do tell our kids that we can't lose to that team or they'll make us a 6-seed."

Calipari said that a bit tongue-in-cheek, but he is paranoid when it comes to the NCAA Tournament selection process.

Calipari said the Tigers, who lost at Tennessee and Arizona, as well as to Georgia Tech in Maui, is a better defensive team this season. That's not surprising when you see that Memphis has given up fewer than 60 points in seven of its 12 conference games.

So, if you want to ding Memphis because it's Memphis, that's fine with Cal. He's confident that the crew of Chris Douglas-Roberts, Jeremy Hunt, Robert Dozier, Joey Dorsey and Antonio Anderson can go just as far as the more heralded collection a year ago -- the Elite Eight.

As for the Tigers' latest victim Gonzaga, Calipari said he can't understand why folks are down on the Zags after they lost by one point at Spokane Arena on Saturday.

"People are like, 'They lost,' " Calipari said of commentators making it seem like the Zags are toast since they lost to Memphis, essentially at home. "Did you watch the game? I think what they've done and who they've beaten, even without [suspended center Josh] Heytvelt, means they're in [the NCAAs]."

Gonzaga likely will enter the WCC tournament -- and might have to win it -- as a No. 2 seed. The Tigers will be the No. 1 seed in C-USA, barring a late swoon.

5 Hottest Teams

The Tigers are listed as the second Hottest Team exactly one month before the tourney begins. The others are Florida, South Alabama, Winthrop, and South Connecticut State. Interesting and varied group there.

From ESPN:

Memphis (14 consecutive wins)

The Tigers are talented, but not battle-tested. They've dominated a mediocre-at-best Conference USA, and their best non-conference win was against Kentucky before Thanksgiving. They've played only three ranked teams, and none since losing at Arizona on Dec. 20. Not exactly a recipe for March success. Yes, Memphis played a similar schedule last season and got to the Elite Eight. But they were a more talented team a year ago, with Shawne Williams and Darius Washington Jr. -- and they had a pretty easy road to that regional final against UCLA, beating 16-seed Oral Roberts, 9-seed Bucknell and 13-seed Bradley along the way.

Dicky V loves Dozier

Robert Dozier is one of Dick Vitale's Five "Sophomores to Watch."

The Austin Peay game was bumped back one hour, and will now tip off Thursday night at 8pm instead of 7pm. It will be televised locally on WLMT CW30.