Conference USA Basketball

UAB, 1-0, travels to Tucson, Ariz., to play in the first round of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament vs. Santa Clara, 1-0, on Mon., Nov. 17 at 7 pm.

Opening

The Blazers opened the season by beating Troy on Saturday 87-66. Paul Delaney led all scorers with 24 points, hitting nine of 11 from the free throw line. Lawrence Kinnard added 22 points and 13 rebounds. UAB now has their sights set on the NIT Tournament.

UAB opens up first round play vs. Santa Clara out of the WCC, who last year made it to the semifinals of the WCC, losing to Gonzaga by four.  This year Santa Clara won their first game over Cal State East Bay 68-40. Senior John Bryant had his 25th double-double of his career with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

History

UAB has met Santa Clara two times before. The last meeting came in Birmingham in 1994, where SCU won 80-65 in the Blazer Classic. The other meeting was in 1991 in the Cable Car Classic, where the Blazers won.

Probable Starting Lineups

Blazers

Paul Delaney G

Lawrence Kinnard F

Robert Vaden G

Channing Toney G

Aaron Johnson G

Broncos

John Bryant C

James Rahon G

Michael Santos G

Perry Petty G

Ben Dowdell F

The winner of this game will advance to the second round of the NIT Tip-off and face the winner of Arizona/Florida Atlantic, while the loser will also face the loser of that game. Winners play at 10:30 on ESPN 2, and the losers play at 7:30.

The Memphis Tigers seem to be in the rejuvenating process, rather than rebuilding. After losing to the Kansas Jayhawks in the national championship game a year ago, the Tigers lost their three-headed monster of Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas-Roberts, and Joey Dorsey—all wearing NBA threads these days.

Most teams losing 53 percent of their scoring punch would probably take a significant step back—but not these Tigers.

In come heralded freshmen Tyreke Evans, Wesley Witherspoon, and Angel Garcia. Evans is a smooth combo guard who is most comfortable on the wing and was ranked sixth overall by Rivals.com. He will attempt to fill the shoes that Rose left after only one season.

Witherspoon (ranked 34th overall by Rivals.com) is as versatile as they come, having the ability to play four different positions on the floor. The 6'10" Garcia (ranked 46th by Rivals.com) comes in as a hybrid-type of player, able to dribble the ball and pass out of the post, and also possesses a sweet jump shot that stretches beyond the arc.

These three new Tigers should have an immediate impact—and will have to for the Tigers to make another serious run in the tournament.

Seniors Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier are the only starters that remain from a year ago, and both of them will have to step up as the emotional leaders of this young Tigers squad. Anderson's average of 8.6 points per game will likely increase, as well as Dozier's 9.2 last season.

Also returning are forward Shawn Taggart and guards Willie Kemp and Doneal Mack, all who will likely see plenty of action and need to fill the gap left by the trio from last season.

Conference USA won't present the Tigers with many challenges, but it's unlikely the team will be able to blaze through unscathed like last year. These Tigers will have their growing pains, but by the time March comes around, they could be as dangerous as any team in the country.

The Tigers' second matchup of the season is against Coach Calipari's former powerhouse, UMass. This should be an intriguing game for Tiger fans. Three games later the Tigers travel to the nation's capital to take a Georgetown team that is young and explosive. On Dec. 29 the Tigers play host to the Cincinnati Bearcats, renewing an old rivalry.

On Jan. 24 comes the game every Tiger fan has marked on their calendars—a date with the Tennessee Volunteers at their place. This one is sure to be a slugfest. Finally the Tigers will face another top team in Gonzaga on the road.

Another 30-win season for the Tigers is a stretch, but the conference title is already wrapped up—and if these Tigers peak at the right time, maybe a national championship to avenge the one lost a year ago will be too.

Two minute and 12 seconds remained, and Memphis was up nine in the championship game. Memphis wasn't even expected by some to make it past the Sweet 16, but a surge in free throw shooting and a surge by both Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose led the Tigers all the way to this moment.

Suddenly, two minutes and 12 seconds later, the game was headed into overtime and Memphis was without their starting center Joey Dorsey. The two Achilles' heels Memphis had going into the tournament (foul trouble and free-throw shooting) did them in en route to losing to Kansas in the national championship game.

Now, three of the players that helped Memphis on that run are in the NBA, and Memphis is left with only two remaining starters and a few players off the bench. Memphis also got a few recruits in order to aid in the rebuilding process, but the task will be brutal, especially with the schedule Memphis has to face.

Memphis will play in the Puerto Rico shootout, where they could meet either USC or Seton Hall in the second round, assuming they beat Chattanooga. Then in December the Tigers travel to our nation's capital to take on a Georgetown team that was very solid last year and should be this year, even without Roy Hibbert.

Two of the toughest games for the Tigers will be on the road when they have breaks in conference play. In late January, the Tigers will make a trip over to Knoxville to avenge last season's only loss against Tennessee, and in mid-February, the Tigers have to travel to Washington to take on a much-improved Gonzaga team from last year.

They also will be facing some new threats from Conference USA, such as Tulsa and UTEP, while UAB should still be another contender.

The Tigers have a tough road in what will be a rebuilding year for them, but don't count them out just because of no Rose, CDR, or Dorsey. The Tigers will have some players that can step up for them.

The player I believe will have the biggest year for the Tigers is Robert Dozier. With CDR gone, Memphis will need him to step up and score points. In their exhibition game he had 21 points, so good signs from him so far. Memphis also returns outstanding defender Antonio Anderson, so their defense should still be solid.

Calipari also got a big name recruit in Tyreke Evans, and Willie Kemp should be the point guard this year for the Tigers. Also the Tigers still have shot-blocker Shawn Taggart and a big body in Pierre Niles. Doneal Mack and Jeff Robinson both give the Tigers even more depth.

Roburt Sallie is supposed to be a good shooter for the Tigers, and freshman Wesley Witherspoon will make another great addition to the roster. Simpkins and Garcia are two high profile forwards recruited that should see some playing time, and if they fit into the system, they will be great players by their junior or senior year.

The Tigers have some losses, and their gains this season won't make up for that initially, but over the course of a few seasons the Tigers will be back to the championship and will probably win it next time as long as Calipari stays.

Important things to remember are that Calipari is still the coach and the Tigers still have players from that team last year who had a great role in getting the Tigers to the championship game (Dozier, Anderson, Kemp, Taggart). Memphis won't go 38-2 this year, and they may very well lose five or six games this season, but I wouldn't bet on any more.

The Tigers will win the C-USA Championship again, and they will be back in the NCAA Tournament. I imagine the Tigers could make it back to the Elite Eight and may pull a surprise and make it back to the Final Four depending on if the team improves.

The Tigers have taken a few steps back, but they look to continue to move forward from here.

In preparation for the start of the regular season next Sunday, the CU women’s basketball team blew out Regis University 86-44, in an exhibition game at the Coors Events Center on Sunday afternoon.

Head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said she was pleased with her team’s performance, but admits there are still areas to work on before the season starts.

“I thought the ball pressure was great on the defensive end, causing 34 turnovers, easy buckets in transition, this group likes to get out and run and I thought their decision making was very good,” McConnell-Miller said.

“Free throws are a concern, this is very uncharacteristic for this group, because every day in practice it’s a focus and I don’t think we’re ever less than about 78 percebt from the free throw line.”

CU finished 16 for 25 from the charity line, a very low number since free throws have been an emphasis with the team since the start of practice.

“Our free throws we definitely need to work on,” said redshirt-sophomore Kelly Jo Mullaney. “We’ve been doing that a lot in practice so it’s kind of surprising that we’ve missed our free throws because of how much time we do spend on it in practice.”

Mullaney had 16 points, three rebounds, and three assists in her 22 minutes played against Regis.

After having to sit out a year per NCAA rules after transferring from Colorado State, Mullaney said it felt good to be back on the court in a game situation.

“It felt great, it was a good game to get under my belt, to play with my teammates and the chemistry on the floor was amazing,” Mullaney said. “It was great to be out there and play a game after two years of sitting out basically.”

A surprise for CU was the play of freshman Alyssa Fressle who played the most minutes on the team with 33 and led the Buffs in points with 18, while posting seven rebounds and three assists in her first collegiate game.

“I had some jitters, but I think that was normal,” Fressle said. “It was good to get this game out of the way and focus on a real game next Sunday.”

McConnell-Miller said Fressle’s play helped ignite the team not only on offense but on defense as well.

“I think she ignited everything on the defensive end, the amount of ball pressure she gives us really allows other players to take chances, gets deflections, and creates time constraints for the other team which forces them to take tough shots,” McConnell-Miller said.

The Buffs never trailed in the contest and started the game on a 16-3 run, which featured four 3-pointers.

Colorado went 4-for-4 from the three-point line in the first four minutes of the game, but then went 1-for-8 in the next eight minutes of the first half.

CU finished 8-for-23 from beyond the arc, something that McConnell-Miller did not especially like.

“I’m okay with the four for four, I’m not ok with that one for eight,” McConnell-Miller said. “Making eight is fine, taking 23, we’ve done worse, but we definitely need to shoot a higher percentage because we have some players who can make those shots.”

Except for a few minor details, it seemed like the Buffs were clicking on all cylinders in this warm up game.

However, McConnell-Miller said they need to do a better job in the rotation of players and in the preparation for the opposing team, before next Sunday’s season opener against Central Florida at 2:30 P.M. at the Coors Events Center.

“I think a better rotation for me, I think better combinations of players, and really what we’re running with, with those groups of players,” McConnell-Miller said. “Not taking so many chances on the defensive end, and hopefully having a little better preparation for what [the other team] is supposed to run.”

Memphis has certainly lost a lot in the past year: a national title game, three assistant coaches, and three players to the NBA.

But the Tigers are still poised to win.

Coach John Calipari still has a roster oozing with talent and athleticism that should capture the Conference USA title once again.

Gone is premier point guard Derrick Rose, supreme swingman Chris Douglas-Roberts, and the bulldozer under the basket Joey Dorsey. Their replacements are capable, but not as dominant meaning Memphis will be spending its season fighting to stay in the rankings rather than fighting to stay at the top of rankings.

Rose's departure doesn't leave Memphis without a true point guard as returning starter Antonio Anderson played the point two years ago before Rose suited up for the Tigers.

Anderson considered going pro, but returns as the team's best defender in the backcourt and floor general. The senior leads the returning players in steals and is also a decent long range shooter.

Despite the talents of Rose and Douglas-Roberts, Anderson averaged the most minutes per game, but late in the game Anderson was a liability. The 6'6'' guard is a horrendous free throw shooter at 57 percent.

Anderson's backcourt partner will be the man that tries to make Memphis fans forget about Derrick Rose.

Freshman Tyreke Evans finally picked Memphis as his school of choice over several other eastern powerhouses. Evans might be the best pure scorer of his freshman class and will pick up the slack of Rose and CDR who averaged 33 points per game last year combined.

The Pennslyvania product will fit perfectly into John Calipari's "Princeton offense on steroids." It's a dribble-drive motion offense that emphasizes the drive and kick. Evans can get to the basket, but also drill a three-pointer better than Rose.

Evans isn't the only impact newcomer.

Four star recruit Wesley Witherspoon stands 6'8'', but can play anywhere from the two to the four on the floor. Witherspoon isn't going to be a big time scorer during his freshman season, but he will prove to be a solid defender.

Memphis also picked up one of the best JUCO transfers in the country. Roburt Sallie can really score, but also distribute the ball. If Sallie lives up to the billing, he could be the starting point guard by the end, moving Antonio Anderson to the two, and leaving Evans as the swingman. Junior sharpshooter Willie Kemp would move to the bench.

Kemp can hit an open three and will be the beneficiary of an Antonio Anderson or Tyreke Evans drive. Kemp and fellow guard Doneal Mack will have lots of open looks from three in Calipari's offense.

Mack's role last season was to hit three pointers and that's about it. He took a three-pointer every 2.5 minutes he was on the floor and attempted almost four times as many threes than twos.

John Calipari will certainly have enough guards to operate in 2009, but the frontcourt will repeatedly cost the Tigers.

Memphis returns two players that have a significant amount of game experience. Robert Dozier will be the best body under the basket, but Dozier isn't much of a scorer. The senior will rebound the heck out of the ball and play with great tenacity.

The other returning forward is junior Shawn Taggart. The 6'10'' big man surprisingly won Memphis' Midnight Madness three point contest, but Calipari is going to want Taggart to stick around the basket when it matters.

After Dozier and Taggart, finding a big who Calipari can rely on to contribute is questionable.

Junior Pierre Henderson-Niles has finally lost a boatload of weight, dropping below the 300 pound mark. Even if Niles still isn't in the greatest playing condition, he'll be thrown into the mix as the first forward off the bench.

The aforementioned Wesley Witherspoon will also see time at power forward. Freshmen Angel Garcia and Matt Simpkins aren't really ready to contribute, but will in all likelihood be forced into action due to the Tiger's lack of frontcourt depth.

Predictions as well as best and worst case scenarios after the jump.

Schedule

Memphis will go on a small tour of the Big East in the non-conference slate. The Tigers will host Syracuse and Cincinnati as well as travel to Georgetown. Memphis could also face Seton Hall in a tournament in San Juan. Calipari also challenges his team with a potential game against USC in San Juan and hosting fellow mid-major UMass.

The most anticipated game of the year will be a date with the Volunteers. Memphis will take a one game hiatus from its conference schedule to continue its ever-growing instate rivalry with Tennessee.

Memphis will also go out of conference in February to travel to Spokane, Washington to take on another potential top ten team Gonzaga.

Best Case Scenario

Tyreke Evans can score at will, Antonio Anderson is a shut down defender, and the frontcourt doesn't repeatedly gets burned by its lack of depth.

Memphis gets through its non-conference schedule with just two losses and in the process upsets either Gonzaga or Tennessee.

The Tigers lose just two games in Conference USA, ending their 42 game winning streak in the conference. Memphis wins the conference tournament and heads to the NCAA Tournament as a three seed where they advance to the Sweet 16.

Worst Case Scenario

Tyreke Evans isn't as good of a scorer as anticipated and the frontcourt is a disaster.

Memphis loses its two big showdowns as well as in its trip to Georgetown and when it hosts Syracuse. The Tigers lose at least five games in a much improved Conference USA and sneaks into the NCAA Tournament as a ten seed where they are bounced in the first round.

What Should Happen

Tyreke Evans scores at will, but the frontcourt persists as a major problem, consistently losing Memphis games. The Tigers lose three games out of conference and three in conference on the way to another Conference USA title.

Memphis enters the tournament as a five seed and is eliminated in the second round.

18. Villanova

19. Miami

20. UNLV

21. Wake Forest

22. USC

23. Baylor

24. Syracuse

25. Kentucky

Don Haskins, portrayed in Disney’s “Glory Road” as the legendary coach who won a national title in 1966 with five starting black players on UTEP (then Texas Western), has passed on September 7 at age 78.

The Hall of Fame coach had a career record of 719-353, 14 NCAA tournament appearances, 7 NIT berths, 14 WAC championships, and 4 WAC tournament titles in his 38 years of coaching El Paso before health issues forced his retirement.

Haskins was the prime example of being color blind when dealing with race. He grew up in Oklahoma playing one-on-one with one of his childhood friends Herman Carr, an African American.

Forever dignified, Haskins was always an everyday person, approachable by many. He never meant to take advantage of his celebrity, but always willing to help others in need regardless of whom they were, even when he himself was not better off.

Rather than worry about his job or image, he played black players with the sense of “If you don’t take them I will and win with them.” Unlike the events parlayed in the movie, Haskins always started his best players throughout the season, who just so happen to be all black.

He never meant to be a pioneer, just someone unbiased to give individuals a chance to excel in both sports and life. To prove such a point Don was one of the few coaches, if not only, to play more than one or two non-white player at a time on the floor during the early ‘60s because he cared more about winning than race.

That decision came with the hardship of being one of the most despised men in the South. He had received thousands of hate letters leading up to the national championship and Civil Rights leaders thought he was using his players like puppets. Even so his high flying offensive, defensively stingy team continued to trudge along to 23-1 in the regular season.

Haskins played only his black players against Adolph Rupp’s all-white Kentucky squad in a 72-65 win for a 28-1 season and the national championship. Rupp viewed the game after the loss picturing Texas Western as “urban street thugs, quasi-professionals imported from Northern cities to win Haskins a championship.”

The win opened the door for Perry Wallace to become the first African American to play in the SEC and rose the flood gate for others to be heavily recruited to major college basketball powerhouses thereafter.

Haskins’ coaching tree includes the likes of current USC head coach Tim Floyd, friend Norm Ellenberger after Lobo-Gate, and the outspoken Nolan Richardson, who won the 1994 NCAA tournament and lost to UCLA in the final game the next season.

It was only fitting that the namesake of the Don Haskins Center passes exactly a year after his 1966 team was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He leaves behind his wife Mary and three sons, Brent, David, and Steve.

As Memphis looks to rebound from its crushing loss to Kansas in the NCAA Championship game, coach John Calipari's hopes of reloading fall on the talented shoulders of incoming freshman Tyreke Evans, who inherits a much-greener roster than big-time recruit Derrick Rose did last year.

Evans is the No. 6 rated recruit for this year’s college basketball freshman class according to Rivals.com.  At American Christian High School in Aston, Pennsylvania, Evans excelled at the point guard position, earning the No. 3 point guard rating from Rivals.com. 

However, Memphis will not be giving Evans the direct burden of filling in the shoes of this year’s No. 1 NBA draft pick, Derrick Rose.  The team has announced the veteran Willie Kemp will take over as point guard, and Evans will shift to shooting guard.  In many ways though, Evans is still expected to replace Rose.

Evans and Rose have many similarities, but it is mostly Evans’ hype coming out of high school that will draw him comparisons to the former freshman phenom.

While Evans is ranked as the No. 6 recruit in his class, Rose was the No. 3 rated recruit in the freshman class of 2007.  Rose was also the No. 1 rated point guard, while Evans ranks No. 3.  

Both Evans and Rose have very good size for the guard position.  Evans is 6’5 while Rose is slightly shorter at 6’4.  

They both also come from very similar backgrounds.  Evans is from Chester, PA, a tough area in Philadelphia, while Rose is from the south side of Chicago. 

When his incredible basketball talent began to show, Rose’s mother made sure that his older brothers looked out for him to keep him safe and out of trouble during high school.  Evans had a very similar situation, as his older brothers protected him and even sent him to a private high school away from the streets of Philly.

In his senior year of high school, Evans averaged 29 points per game.  Rose averaged fewer points at 25.2 per game in his senior season, but did lead his team to their second straight state title.

Both stars have the rare ability to make the game look very easy.  They both are extremely quick and very talented at driving the ball to the basket and finishing strong.

There is one more thing that both Rose and Evans have in common that is extremely important.  Rose only played one year at Memphis before leaving for the NBA, and nobody would be surprised if Evans did the exact same thing.

Evans has already been projected to be the No. 10 overall pick and next year’s draft, and has said he hopes that his time on Memphis helps to prepare him for the NBA.

Ever since the rule was set that players must be one year removed from High School to be eligible for the NBA, the one-and-done college basketball player has become extremely common.  In 2006, six of the top seven ranked players (again according to Rivals.com) out of high school left for the NBA after their freshman season.  Last year, nine of the top ten ranked players made the same jump to the NBA after just one year in college.

Being the No. 6 rated recruit for this year’s class, if the trend continues then the chances of Evans bolting for the NBA after one year at Memphis are very high.

In fact, it is fairly simple to create a logistic regression statistical model to predict the probability of Evans going one-and-done.  Thus, I used data from the last two seasons’ freshman classes to do just that.  I used the top 30 ranked recruits for the freshman class of 2006 and the top 30 ranked recruits from last year.  

I found a model based solely off of the rankings from Rivals.com to be an extremely good predictor for whether or not the player goes to the NBA after one season.  Based off of this model, which only takes into account his No. 6 ranking, Evans is given a 77.4% chance of turning professional after this season.

Additionally, I came up with another model that includes a measure for success in a player’s first year of college.  I chose to quantify this success in terms of points scored per game.  Based off of this model, the chance of Evans going to the NBA after his freshman year depends on how well he does this season.  To give an idea, if Evans averages 10 points per game this season, his probability of going to the NBA then drops to 52%.  If Evans averages 20 points per game, then his probability of going to the NBA goes up to 92.5%.  

It should be noted that there is not a lot of data available to use for this study since the rule has only been in place for two years.  The probabilities mentioned assume that the trends from the previous two years will hold this season as well.

It should also be noted that when I say leaving for the NBA after one season, I mean that a player fails to return to his college team the next season for the main reason of playing in the NBA.  Players that “tested the waters” in the NBA and then returned to their college teams were not considered to be one-and-done.  Also, players that left their teams for reasons other than the NBA (academics, etc.) were not considered to be one-and-done either.

Clearly, Memphis fans should be more immediately concerned about the productivity from Evans for this season rather than if he will be around beyond that, but it certainly makes it more difficult for Memphis (or any other team) to maintain a dominant program if its star players only play for one season.

Evans gives the Memphis program a lot to be excited about for this season, even if he does not stay a Tiger beyond that.  For Memphis to have another chance at a national title this season, Evans will have to live up to his hype.  Just like Rose before him.  

Every day, I will give a new reason to be pumped for the upcoming college basketball season. Here's the 71st reason to be excited for college basketball season.

Every year, there's a team that exceeds all expectations and becomes one of the premier teams in the country. 

Drake did it in 2008. They went 17-15 in 2007 and then 28-5 in 2008. They were widely considered one of the worst teams in the Missouri Valley and then promptly won the conference.

In 2007, Butler was coming off a solid 20-win season, but to start the 2007 season, the Bulldogs went on one of the most ridiculous runs. They took down power-conference team after power-conference team on the way to a preseason NIT title.

And, of course, in 2006, George Mason made probably the most unexpected run by a Cinderella in all of NCAA history, until Fresno State's recent College World Series title.

So, in 2008, who's going to take the title of the unknown Cinderella? Who will take the title for mid-major program that 90 percent of America can't identify its location on a map?

There are several candidates out there, some with experience in March, while some will truly come out of nowhere.

The Belmont Bruins jump out as a team that could make some noise during the regular season and potentially in the first round of the tournament. They've made three NCAA tournaments in the last seven years and bring back four starters that played key roles in the Bruins' last-second loss to Duke in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament.

Belmont loses its leading scorer, but brings back its next four best players. Two new freshmen, Brandon Baker and Drew Hanlen, will also improve the Bruins.

What Belmont doesn't have going for them is the low RPI they are destined to have after playing a full conference schedule in the Atlantic Sun conference. They are almost guaranteed to get a 15 or 16 seed, no matter what they do, unless the Bruins knock off a top-tier team during the non-conference slate.

Utah, once basked in glory during the 1990s, a run that ended in a national-title game loss to Kentucky in 1998.

In 2008, the Utes finished 18-15 and under .500 in the conference, but what Utah does have going for them is the return of all five starters. Utah has those wonderful buzzwords: senior leadership. Shaun Green and Lawrence Borha both started throughout the 2008 season and return for 2009 as seniors.

Coach Jim Boylen also has one of the best players in the conference, as well as the tallest in 7'1'' center Luke Nevill. He could be one of those unknown players the country falls in love with come March. Nevill also projects to potentially be a first-round pick in the 2009 draft.

The University of Alabama-Birmingham could finally challenge Memphis for Conference USA supremacy. UAB features a trio of very dangerous players that could give the Tigers fits.

When Robert Vaden pulled his name out of the draft, UAB got one of the most explosive players in the country. He repeatedly took over games and sent teams scurrying out of the gym with devastating losses (go ask Kentucky what they think of Vaden).

On top of Vaden, UAB features Paul Delaney, who returns for a fifth and final season after blowing out his knee four games into the 2008 campaign. He averaged 15.5 points in 2007 and will be a very nice compliment to Vaden.

The wild card to UAB's success will be a player I watched tear my alma mater apart in high school. Terrence Roderick reportedly barely graduated from William Allen High School in 2006 and fell off the national basketball radar when he went to a year of prep school before transferring to UAB.

Long story short, he got his grades up and is now a member of the Blazers. He's a great talent (11th best prep-school recruit) and could contribute immediately.

So, reason number 71 to be pumped for the College Basketball season is the emergence of a new Cinderella that will capture the hearts of millions in March.

John Paxson appeared on ESPN 1000’s Waddle and Silvy to discuss the Deng signing, the Gordon negotiations, and potential trades.

Paxson said that it is a done deal with Luol Deng. He refused to give out the terms of the deal or the incentives. He sees Deng being a better player next year with Derrick Rose. He thinks there is now a comfort level on both sides and that Deng will be able to take a deep breath and not worry about anything for awhile.

Deng never gave the Bulls an ultimatum of August 4th. Paxson thinks that this was just something that got planted in the media for negotiating leverage. They knew from the beginning that Luol preferred to have some certainty of his contract situation by the time he left to London.

Looking back at last year, Paxson is still amazed at how everything just went wrong from the beginning. Starting with the contracts not getting done, then the outsider perspective of things falling apart and the Bulls not treating their players well, and also the Kobe rumor. He thinks it is unfair to question Deng’s mental makeup when everyone on the team had a down year, although he thinks that it is human nature for uncertainty in one’s job life to affect them. Paxson appreciates all the hard work and all he’s done for the organization and thinks that Luol’s best days are ahead of him.

Paxson thinks that Gordon has every right to explore Europe as an option. It is the reality of the business with the current rules that restricted free agents have to explore options like this. Paxson says that Gordon has the right to explore his options in Europe, signing an offer sheet with another team, and finding a sign and trade. Paxson thinks a sign and trade will be difficult because the other team has to pay Gordon what he wants while also making the deal attractive to the Bulls. Paxson maintains that he wants to resign Gordon and that this has always been his intention. He says that negotiations aren’t just throwing a figure down and having it magically get done. Now with Luol Deng signed, the team can look at their budget sheeets and come to more of a certainty on what they can offer Gordon.

Paxson also said that he is always working the phones. He would like to get a deal done to clear out the guard glut and balance the roster. He never intended for the backcourt to get this crowded, but that it just happened as a result of the Bulls landing the top pick and drafting Derrick Rose. He says that he will not make a money deal unless it gives them flexibility to pull off another move. He did not say whether that move has to be a trade, or if it is giving them cap space to possibly sign a blockbuster free agent.

Also, Paxson said that Derrick Rose’s knee concerns are not serious. Vinny went down to Vegas to watch Rose play for the Select Team and thought Derrick looked great. It is just tendinitis in Derrick’s knee and there is nothing structurally wrong.

The interview can be listened to at ESPN1000.com.

Razorback fans living in Memphis: be strong.

You’ll need to be, because ESPN.com has given Tiger fans yet another bragging right over their Hog-loving rivals. In case you haven’t heard, the Worldwide Leader in Sports has compiled its list of the most prestigious college basketball programs since the 1984-85 season.

The Hogs slide in at No. 15. Not too bad, you might say, especially considering the all-out crappy play that plagued the program throughout much of this decade.

The good feelings—if you can call them that—won’t last long, however. To be exact, they will last as long as the time it takes your eyes to scroll down to No. 14. That’s where the Memphis Tigers—at one point perhaps the Razorbacks’ biggest rival—reside.

First, Memphis coach John Calipari says Arkansas is not a “national program” and discontinues the annual series between the schools. Next, Memphis has completely and thoroughly outshone the Hogs for the past five years or so.

Then, when Frank of the Ozarks calls Calipari to see if he’s interested in the Arkansas job, it apparently takes the Tigers coach less than a nanosecond to say, “No.” And now, this ESPN ranking.

Oh, the humiliation.

When this rivalry was at its height in the 1990s, there was no team I hated losing to more than Memphis. I don’t have that level of animosity any more, thanks to court-ordered counseling and to my befriending a couple of Tigers fans over the years. I even found myself rooting for Memphis during the past few NCAA Tournaments.

Still, when those friends invite me over, I’d like to have something to gloat about for a change.