Memphis Tigers Basketball

Sportswriters like me usually start salivating this time of year, hoping an underdog emerges as a Cinderella to juice our cliche-filled stories. I'd like to point out two teams with the potential of cracking the Sweet 16 to have on your radar.

A birth into the Sweet 16 means winning two games in the NCAA Tournament, no easy task. A team needs to be able to perform on its biggest stage of the season. I'd like to argue that these teams have what it takes to win in the NCAA Tournament at least twice.

(8) Memphis Tigers

The Memphis Tigers are on an extraordinary roll, having won seven in a row, including three games in the C-USA Tournament, where the Tigers' margin of victory averaged 25 points.

Sophomore forward Will Barton's play has been exceptional down the stretch, as he was motivated to improve after being cut from the Naismith Award watch. Barton leads the Tigers, averaging 18.1 points and eight rebounds per game.

The Tigers will see St. Louis in the first round, who are making their first tournament appearance since 2000. The Tigers have been in this tournament five out of the past six seasons, and are poised to make another deep run.

Along with Barton are Memphis natives Joe Jackson and Tarik Black, whose steady improvement through a season which saw some rocky times has helped jolt the Tigers into their current winning streak. After coming off the bench during a stretch in the season, Jackson is back in the starting lineup and leads the team in assists and is second in scoring (11.1 points, 3.8 assists per game).

To get to the Sweet 16, the Tigers will need to defeat the No. 1 seed Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans are led by big man Draymond Green, who is averaging 16 points and 10 rebounds per game.

The Tigers' Tarik Black is listed at 6'8" and 243 pounds, and he sizes up well against Green, who stands at 6'7" and weighs 230 pounds.

Don't be too shocked if the Tigers become a surprise team to sneak into the Sweet 16.

(14) Belmont Bruins

The Bruins enter the Tournament with an 0-4 record, having lost in the first round from 2006 to 2008, and again last season. Belmont has a deep team with experienced players who are ready to help their school get over the hump and win in the NCAA Tournament.

Belmont is on a tear. They have won 14 games in a row and they won their six road games by a margin of 18.5 points per game. In other words, they are ready to face some adversity.

The Bruins have four players averaging double-digit points and a fifth averaging 9.8 points per game. The team's leading assist man and scorer is junior Kerron Johnson, who averages 14.1 points and 5.2 assists per game. Johnson can pressure the underachieving Georgetown guards to create a miss-match.

After starting 13-1, the Georgetown Hoyas have struggled down the stretch and are only 10-7 in their last 17 games. They are susceptible to an upset. If Belmont is able to take down the No. 3 seed Georgetown, their road to the Sweet 16 may not be so tough.

The next round would be determined by the winner of (6) San Diego State vs. (11) NC State. With Belmont streaking, it would be hard to expect either of those teams to stop them.

Memphis basketball coach Josh Pastner greeted a few fans, boosters, reporters and well-wishers, among others, during Sunday afternoon’s watch party at the Tournament Player’s Club at Southwind, where the Tigers gathered to watch the NCAA Tournament Selection Show.

One by one, his players filled in the front row of chairs in the clubhouse’s main room to get a sneak peak of their first-round opponent and site in this week’s NCAA tournament.

Then came the much-aniticipated announcement the 200-or-so witnesses were eagerly waiting for, the one that, given Pastner’s reactions when speaking with reporters, could very well serve as bulletin board material for the Tigers.

The Tigers (26-8), despite a late-season surge in which they won the Conference USA regular season title, breezed through the conference tournament and claimed their second straight C-USA championship, and won 20 of their last 23 games, was given a No. 8 seed and will face ninth-seeded St. Louis (25-7) on Friday in Columbus, Ohio.

The winner of the Tigers-Billikens game will face the winner of No. 16-seed Long Island University-Brooklyn and top-seeded Michigan State in Sunday’s second round.

For the Tigers, who earned their second consecutive automatic berth to the NCAA tournament since Pastner replaced his former boss, current Kentucky coach John Calipari, at Memphis in 2008, Sunday's news of acquiring a lower-than-expected seed left what initially was a festive bunch of Tigers with mixed feelings and sense of disbelief by the time they addressed the media.

Sophomore swingman Will Barton, the C-USA Player of the Year and the team’s leading scorer, went as far as to describe the seeding a “slap in the face.”

“We felt like we played our butts off the last couple of games,” Barton said. “But you can’t go back and ask for a No. 5 seed or a No. 4 seed. “I was shocked. When they was about to say No. 8 seed, I thought they were about to say somebody else.”

While many of the Tigers expressed their displeasure over the low seeding, it appears the selection committee took into account not Memphis’ body of work leading to Selection Sunday, but rather its early-season slate of games, particularly against teams ranked in the top 25.  

For instance, the Tigers, who were ranked as high as No. 9 in the country in most preseason polls, went 1-6 against top 25 opponents, including losing twice to Georgetown, whose strength of schedule is 14, according to cbssports.com.

Conversely, Memphis, whose strength of schedule improved from as low as 49 near the halfway point of the season to 20 over the past week, made a strong case for securing a higher seed with key wins over Xavier, Belmont, and Southern Miss, all of whom made the field of 68.

Still, Pastner, exhibiting his usual slight smirk while taking questions from reporters, found it somewhat difficult to embrace the “No. 8” that flashed next to Memphis on the 40-inch flat-screen television mounted to the wall a few feet from where his players sat.

“We are going in as the underdog,” Pastner said. “We have that underdog mentality, and in order for us to earn our respect, we’re going to have to win. I definitely felt like we should have gotten a five seed. We’re definitely going in with a chip on our shoulder.”

Barton was quick to echo Pastner’s fearless disclosure. Considering he feels the Tigers’ recent success has been overlooked, he believes displaying a sense swagger heading into the Big Dance is inevitable.

“What I got planned, I don’t care if the game is played in Athens (Greece),” Barton said. “People are sleeping on us, but that’s a part of the business. Sometimes you’re popular, and sometimes you’re not.”

Win a couple of games this weekend, including a potential second-round, 2008 Sweet 16 rematch against Michigan State, and chances are the Tigers could earn the respect they discovered was nonexistent Sunday when No. 8 appeared next to Memphis.

But first thing’s first, a date with a St. Louis team led by veteran coach Rick Majerus.

“We’ve got to win the first game first,” Pastner said.

Chip on their shoulders and all.

Sportswriter Andre Johnson is a frequent contributor for the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper and Memphis Sport Magazine. To reach him, call 901-690-6587. You can also connect with him via Facebook under "Andre T. Johnson," or follow him at Twitter at www.twitter.com/@AJ_Journalist.

The University of Memphis Tigers are going to officially be members of the Big East Conference starting in 2013, according to a press release obtained by the staff of College Football Talk

According to the release, it seems that both sides are ecstatic about the marriage.

“Over the past decade, the University of Memphis has demonstrated an unwavering commitment of competing at the highest level in college sports,” said Big East commissioner John Marinatto.  “The University has positioned itself for long-term success by upgrading facilities and investing wisely in various areas of the athletic department including coaching and administration.  We are confident that the addition of this outstanding athletics program located in a top 50 media market and in the heart of the nation’s largest conference footprint will further propel the BIG EAST and the University of Memphis to even greater levels of success in the future.”

Memphis, along with Houston, UCF and SMU, is now part of the push to add schools from the southern United States to the conference.

These four colleges will be joining all their sports to the conference.

When the Tigers jump aboard, it will open a recruiting base in a new region for the Big East and heavily benefits Memphis as well.

Memphis can now work on legitimizing their awful football program in an automatic qualifying conference while getting a fresh start on rebuilding their basketball legacy 

It's important to note that the Big East is set to drastically change in the next few years, as longtime members Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia are all on the way out.

Pitt and ‘Cuse are trying to leave by 2013, while the Mountaineers are hoping to jump ship to the Big 12 before the 2012 season begins.

These losses are tough, but it looks like the conference is going to be just fine now that they added Memphis.

It’s also worth pointing out that Boise State, San Diego State and Navy are preparing to make the jump into the Big East for football-only purposes

Perhaps losing three schools turned out best for the Big East. It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how the conference shapes up over the next few years. 

Ever have a brain fart? Then you understand how Memphis Tigers public address announcer Chuck Roberts felt after announcing John Calipari as the team's head coach before Sunday's game against Murray State.

A video of the cringe-worthy mistake is embedded above.

Calipari hasn't coached at the school since 2009 when he moved on to lead the Kentucky Wildcats program. He had a lot of success during his tenure as head coach at Memphis, but the team's National Championship Game appearance was vacated due to issues surrounding Derrick Rose.

So once the former coach's name was uttered by Roberts, a parade of boos started and continued to grow as more fans came to understand what happened. There is obviously still a lot of hostility toward the controversial coach despite being away for a few years.

The current head coach of the Tigers is Josh Pastner.

Pastner spent time as an assistant under Lute Olson at his alma mater of Arizona before joining Calipari's staff in 2008. Once Calipari jumped ship, Pastner was chosen to return the program to prominence through his tireless recruiting.

According to a report from Tom Weir of USA Today, the current coach went over to tell Roberts not to worry about the slip up. Afterwards he jokingly said, “I told him if you're going to call me (Calipari), you've got to add some wins on my record.”

In reality, Pastner is off to a great start of his own at Memphis. The team won 49 games in his first two seasons at the helm and are 5-3 so far this year. At just 34 years old, he appears to a bright coaching future ahead of him.

However, the Tigers did get upset by the undefeated Racers after the announcing gaffe. Apparently something was just a little bit off inside FedEx Forum on Sunday.

Memphis Tigers basketball inked its first victory of the season with a quality 97-81 win over the Belmont Bruins.  The Tigers are currently ranked No. 10 in both the AP Poll and Coaches' Poll.

Memphis opened to an early 16-4 lead before Belmont mounted a scoring run that brought the Bruins within four points of the Tigers.  With some scrappy play late in the first half, Belmont pestered Memphis by closing the lead to two, before the Tigers closed the half with a late run that put the Memphis up by seven going into the locker room.

Belmont struggled in the second half, falling behind Memphis by 18 points during the Tigers' largest lead.  The Bruins mounted a comeback, however, but the in-state Memphis opponent could only pull within seven before the Tigers decided to seal the victory with a 13-4 run in the last 3:43 of the game.

Joe Jackson looked phenomenal for the Tigers.  It's apparent that his experience playing for the USA Basketball Under-19 team paid huge dividends for the young program, as Jackson finished with 33 points, four rebounds and seven assists. 

Belmont was clearly outmatched by Jackson's speed.  Jackson repeatedly cut to the basket, laying in numerous shots off the glass along with a dunk from the 6'0" point guard.  Even more impressive was Jackson's ability to find the open man in transition.

Will Barton continues to impress basketball fans with his incredible touch and agility down the floor.  The sophomore finished with a game high 23 points, despite an 0-4 day from three point range.

Other contributors included a red-hot Wesley Witherspoon who was three for three from three point range before getting into foul trouble.  Charles Carmouche was also very impressive with five steals and two three pointers made for the Tigers.

All in all, it was a very solid opening game victory for this young Memphis squad.  Probably the fastest college basketball team in the country, look for the Tigers to earn their stripes in the Maui Invitational when they take on No. 17 Michigan at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday, November 21.

Can the talented Tigers limit their youthful mistakes to cruise past a challenging Michigan program?

Recently, Louisville coach Rick Pitino said that he’d like to see current mid-majors Memphis and Temple join the Big East Conference, at least in basketball.

Both schools are located in large markets, one of which doesn’t have a Big East school in anything and the other of which doesn’t have a Big East school in football.

Pitino's suggestion also operates on the assumption that the Big East is dead—in terms of football.  Everybody thinks it except the Big East, who happen to be the only people that matter.

So I have two questions:  Would it be a good fit, and could it actually happen?

First off, let's look at the advantages of being in a major conference in basketball.  Basketball is not as dominated by the big six conferences as football is.  Solid mid-majors like Butler, Gonzaga and George Mason—or Memphis and Temple for that matter—have received consistent tournament invites and have gone far in tournaments (in fact, recent Final Fours have included mid-majors).

Temple would be better served getting into the tournament with 20-8 seasons in the Atlantic 10 than to jump to the Big East and probably go under .500 in conference play and barely .500 overall.  This would explain why it hasn’t been enthusiastic about previous opportunities to join the Big East in basketball.  On top of that, Temple’s football program (one bowl game in 30 years) is obviously going nowhere.  It was even kicked out of the Big East a few years ago.

Yes, adding Temple would give the Big East a Philadelphia marker, but isn't the Big East’s solution to cornering Philly football.  Villanova’s program is OK—for Division I-AA. Its stadium isn’t even big enough to be in the bowl subdivision.

So, Memphis?

Memphis isn’t located in current Big East territory, and is located in the Deep South (the only current school).  However, it does border existing Big East territory, and the trend nowadays among expanding conferences seems to be to add in adjacent territory (Big Ten with Nebraska, Pac-12 with Utah).

Memphis’ move would make most sense if former Metro Conference and Conference USA stablemate Louisville (coincidentally Pitino’s school) says put, allowing for a natural rivalry between Memphis and Louisville

Yeah, Memphis’ football team ain’t too hot, but with the exodus of Pitt, Syracuse, and probably West Virginia, whose in the Big East is?

Bottom line to the two questions I asked earlier:  Memphis wouldn’t be as good a fit, but is more in the realm of possibility.  Temple would be a better fit, but ain’t happening.