Tag Archives: Memphis Tigers

The Odds: Ever in Your Favor?

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The Kentucky Wildcats and Kansas Jayhawks will play in the NCAA title game on Monday night in New Orleans.

Kentucky's Terrence Jones (3) appeared to boot the rock into the rafters during the Wildcats' victory over Indiana. Photo by Greg Nelson for SI, courtesy of cnnsi.com.

Kentucky coach John Calipari oozes confidence, but do you think that, deep down inside, he felt like kicking something after Kansas came back to defeat Ohio State in the second semifinal?

After all, seeing Bill Self at the other side of the scorer’s table on Monday night can’t help but remind him of the national championship game in 2008:

After Mario Chalmers’ three-pointer sent the game into overtime, Kansas captured the title with a 75-68 win.

Kansas players celebrate the 2008 national title victory over Memphis. Photo courtesy of Kansas Athletics.

Calipari has returned to the national final loaded for bear with a collection of talent that puts the 2007-2008 Memphis team to shame, even though that team included a future NBA MVP in Derrick Rose and two second-round NBA picks in Chris Douglas-Roberts and Joey Dorsey. (Guard Antonio Anderson also had a brief stretch in the league.)

Calipari got the better of Self earlier this season, when the Wildcats knocked off the Jayhawks 75-65 at Madison Square Garden on November 15. That game was the first time that the coaches had squared off since the 2008 title game (Kansas defeated Memphis 57-55 on November 17, 2009, but Calipari had departed for Kentucky).

One way or the other, history will repeat itself on Monday night. Kentucky fans can hope that the game in New Orleans ends the same way as the game in the Garden four months ago, while Jayhawk supporters will hope that the spirit of Mario Chalmers is in the building to help Kansas again deny Calipari a national title.

What’s your favorite color, baby?

 

Memphis Style

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The Memphis Tigers

The recent post on the Memphis Grizzlies’ throwback uniforms seems to be generating a lot (hey, it’s all relative) of traffic. It remains to be seen whether the interwebs are equally curious about uniforms that are actually cool, but here goes.

Tarik Black (10) sends one home in Memphis

Several times this year, the Memphis Tigers have worn throwback uniforms based on the Tigers’ uniforms from the 1972-1973 season. I’m partial to the blue road version, but the white home version that Memphis debuted in the home opener against Belmont caused a craze. As Jason Smith reported, Tigers coach Josh Pastner was deluged with requests from fans who wanted to buy one of the jerseys, so he encouraged them to email the university president to ask that they be made available to the public. No word on how many emails Dr. Shirley Raines received, but I couldn’t find the jerseys for sale in the Tigers’ online store.

New Mexico

Several college teams have gone with the throwback look this year, but the New Mexico Lobos earned the It Goes to XI stamp of approval for the white uniforms they brought out for their home match-up against the Wyoming Cowboys (a 48-38 Lobo victory).

According to Lobos coach Steve Alford, the uniforms combine elements from several different uniforms from the ’60′s through the ’80′s. Alford, however, wisely sacrificed authenticity when he decided to leave the micro uniform shorts in the past. “The retro uniform pretty much got thrown out because had I gone with the short shorts, we might not have been able to field a team,” Alford told the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Perhaps Alford was feeling nostalgic for his days as a star at Indiana (pictured at right).   If so, who could blame him? He left Indiana as the school’s all-time leading scorer (2,438 points – currently second behind Calbert Cheaney) and as a national champion. His final college game was the Hoosiers’ 74-73 victory over Syracuse to win the 1987 national title; in that game, Alford scored 23 points, shooting 8-15 from the floor, including 7-10 from beyond the arc.

As Seth Davis recently pointed out, Alford has not been half bad as a coach, either. At his first Division I head coaching stop, Alford led Southwest Missouri State to the Sweet Sixteen in 1999. Alford then coached the Iowa Hawkeyes for eight seasons, posting an overall record of 152-106. Under Alford, the Hawkeyes had seven consecutive winning seasons and played in the NCAA tournament three times. Alford is currently in his fifth season at New Mexico, where he has won at least 22 games each year. This year’s squad is 24-6 and won the Mountain West Conference regular season title. Alford likely deserves more credit than he gets as a head coach.

Deserved or not, I will give credit to Alford for this. In the short time I have been writing this blog, I have looked at a lot of team websites, and this is the first autograph request form that I have run across. Maybe Coach would sign one of these for me.

Back to the uniforms: the Lobos have worn them only against Wyoming, but here’s hoping that they make an appearance in the MWC Tournament (Vegas, baby!) or in the Big Dance. If you would like to be that guy at your next pickup game, you can get your own throwback here.

A better look at the New Mexico throwback jerseys, as worn by Drew Gordon (32), A.J. Hardeman (00), and Phillip McDonald. Photo by Will Webber, courtesy of the New Mexican.