End Of Story.

Doc’s Note:This is the last installment in a series of columns about sports at Crichton College. Check back in August for more tales from North Highland Park.

The Senator’s Supporters: (l-r) Cassie White, Brittney Davis, SGA Senator-Elect Doc Hancock, Bradley Greer, and Ginny Galloway May 7, 2008

It was almost a year ago when yours truly walked into the athletic duplex in North Highland Park and pitched an idea of building what would later on be the first of many partnerships with this website with the people of North Highland Park.

And it was almost a year ago when I found myself out of a job with the Tennessee Cheesecake Company of Nashville and three months later wound up as a student assistant with Crichton basketball.

In that time span, from August of last year to now, as I sit in front of my computer and write what will be the final column on North Highland Park until we start it up again in August, I have written many funny if not brilliant columns on sports here.

There was the first column on Danstar and high school classmate Michelle Williams, who will be a semester away from graduating and moving on towards her dream of being a professional dancer (no, not that type of dancing, you perverts).

We’ve introduced you all to people like Rufus Tomassetti, who to this day is one of my good friends here in North Highland Park, and Courtnee Steen, who was mentioned in one of my columns about spending time at a soccer game back in late September and one of my supporters as I ran for a seat on the SGA Senate.

There’s been stories about Crichton Flag Football, an idea that was cooked up by soon-to-be graduating Shawn “The Commissioner” Beloate, mascot tryouts and interviewing the random hottie for a story on the eve of the “Battle of the Sexes” before Thanksgiving.

You’ve read about my time on the road with the “Basketball Brotherhood” during the holiday break to places like St. Louis and Waleska, Georgia and why on one of those trips I tried fight the government in Calhoun, Georgia.

I’ve had the honor of introducing the world to people like soccer players Bradley Greer, Kyle O’Neil, Todd Meyer, Courtney Andrews, and Patrick Kabano.

Not to mention softball players Jasmine Scudder, Aimee Grissom, Brittney Davis, and former student director of basketball operations John Tibbits.

The 6th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: Maryland Terrapins

Maryland Terrapins

Location: College Park, Maryland

Nickname: Terrapins

Reason For Nickname: In 1932, then-president Curley Byrd suggested that their athletic programs be known as the Terrapins. The name has stuck ever since.

Colors: Officially - red, white, black, and gold

Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference

Arena: Comcast Center (built 2002, capacity 17,950)

Postseason Appearances:

NCAA Appearances: 22 Appearances, two Final Fours, one National Championship

NIT Appearances: 7 Appearances, one Championship

“We Have Smoking Hot Chicks That Play Softball And They’re Also Smart”

Doc’s Note: This is the latest in a series of columns about sports at Crichton. These columns will run until the end of the school year.

Lady Comets (l-r) Sierra Coltharp, Ashley Smith, Jessica Divittorio, Erica Brich, Erica Valentine, and Courtnee Steen pose for picture after being honored by the TransSouth Conference for scholastic acheivement.

Not too long ago, I said to softball players Rebecca Allen and Anna Carter, who just so happen to be neighbors of mine, that there’s a reason why I enjoyed announcing softball games.

“We have smoking hot chicks that play softball,” I said jokingly, only to realize that much of that statement was true.

Away from that statement, the softball team this year, despite the injuries to Cassie White and Anna Carter — who as I write this has recovered well from her surgery — has improved on what had been a baptism by fire during their first season of varsity softball in North Highland Park as they finished the regular season in seventh place and earned their first tourney win in school history on Wednesday morning in Jackson against Mid-Continent.

Despite the fact that I did say three months ago that Crichton does in fact have smoking hot chicks that do play softball, you can’t help but notice the simple fact that although these young ladies are athletes, they still haven’t forgotten the true reason why they came to play softball here in North Highland Park.

Represent the school with class.

Although shortstop Aimee Grissom, who only three months ago beat a certain sportswriter in basketball and forced him to convert to Islam for twenty minutes, she also has done an outstanding job as resident assistant in Madison East and will be on track to graduate at the end of this year from Crichton.

Catcher Ashley Smith, who was one of the original TNB supporters here in North Highland Park, will earn her degree in May as well as former softball standout Ginny Galloway.

At the present moment, the softball team will have among other things, the highest GPA among athletic teams in North Highland Park.

That’s an accomplishment that doesn’t get any type of notice in the sports pages.

Thanks in part to Coach Michelle Wilkes and her staff, the softball team has learned over time that once the softball games stop, they will still have a future.

Who knows what accomplishments will lie beyond North Highland Park for them.

All we can say is that we thank them for their time here and we’ll see them somewhere carrying the slogan for North Highland Park: think, change, and grow spirtually.

The 7th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

Location: Bowling Green, Kentucky

Nickname: Hilltoppers

Reason For Nickname: The location of Western Kentucky University, which is located on a hill in Bowling Green.

Colors: Red and White

Conference: Sun Belt

Arena: E.A. Diddle Arena (built 1963, capacity 14,277)

Postseason Appearances:

NCAA Tournament Appearances: 20 Appearances, one Final Four.

NIT Appearances:13 Appearances, three Final Fours

The 8th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: North Carolina State Wolfpack

North Carolina State Wolfpack

Location: Raleigh, North Carolina

Nickname: Wolfpack

Reason For Nickname: In 1922, a disgruntled fan said that the student section behaved like a “wolfpack”, therefore giving the nickname to the NC State program.

Colors: Red and White

Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference

Arena: RBC Center (built 1999, capacity 19, 722)

Postseason Appearances:

NCAA Tournament Appearances: 22 Appearances, three Final Fours, two National Championships

NIT Appearances: 11 Appearances

There’s Still Time On The Clock, Just Push It Up The Floor

Every baseball fan young and old knows all too well about the story of the Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles and how, after 50 years of major league baseball in Southern California, Walter O’Malley’s name in Brooklyn is still spoken with a sense of complete dislike.

Fast-forward to 2008, where instead of close-knit Brooklynites begging for the Dodgers not to depart from Flathbush, a city and a former owner is fighting like crazy to keep their beloved NBA team in the city of their origin.

Going into the 2007-08 NBA season, the Seattle Sonics weren’t among anyone’s list of contenders in the Western Conference. Although the Sonics did strike gold by drafting Kevin Durant, who will nonetheless become this year’s Rookie of the Year, the Sonics were making more news away from the hardwood than on it throughout this season.

As many of us NBA fans know, the Hornets, like many of the pro teams around the New Orleans area, were evacuated because of Hurricane Katrina to temporary sites.

With the Hornets it was Oklahoma City, home to a gleaming showplace for basketball in the Ford Center, which in recent years has hosted the Big 12 Conference Tournament.

While the arrangement between the Hornets and the city was short-term and successful, another Oklahoman is trying his best to do the same thing that Walter O’Malley, more than 50 years ago, allegedly did.

Break the hearts of a loyal fan base.

Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett is trying to obtain permission from the NBA to move the Pacific Northwest’s oldest major pro sports team, the Seattle Sonics, to Oklahoma City and thereby doing something that could not be done with the Hornets: sustain a long-term presence of pro basketball in Oklahoma City.

But it’s not going away without a fight.

As we speak, Washington senators are doing everything in their power to stop the move by filing lawsuits, bringing in a former owner to get the team back and keep it in Seattle, something that the people of Brooklyn would have never envisioned doing 50 years ago when their Dodgers traded Flatbush for Hollywood.

But much like the Dodgers, the Sonics have been an instution in Seattle.

And barring a last-second shot, Clay Bennett is going to join the ranks of Horace Stoneham and Walter O’Malley as the most hated owners in sports history.

Too bad, because Seattle was getting used to seeing Kevin Durant and possibly seeing the team get back into contention in the West.

But because of a hillbilly, that won’t be the case.

The 9th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: Arkansas Razorbacks

Arkansas Razorbacks

Location: Fayetteville, Arkansas

Nickname: Razorbacks

Reason For Nickname: The Arkansas athletic teams has been called the Razorbacks since 1910 after a student pep rally led by then-football coach Hugo Bezdek, who said that the football team played like a band of “Razorback Hogs”.

Colors: Cardinal and White

Conference: Southeastern

Arena: Bud Walton Arena (built 1993, capacity 19,200)

The Pride of Arkansas: One of the south’s greatest basketball programs, the Arkansas Razorbacks have a long storied tradition of excellence. In its history the Razorbacks have gone to 28 NCAA Tournaments and five Final Fours, including a National Championship over Duke in 1994. Along with that, the Razorbacks have won 22 Southwest Conference titles in 76 years of competiton and two SEC Championships since joining in 1992.

Destiny Or Fate, It’s All The Same

Editor’s Note: Discuss this article NOW over at ACC vs. SEC! - Destiny Or Fate, It’s All The Same

Thursday night, hours before the Tigers were set to play the UCLA Bruins in the Final Four, I sat in my Christian Theology class hearing one of my professors, who also doubles as Crichton’s soccer coach, talk about general revelation and why sometimes we as people wind up in the right place at the right time.

Listening to what Coach Jeremy Iwaszkoweic was saying about general revelation and why certain people are picked for certain things, it made me as well as what most Tiger fans around the Mid-South think about one word.

Destiny.

Fate could be added as well because for whatever reason, the dream ride that the Tigers have been on throughout the season, which continued with a convincing win over UCLA Saturday night in San Antonio behind the outstanding play of Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts, who gave another clip to be added to the great NCAA Tournament highlights of all time by dunking on superfreshman Kevin Love. It has given my hometown something to be identified with in a positive manner.

When the Tigers chalked up win number 38, which is now the new single-season record in NCAA history, it was not only a win for the critics (that means you, Dick Vitale) but also a win for the city of Memphis — a town that always got confused with being a backwater town on the banks of the Mississippi River.

That has constantly remained in the shadow of Nashville with its country music and beautiful skyline on the Cumberland River for many years.

Well, from the last time I checked, wasn’t Vanderbilt upended by little Siena in the first round?

Uh, yeah.

And wasn’t it a while back that Tennessee, coming off its best regular season in school history, punked again in the Sweet 16, this time losing to Louisville convincingly?

Uh, yeah.

While it has been a banner year for basketball in the state, where five teams made the NCAA Tournament, two made the Sweet 16, and one sits 40 minutes away from the first ever men’s basketball NCAA championship in Tennessee’s history (sorry, NIT titles don’t matter), you can honestly say that this magical season of basketball wasn’t because of an accident of epic proportions.

It was in the cards for a long time.

And destiny, real or imagined, played a role in it.

Twenty Years And Worth The Wait

Twenty years ago, my mother began her tenure as supervisor in the Physical Plant and Planning at what was then known as Memphis State University.

Back then, the Tigers were coached by hometown hero Larry Finch, who led the Tigers to their greatest basketball moment back in 1973 when they faced UCLA and Bill Walton at old St. Louis Arena — an arena which I had the opportunity to witness the demise of nine years ago on a chilly late-winter afternoon while recovering from a broken ankle.

At the time, the Tigers were practicing in what was then an old and dark Fieldhouse, once home to players like Forrest Arnold and Win Wilfong in the 1950’s, and playing their games at the Mid-South Coliseum, located near where I grew up.

Many times during my formative years, I sat in some of the basketball practices, even sometime shooting baskets with Elliott Perry, Russell Young, Penny Hardaway, and David Vaughan, something that none of the people that knew my mother seemed to care about.

It was there that I learned to hate the University of Louisville, the University of Cincinnati, and later on, the University of Alabama at Bumpkinham-which employed Gene Bartow, the guy who took the Tigers some two decades ago to the Final Four.

By the time I entered fifth grade, I had watched the Tigers make a pair of Sweet 16s, an Elite Eight appearance against Cincinnati in 1992, and a Great Midwest Conference title in 1995 with Lorenzen Wright.

Once I reached middle school, the same Tigers program I grew up watching became a mere shadow of its former self. Larry Finch was gone, the Tigers moved into Conference USA with Cincinnati and Louisville and a guy by the name of Tic Price was now in charge of the program.

By the midpoint of Price’s first season, my grandmother, who would sit and watch Tiger basketball with me on cold winter nights during much of my childhood, was in a battle that Larry Finch or Tic Price could not coach her out of.

Cancer.

She lived long enough to see the Tigers lose in the first round of the 1998 NIT against Fresno State, which would be the last Tiger basketball game she would see in her lifetime.

By November she was dead at the age of 64.

And the Tigers would have one of its worst seasons in my lifetime, bowing out in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament to South Florida, which I’m pretty sure was a watershed moment in my time as a Tiger fan.

Towards the end of my 9th grade year, and 12th as a Tiger fan, the city of Memphis and Tiger basketball would change forever as John Calipari came to Memphis, rolled up his sleeves, and began to pump energy into a once-proud basketball program.

Given the fact that in my 14th year as a fan that Memphis would win the NIT against South Carolina, it was not something that Calipari was going to settle for.

And when C-USA disintergrated, it gave the Tigers a chance to do something that hadn’t been done in two decades.

Dominate the conference.

And dominate they have, winning three straight Conference Championships, with three straight 30-win seasons, and undefeated in league play this season for the first time in school history.

Sunday as I, along with several hundred Tiger fans sat, in the Roane Fieldhouse, no longer the dank that it was when I was a kid, I thought about all those times of seeing the Tigers come up short.

And when the clock struck zero, I knew that those days of waiting until next year was over.

Over and out.

Humbly But Slowly Approaching 200,000

A year ago when I was in the middle of working on my book, I received an email from one of my good friends about my life and where it was at that point.

“Your life can’t get any better. The Cardinals won the World Series, the Colts won the Super Bowl and your book is about to be published,” the email read.

Four months later, I took a chance and helped bring this very blog that you are reading now to new heights as we sit on the verge of approaching 200,000 hits, something that was deemed impossible when we started this venture back in June of last year.

But unlike when we reached 100,000 on December 31st, which occurred the same day that the venerable Cincinnati Post ceased publication after 126 years, the accomplishment of reaching 200,000 hits is something that we six here at The Nasty Boys’ Sports Blog are humbly proud of.

Being that I once worked for a newspaper here in Memphis, a small paper that reached 50,000 readers in Millington, Covington, and other parts of northern Shelby and Tipton counties, I knew all too well about the need to include any and everyone in this blog, a piece of advice I received from a former newspaper editor during my time in journalism camp.

And as we approach 200,000 within in the next week and a half, we can’t thank you guys enough for supporting our website. Without you, this blog would be nothing more than a small round table of sports fans that write daily on their local teams, the big news of the day in sports, and God knows what.

Because of you guys, our blog could very well be the southern version of Deadspin, something I sure Matt and the rest of us would enjoy being known as, but still with the attitude of being the people’s sports blog.

To quote former Daily Oklahoman editor Edward King Gaylord, who said in a 1916 editorial, we shall continuously strive to be a people’s blog in every sense.

And as we’ve done since June of last year, we will continue to live by that creed and bring you the daily sports happenings with a dose of humor and personal insight.

Renetria Drake Is A Hilltopper Fan, I Think

Four days ago, I wrote a column about how my big sister’s imparting wisdom served as the backdrop for several teams that made the Big Dance.

Little did I know that as the school year resumed in North Highland Park and the Tigers survived a horrible day at the charity stripe against the Bulldogs of Mississippi State, that Western Kentucky, Villanova, and West Virginia would all be in the Sweet Sixteen as well as Davidson College, a school that until last week hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 1969.

When everyone least expected it.

Western Kentucky’s run to the round of 16, the first run for the Hilltoppers since 1993, was not something anyone expected from the pride of Bowling Green.

They had to take fifth-seeded Drake to overtime until Ty Rogers joined Bryce Drew as a fixture on NCAA Tournament highlight reels by hitting a 26-footer to send the Hilltoppers to the second round, their first such trip since 1995.

And then two days later on the same floor, the Hilltoppers nearly blew a huge lead against fellow Cinderella San Diego but managed to survive with a 72-63 win behind the play of Courtney Lee, who will without a shadow of doubt receive some All-American honors from various publications and Tyrone Brazleton to head to Phoenix and a date with top-seeded UCLA.

When everyone least expected it.

Hey, My Big Sister Was Right

On March 9th, two things happened:

The first one was that my big sister Renetria turned 25 (no, Matt you can’t have her)  and the second one was when Drake University, a school that was picked to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference, defeated Illinois State to punch their first ticket to the Big Dance in almost 40 years.

When everyone, as my sister would say, least expected it.

Beginning on Thursday, the nation will be introduced to first-time participants like American, whose coach Jeff Jones was in tears after leading the Eagles to the Patriot League championship over Colgate.

The Georgia Bulldogs, winners of two games in one day, last-place finishers in the SEC East turned improbable SEC Tournament Champions, will have their hands full with the Xavier Musketeers.

And then you have Mount St. Mary’s, whose campus was shaken by the death of one of their biggest supporters in a campus housing fall, winning their first tournament game ever against another team my sister probably would root for, Coppin State, a team that became the first school to ever get in the tournament with 20 losses.

Their reward for that win would be a date with my pick to win the National Title, the North Carolina Tar Heels, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Of course, we all know that they’re going to get stomped all over the place, but for one day we college basketball nuts need to root for the small school, even it means that they’re going to get crushed by the tandem of Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansborough.

Next to Mount St. Mary’s would be another redemption story, the Baylor Bears, once known as a National punchline because of the scandal that rocked the basketball program five years ago, in their first tournament in 20 years thanks in part to the play of Aaron Bruce and the coaching of Scott Drew.

Pretty easy to root for them, right?

Three Days In The M-Town

According to Indian custom, in order for a young boy to successfully become a man, he would have to go through a series of events known simply as a vision quest.

If the young boy successfully did this, he would in so many words, become a man in his tribe’s eyes.

In our society, a vision quest towards manhood means being legally able to drink.

Not anything sports-related.

For three days, yours truly embarked on a journey to search for the meaning of life, using $250 (thank you, Mom for teaching me about saving money), blessings from my main man Matt, and the grace of God (not Grace Walker, who as I write this is in England).

During this sports-related journey for the meaning of life, I ran across many interesting characters, including TNB’s possible answer to Erin Andrews.

UAB Should Go Dancing

Editor’s Note:  You can catch this post and tons of other material over at Doc’s personal blog, Southern Girls and Sports.

Recently, I had a discussion with one of my clueless friends on the issue of having UAB in the Big Dance, a place they haven’t been in since their shocking upset of Kentucky in 2004.

One of my arguments about this issue is the fact that the Blazers have an RPI of 49, finished second in Conference USA, nearly beat Memphis at home and beat Kentucky in Louisville.

My second point was the fact that, outside of Memphis, the Blazers, which has Robert Vaden and former Raleigh-Egypt standout Lawrence Kinnard, could make a nice run in the Tournament — maybe even making the Sweet Sixteen and changing the perception of Conference USA, which has been nothing more than a one-team league since the 2005-06 season.

And the last point, judging from what happened last year when Central Florida and Southern Miss both won 20 games and didn’t go anywhere, something like that would be a sight to behold in the conference.

That is, if UAB doesn’t screw up in their first game on Thursday.

Doc Hancock’s Journey To Becoming A Reformed Rascal

With this being Spring Break, I will be away from the website and taking in some of Memphis’ best sporting events beginning today. On Tuesday, you can read my column about a day at Tobey Field with Crichton’s softball team, spending time at the Memphis Invitational otherwise known as the Conference USA Tournament, happy hour at Coyote Ugly, and basketball in my parents’ neighborhood.

By the way, before I forget, here’s a couple of more links that you might enjoy:

Star and Stripe (Vanderbilt)

Nashville Ballerz

The 10th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Location: Winston Salem, North Carolina

Nickname: Demon Deacons

Reason For Nickname: In 1923, Wake Forest played what would later become Duke University in football. Because of the fighting spirit of the Wake squad, they decided to call them the Demon Deacons.

Colors: Old Gold and Black

Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference

Arena: Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum (built 1989, capacity 14,665)

Old Gold Spirit: Wake Forest has one of the strongest basketball traditions in the South, beginning as a program in 1906. In 102 years of basketball, the Demon Deacons have gone to 20 NCAA Tournaments and six NITs. Along with those accomplishments, the Deacons have won the ACC regular-season title in 1960, 1962, 1995, and 2003 plus the ACC Tournament championship in 1961, 1962, 1995, and 1996.

Curse Of The Hotties?

Doc’s Note: This is the latest in a series of columns about sports at Crichton. These columns will run until the end of the school year.

Being a Clemson Tigers football fan, I understand the dynamic of the “Chicken Curse” that has plagued the University of South Carolina for years.

But blaming one’s troubles on the pool table, and even the basketball court, on a hottie — wait a minute, two hotties — let alone one that once was a subject of a column that you wrote months ago, well, that’s a different story.

The true belief that the curse exists came from a game of pickup with Student Government president Brandon Privett back in December, when the hottie on the right was inside Crichton’s gym, I managed to throw up airballs, miss layups, and God knows what else.

“We thought you didn’t miss,” Kyle O’Neil and Todd Meyer said to me as I kept sinking airballs out of bounds.

Another belief to being either cursed or distracted by two hotties was during Super Bowl Sunday, softball player Jasmine Scudder decided the best thing for us to kill time during the halftime activities was to play pickup basketball in the very same gym that only two months ago  I sprained my ankle trying to block Privett’s shot after the hottie on the right left the gym.

The 11th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama Crimson Tide

Location: Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Nickname: Crimson Tide

Reason For Nickname: After the 1907 Alabama-Auburn football game in Birmingham, a sports editor for a Birmingham newspaper described the Alabama football team’s play against Auburn as a “crimson tide”.

Colors: Crimson and White

Conference: Southeastern

Arena: Coleman Coliseum (built 1968, capacity 15,043)

Hoops At The Capstone: Alabama basketball began three years after the birth of Paul Bryant in 1916 and for a long time had to live in the large shadow of the football program, which has won 12 National Championships. Despite this, the basketball program for much of its history has not been short of success. Alabama has won the SEC regular-season championship in 1934, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1987, and 2002. They’ve also been crowned tournament champions in 1934, 1982, 1987, 1989, 1990, and 1991 as well as SEC West champions in 2002 and 2005.

Relax, It’s Only The Beginning

Doc’s Note: This is the latest in a series of columns about sports at Crichton. These columns will run until the end of the school year.

One afternoon not too long ago, I sat in the Office of Student Development talking to one of my “designated mothers” here in North Highland Park, Lisa Crocker, about how blessed I was for coming here.

“You should write a column on how blessed you are,” she said to me.

Well, Mama Lisa, I am doing just that as we close out the 2007-08 regular season for Crichton basketball, a home game against Freed-Hardeman on Saturday afternoon.

When I began covering sports for Crichton in August of last year, I was working a dead-end job as a cheesecake salesman for the Tennessee Cheesecake Company of Nashville that only a week later would end because of my school schedule and the simple fact that they, referring to the Wilson family, wouldn’t change my work schedule.

And the week before I arrived in North Highland Park, I decided to leave a church in northeast Shelby County because of a falling out with some members.

On the same day that I talked Donna McWorther and my future boss, Jeff Walker, into doing something like this with Crichton athletics, I was in the middle of working on SEC football previews for the 2007 season and trying to get comfortable with being here.

Needless to say, from that Thursday afternoon that I walked into the athletic office until now, as I finish my time as student director of basketball operations and move into a position as public address announcer for the softball team – as well as working for the baseball team as their stats guy — the last few months here as North Highland Park’s sports columnist has been a wild ride.

From interviews with the random hottie, Danstar Michelle Williams and Crichton basketball superfan Ashley Parks, to columns on my travels with the “Basketball Brotherhood”, the last five or six months of writing about it has been fun to say the least.

Aside from earning a living and working in the athletic department, I’ve been blessed to have a great group of friends who’ve been there to either hug me or give me a kick in the pants since I’ve been here.

Not only that, I’ve learned during my time what it means to overcome adversity, being humble, and most importantly, I’ve learned how to have fun at my job, something that took a lot of time for me to grasp because of the many hats I wear around North Higland Park.

I’ve also learned in my time as student director of basketball operations about what it means to be a part of a family as well as the importance of being a family man.

During one point this basketball season, I ran into Bethel assistant basketball coach Craig Stephens, who was the one that had a hand in bringing me here to North Highland Park.

“I see you didn’t let me down,” he said.

Given what has happened since coming here in August, that’s out of the question.

Pot, Meet Kettle

 

A while back, I wrote on this website how it felt to be a Tennessean since Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Memphis were ranked in the top 25 and as of this writing, are all still ranked in the polls.

But while in my basic lifetime, Vanderbilt and Memphis never met that much on the hardwood, the last time I think the two teams met was either 1993 or 1998, the Tennessee-Memphis rivalry in basketball has a different meaning.

For many years, Memphis and Vanderbilt were the basketball schools in this state, especially in the last 30 years as both the Commodores and Tigers have won multiple conference championships, participated in numerous postseason tournaments and, well, made basketball the thing do after their schools tank their football seasons.

The Vols, on the other hand, have not had anywhere near the success that the Commodores and Tigers have had in the last 30 years.

Since Ray Mears left Knoxville in 1979, the Vols have two overall SEC Championships.

There’s been a multitude of coaches that had tried before Bruce Pearl to get Tennessee basketball back to the level that Mears had it, namely Wade Houston, Kevin O’Neil, Jerry Green, and Buzz Peterson — guys who coached in Knoxville during my lifetime.

And they all failed.

Enter Bruce Pearl.

This week, Tennessee will come to Memphis with their highest ranking ever, #2 in this week’s polls, and a chance to put a dent in what is quickly turning into one special season here in town.

Of course, they’re going to have Chris Lofton, JaJuan Smith, Wayne Chism along for the ride and of course, there’s going to be a multitude of orange-clad fans invading the FedEx Forum for the biggest regular-season game in school history.

Before Tennessee gets revved up for the Tigers, they first have to take care of Auburn, who gave Kentucky a scare a couple of weeks ago in Auburn and could very well be a trap game for the Vols leading up to Saturday.

And given the depth chart of Auburn’s team, which looks like an NAIA roster, that shouldn’t be a problem for the Vols.

But as a team here in Memphis learned on Saturday in Batesville, Arkansas, what might look like an easy win isn’t.

You’re just another team to them.

Allow Me To Channel Mike Gundy For A Minute

Doc’s Note: This is the latest in a series of columns about sports at Crichton. These columns will run until the end of the school year.

Once before, while on vacation in north-central Mississippi, I had to defend the honor of this website because a few extremists believed that this website, for lack of better terms, was immoral and that all of us here at TNB were not Christians and were going to hell.

While for the most part that attack at this blog was a blip on the radar screen, the recent attack by someone here at Crichton, who probably has beans for a brain, has rankled my feathers.

When I was given the opportunity to cover Crichton athletics through this website, I wanted to make it where everyone, regardless of what standing they had here at school, had a chance to be covered on this website. It’s an old adage that I learned from an editor at the now-defunct Cincinnati Post: Everyone has a voice, everyone gets a chance to be covered on this blog.

From the first story that I did on fellow Whitehaven graduate Michelle Williams all the way up to the story I did on the “Basketball Sisterhood”, this blog has received positive feedback from 80-90 of the people here at Crichton.

It has given the school positive publicity and a reason to not confuse Crichton with Creighton in Omaha.

The problem with the person who said this, and I say this with all sincerity, is that they never were able to create something like this.

They never had the vision or forethought to get five guys who are passionate sports fans, combine their talents, and do something to reach the Southeastern United States.

Obviously, they spent too much time saying smart-aleck comments about this or that to do something of that caliber.

For us, and I speak for Matt and the rest of the guys here, we shall strive to be a blog for the people, by the people.

And for the detractors who hate, keep on hating.

You’re just giving us more motivation.

Basketball Is A Sisterhood, Too

Doc’s Note: This is the latest in a series of columns on sports at Crichton. These columns will appear regularly until the end of the school year.

“Basketball Sisterhood” February 2, 2008

1st row: (l-r) Tandria Wilburn, Jelisa Scruggs

2nd row: Ashley Parks, LaToya Taylor

3rd row: Brittanee McCaster, Kenisha Banks, Lynne Walker, Grace Walker

4th row: Rahnesha Brooks, Naysha Scott

5th row: Michelle Williams, Cierra Johnson, British Hill

Throughout this season, I’ve been using the “Basketball Is A Brotherhood” motto for some of my trips with the team throughout the Midwest and the South.

But while basketball is about brotherhood and teamwork, Crichton basketball is, in some cases, successful with the support of a group of young ladies who attend road basketball games to cheer on Crichton.

Led by student Ashley Parks, who I had the pleasure of sitting down and having an interview with during Homecoming week, Crichton basketball is not only a brotherhood.

It’s a sisterhood.

“We’ve been doing road trips for three years, dating back to when Crichton was known as the Cardinals,” she said.

Prior to the recent nickname for the school’s athletic program, Comets, the school was known for many years as the Cardinals, something that is evident in the logo that leads to the gym on campus where a cardinal is still on the signage.

“Being on the road with the team,” she said in our conversation, “gives us a chance to take a break from life as well as a chance to be away from Memphis. Not only that we just talk about what’s going on at Crichton, so in other words, it’s like a social club of sorts.”

During Crichton’s run to the National Tournament in 2006-07, Parks said that she and the group made 15 to 20 trips with the team. With the scheduling of the games this season, Parks said that they’ve only made four road-trips this year, twice to Nashville, Tennessee and twice to Jackson, Tennessee.

“The only way,” she said, “that we go on the road, is if they have a game on Monday, Thursday, or Saturday. Also it has to be within two to three hours driving time.”

When the “Basketball Sisterhood” isn’t on the road with the team, they can also be found in the east bleachers harassing the opposing players when they go to the free throw line or getting into the heads of the refs.

At the time this interview was being conducted, the Comets were 13-10 and coming off a win against 19th-ranked Trevecca on the road and getting ready to face Mid-Continent on the road Feb. 7th.  When asked could Crichton turn around their season, Parks had this to say.

“If they play smart, play hard, and listen to what Coach Walker says, then there’s no question in my mind they’ll be there at the end. If they don’t do those things, then they’ll be in trouble.”

25th Avenue South Blues

Before Tuesday’s game against Vanderbilt in Nashville, Kentucky was sitting pretty in second place in the SEC East with big wins over Vanderbilt and Tennessee at home and seemed prepared to turn the corner in what had already been, for some, a lost season in Year One of the Billy Clyde Era in Lexington.

Vanderbilt, on the other hand, was trying to build on what had already been a historic season on West End Avenue, reaching 20 wins faster than any Vanderbilt squad in school history and trying to make noise in the race for the SEC East crown.

Tuesday night, the Kentucky squad that won five straight entering the game against Vanderbilt ran into something that has snake bitten the team for the past five years.

Memorial magic.

Vanderbilt came out Tuesday night like a team on a mission, jumping out to a 41-11 lead at halftime and refusing to let Patrick Patterson and company come back into the fold, something that has not happened a lot for the ‘Dores lately in games against South Carolina and Georgia where they took the foot off the pedal and let teams have a chance to win.

Then in the second half, Kentucky just self-destructed; they self-destructed to the point where Billy Clyde received a technical foul after Joe Crawford was called for a charge early on in the second half.

Sad, right?

This game was supposed to be a turning point for Kentucky, mainly because it was on National television and 25th Avenue South was going to be rocking.

But instead it looked like the debacle that I remembered from last year when Cincinnati came into FedEx Forum and got stomped all over the place by the Tigers, so bad that the good people at ESPN cut away to the USC-Oregon game.

Obviously, on Tuesday night, ESPN had no other choice when it came to what happened in Nashville.

The best game of the evening was already played up Interstate 65 in West Lafayette.

Carbondale Hotties Are Hard To Come By, Even If They Are Cub Fans

In time for Valentine’s Day, I wanted to give you readers another sports romantic comedy story involving yours truly.

This happened in the days when Zunes weren’t invented, Barry Bonds was still chasing Hank Aaron, and the Cardinals were in the middle of one of the most improbable postseason runs in baseball history.

After I graduated from high school in 2003, I went, for one year, to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale with hopes of attending the renowned University of Missouri School of Journalism and writing for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Around that time, the Salukis were a year removed from their Sweet 16 run and had a new coach in future Purdue coach Matt Painter, who led the Salukis to the Missouri Valley Conference championship that same year I was there.

But due to family problems, I wound up returning to Memphis, finding a job with a small newspaper in the backwoods of northern Shelby County as a columnist that led to me where I am today.

That journey, for the most part, had a Carbondale feel to it.

The 12th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: Memphis Tigers

Doc’s Note: Normally in this series about the 25 Greatest Basketball Programs in the South, I have the logos of the teams I write about. But because the University of Memphis won another National Championship in dance and I know some of them, I figured using this picture would give you readers something to think about when it comes to the basketball tradition in Memphis.

Matt’s Note: If it is successful, maybe the Top 12 of the 25 will be worthy of having dance team photos INSTEAD of team logos as we all know these logos for the most successful teams at the top (the Dukes, UNCs, etcetera…).

Memphis Tigers

Location: Memphis, Tennessee

Nickname: Tigers

Reason For Nickname: An old yell that started when the school was founded in 1912, it was not until 1939 when the school officially adopted the Tigers as its nickname.

Colors: Blue and Gray

Conference: Conference USA

Arena: FedEx Forum (built 2004, capacity 21,165 [for basketball])

Tiger Pride:The University of Memphis began playing basketball while it was known as West Tennessee Normal School in 1920 with Fredrick Grantham as its first head coach. Until Eugene Lambert arrived there in the 1950’s, basketball at the school was an afterthought. Memphis has appeared in 20 NCAA Tournaments, including two Final Fours in 1973 and 1985. They’ve also have one NIT Championship to their credit with one coming in 2002, Calipari’s second year at the helm.