antonio anderson – Rush The Court

Team of the 2000s: #8 – Memphis

jstevrtc — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:52:33 +0000

Ed. Note: check the category team of the 2000s for our other entries in this feature.

We already know that this selection is going to cause some consternation among teams that weren’t selected as high. It’s ok. We get it. The selection process ultimately comes down to a matter of taste, and Memphis blended with our palates a little better than the others. If you disagree, let us know…

#8 – Memphis

Overview. In the period from 2000-2009, few college basketball programs “felt” bigger than Memphis. John Calipari showed up to run [...]

06.28.09 Fast Breaks

rtmsf — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:08:11 +0000

Let’s get caught up after a glorious weekend…

Elliot Williams to Memphis. Nothing surprising here, as we reported last week that Elliot Williams was leaving Duke to move closer to home to attend to his mother’s illness. The only school that made reasonable sense was his hometown University of Memphis, and Gary Parrish reported yesterday that Williams will indeed become a Tiger. If Williams can get the NCAA to approve his hardship waiver so that he can play next season, he should walk right into a starting position at the PG spot for Josh Pastner’s squad. While we’re on the subject [...]

Calipari to Kentucky

nvr1983 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:16:51 +0000

After a weekend full of speculation about who would replace Billy Gillispie as the next head coach at Kentucky it looks like we finally have our answer in the form of John Calipari. Our sources had been mentioning Calipari as a potential replacement for Gillispie as early as a week ago, but that was obviously delayed by the fact that his Memphis team was still playing in the NCAA tournament. Fortunately, for the administration at Kentucky, even after last year’s title game collapse against Kansas, Calipari still didn’t think it was worthwhile having his team work on free [...]

NCAA Basketball 2009: The BCS Version

nvr1983 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:15:51 +0000

With the release of the brackets on Sunday evening there has been quite a bit of controversy (Arizona over St. Mary’s being the predominant gripe) and there have been some interesting moments with Jay Bilas and Digger Phelps ganging up on Dick Vitale and almost bringing him to tears. However, it was nothing compared to the furor that we saw when the BCS released its final poll that determined the BCS bowl games and more importantly the national championship. We thought it would be a fun exercise to try to make a [...]

NCAA Preview: Memphis Tigers

rtmsf — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:33:38 +0000

Memphis (#2 seed, West, Kansas City pod)

vs. California State Northridge (#15) March 19th, 12:25 P.M.

Vegas Line: Memphis -19.5

Thanks to Vegas Watch for providing these graphs that measure the moving average of a team’s spread (moving avg.) over time vs. the spread for each individual game (indiv). If a team’s moving average is higher than zero, then Vegas currently has a higher opinion of them than Pomeroy, and vice versa.

General Profile

Location: Memphis, Tennessee Conference: Conference USA, won the conference tournament Coach: John Calipari, 251-68 at Memphis 08-09 Record: 28-3, 16-0 C-USA Last 12 Games: 12-0 Best [...]

Conference USA Wrapup & Tourney Preview

rtmsf — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:31:08 +0000

Memphis passed its last regular season road test and now only has a few games to go to return to the “promised land” that they’ve never really left.

While the Tigers’ dominance over the rest of CUSA is nearly unparalleled in the history of modern college basketball, it doesn’t mean that every other team is chopped liver. Basically anything can happen in a tournament setting and the Tigers have endured a few close calls this year.

So here are the teams as they are seeded and some pertinent info:

#1: Memphis Tigers

After my trip to Chapel Hill last weekend where rtmsf handled all of the duties for Boom Goes the Dynamite while I mingled with ESPN personalities and college basketball stars, I will be in charge of today’s edition while rtmsf does relationship stuff with his significant other. Pretty weak if you ask me. . .

11:00 AM: Although we are a men’s college basketball site, we feel that it’s appropriate to mention the passing of Kay Yow, the former NC State coach, to breast cancer (or more precisely complications related to breast cancer). We can’t really do justice to [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

rtmsf — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:35 +0000

Allen R of Houston Basketball Junkies is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

Memphis: 14-3 (4-0) Houston: 11-4 (2-1) Southern Miss: 11-5 (2-1) Tulsa: 12-6 (2-1) UTEP: 11-6 (2-1) UCF: 11-6 (1-2) UAB: 10-7 (1-2) East Carolina: 9-7 (1-2) Marshall: 8-9 (1-2) Tulane: 7-9 (1-2) SMU: 6-9 (1-2) Rice: 6-11 (1-2)

This week in Conference USA basketball was full of the various surprises and dramatics that make college basketball season something special. However when the dust settled this week, the same team was still the proverbial ‘King of the Castle’ and still nobody else from the pack has distinguished themselves.

So here’s what happened in this week of CUSA basketball: 1.) Down [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

rtmsf — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:47:57 +0000

Allen R of Houston Basketball Junkies is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

The week of final examinations usually equates to a slow basketball week and Conference USA is no exception to the rule.

In fact Houston, Memphis, Tulane, Rice, ECU, UAB, UTEP, Marshall and SMU all refrained from scheduling games during the week.

However there were a few games and storylines worth talking about in this rather uneventful week:

Hurricane Alert? It’s an absolute mystery to me as to what’s happened to the Tulsa basketball team. They looked great in a 67-56 win over Texas A&M and have completely disappeared since. First [...]

2008-09 Conference Primers: #8 – Conference USA

rtmsf — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:51:13 +0000

Predicted Order of Finish:

Memphis (34-1, 16-0) UAB (26-9, 12-4) Tulsa (22-13, 11-5) UTEP (21-12, 10-6) Houston (20-13, 9-7) Southern Miss (19-15, 9-7) Marshall (18-15, 8-8) UCF (17-16, 8-8) Tulane (14-18, 6-10) SMU (13-20, 5-11) ECU (11-21, 4-12) Rice (9-23, 2-14)

WYN2K. The story of Conference USA basketball the last few seasons has been the absolute dominance of Memphis. This year should be no different as the Tigers return a great combination of veteran talent and blue chip freshmen. To put it in perspective, they have not lost a Conference USA game since an 80-74 loss at UAB on February 2nd, 2006. Despite the recent Tiger dominance, the arrival of quality [...]

2008 Early Entry Winners and Losers

rtmsf — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:04:56 +0000

Whew. After an exhausting day trying to track the news feeds seemingly every minute to figure out who was staying and who was leaving college, we can finally take a deep breath and start to sort out what this means for all the parties involved. Of the 69 early entries of US collegians submitted to the NBA league offices last month, 35 will remain in the 2008 NBA Draft pool. Here are the 35 early entries:

Joe Alexander, West Virginia Ryan Anderson, California Darrell Arthur, Kansas D.J. Augustin, Texas Jerryd Bayless, Arizona Michael Beasley, Kansas State Mario Chalmers, Kansas Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis C.J. Giles, Oregon State Donte Greene, Syracuse Kalen [...]

05.27.08 Fast Breaks

rtmsf — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:29:19 +0000

Some post-Memorial Day items of interest…

Former Georgetown guard Jeremiah Rivers will transfer to Indiana (perhaps he sees immediate PT awaiting in 2009-10?). Who’s coming back? Memphis guard Antonio Anderson, Marquette guard Jerel McNeal and Alabama guard Alonzo Gee declared their intentions to return to school, ensuring that Memphis will have at least one starter back from its national runner-up team. One intriguing name who is still undecided, WVU’s Joe Alexander, described his daily routine in Vegas getting ready for the pre-draft camp. Speaking of which, the Orlando Pre-Draft Camp begins tomorrow. Here is the list of players invited. Frank Burlison at Scout.com has [...]

04.25.08 Fast Breaks

rtmsf — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:51:28 +0000

Some news on early entries as the deadline (Sunday at midnight) looms and some other flotsam we’ve been holding on to for your Friday…

UNC’s point guard Tywon Lawson will be testing the waters. Reading the tea leaves, does this signal a pending domino effect for his teammates Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansbrough and/or Danny Green? Speaking of the Heels, in light of KU’s title, ol’ Roy’s face was consequently removed from a bathroom in a Lawrence, KS, barber shop. Super Mario Chalmers will be testing the waters of the NBA Draft, joining teammates Brandon Rush and Darrell Arthur in the pool. Memphis juniors Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier joined Derrick Rose and [...]

Elite 8 Preview: Kansas-Davidson & Memphis-Texas

nvr1983 — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:06:39 +0000

– #1 Memphis vs. #2 Texas (2:20 PM): The most-maligned #1 seed in recent memory, Memphis looked like they were playing with a chip on their shoulder in the 1st half against Michigan State as they absolutely crushed the Spartans jumping out to a 50-20 lead (that’s not a typo). If they play like that, it doesn’t matter if they continue to shoot free throws like Ben Wallace.

As the Spartans found out, Memphis has the most athletic team in the country. When they are on, they are virtually unbeatable. The problem is that if they aren’t then it comes down [...]

Sweet 16 Preview: South & Midwest Regions

nvr1983 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:41:25 +0000

South – #1 Memphis vs. #5 Michigan State (9:57 PM): It seems like a lot of analysts consider this the best of the Sweet 16 games. I just don’t see it. I’d take either of the 2-3 matchups (Tennessee/Louisville or Texas/Stanford) over this game, but I still think it should be an interesting game.

Tom Izzo has done a good job getting the Spartans back on track after a bad February stretch where they lost 3 of 4 games. The Spartans returned all 5 starters from last year so they obviously have experience, which helped them withstand that rough stretch. [...]