Evidently Memphis Doesn't Either!
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:42 pmFuture looks ripe for boredom
By Don Wade
Contact
January 28, 2004
On the court, victory came easily.
The Tigers had an 18-point lead before the game was 11 minutes old. They were off and running, only to spend most of the second half dozing to a 66-53 win over a talent-challenged South Florida team Tuesday night at The Pyramid.
"We were lethargic," Tigers coach John Calipari said after his team had limped to the finish line by going the last 8:49 without a field goal.
Still, the Tigers avenged what happened here last season when the Bulls celebrated a bit too much after a one-point win.
But we expected the Tigers to right that wrong. We knew the Tigers were far the better team before the game. We knew it during the game, even though the game was "sloppy," to borrow Tiger guard Jeremy Hunt's word.
Of course, we also know this: Every remaining game between Memphis and the many schools leaving the league, of which South Florida is one, is a bitter reminder that the better athletic program doesn't always win the bigger game of conference realignment.
How does South Florida, which is relatively new to Division 1-A football and totally devoid of basketball tradition, make the Big East cut while Memphis misses it?
"It's not right," Memphis athletic director R. C. Johnson said from his suite Tuesday night. "It's not right and that's not much of a saving grace.
"Obviously, if we were located in Tampa and they were located in Memphis, it would have been a no-brainer."
And obviously on a night apparently too cold for many Memphis fans to trudge downtown - an estimated crowd of 8,500 - this was no saving grace as the fans even seemed a bit lethargic.
Hunt said, "When it's a little dead it can be a little boring, but we still can't let our intensity go down."
Understand, from the players' perspective, this game was all but a done deal before the opening tip. South Florida was down to seven scholarship players and started a walk-on. Still, that team played the Tigers evenly in the second half - 32-32.
"A good team would have come back (and won)," said the Tigers' Anthony Rice.
South Florida is not a good team. And the Tigers' basketball future, when it loses Louisville, Cincinnati, DePaul and Marquette to the Big East and Charlotte and Saint Louis to the Atlantic 10, will include many league games against teams about as bad as the Bulls.
In response, Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky has done what coaches do when they lose the recruits they really want: settle for the recruits he can get. So in two years the basketball schedule will feature Marshall, SMU, Rice, Central Florida and Tulsa.
That's a recipe for lethargy.
Johnson, of course, speaks bravely about this future. We'll make up for the conference schedule with the nonconference schedule, he says. Utah succeeds this way, he says. UNLV used to dominate this way, he says.
And, yes, there should be opportunities - at least for a while - to continue playing old rivals Louisville and Cincinnati.
"Instead of playing Cincinnati the last game of the year, we'll just have to play 'em the first game of the year," said season-ticket holder Charlie Fite, 51,
Nice idea.
But on a cold night in January, when it felt like we were looking into the future, to a time when the Tigers perhaps end with Marshall and South Florida finishes with Cincinnati, it sure didn't feel right.
Contact reporter Don Wade at 529-2358 or send an e-mail.
MORE WADE COLUMNS »
By Don Wade
Contact
January 28, 2004
On the court, victory came easily.
The Tigers had an 18-point lead before the game was 11 minutes old. They were off and running, only to spend most of the second half dozing to a 66-53 win over a talent-challenged South Florida team Tuesday night at The Pyramid.
"We were lethargic," Tigers coach John Calipari said after his team had limped to the finish line by going the last 8:49 without a field goal.
Still, the Tigers avenged what happened here last season when the Bulls celebrated a bit too much after a one-point win.
But we expected the Tigers to right that wrong. We knew the Tigers were far the better team before the game. We knew it during the game, even though the game was "sloppy," to borrow Tiger guard Jeremy Hunt's word.
Of course, we also know this: Every remaining game between Memphis and the many schools leaving the league, of which South Florida is one, is a bitter reminder that the better athletic program doesn't always win the bigger game of conference realignment.
How does South Florida, which is relatively new to Division 1-A football and totally devoid of basketball tradition, make the Big East cut while Memphis misses it?
"It's not right," Memphis athletic director R. C. Johnson said from his suite Tuesday night. "It's not right and that's not much of a saving grace.
"Obviously, if we were located in Tampa and they were located in Memphis, it would have been a no-brainer."
And obviously on a night apparently too cold for many Memphis fans to trudge downtown - an estimated crowd of 8,500 - this was no saving grace as the fans even seemed a bit lethargic.
Hunt said, "When it's a little dead it can be a little boring, but we still can't let our intensity go down."
Understand, from the players' perspective, this game was all but a done deal before the opening tip. South Florida was down to seven scholarship players and started a walk-on. Still, that team played the Tigers evenly in the second half - 32-32.
"A good team would have come back (and won)," said the Tigers' Anthony Rice.
South Florida is not a good team. And the Tigers' basketball future, when it loses Louisville, Cincinnati, DePaul and Marquette to the Big East and Charlotte and Saint Louis to the Atlantic 10, will include many league games against teams about as bad as the Bulls.
In response, Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky has done what coaches do when they lose the recruits they really want: settle for the recruits he can get. So in two years the basketball schedule will feature Marshall, SMU, Rice, Central Florida and Tulsa.
That's a recipe for lethargy.
Johnson, of course, speaks bravely about this future. We'll make up for the conference schedule with the nonconference schedule, he says. Utah succeeds this way, he says. UNLV used to dominate this way, he says.
And, yes, there should be opportunities - at least for a while - to continue playing old rivals Louisville and Cincinnati.
"Instead of playing Cincinnati the last game of the year, we'll just have to play 'em the first game of the year," said season-ticket holder Charlie Fite, 51,
Nice idea.
But on a cold night in January, when it felt like we were looking into the future, to a time when the Tigers perhaps end with Marshall and South Florida finishes with Cincinnati, it sure didn't feel right.
Contact reporter Don Wade at 529-2358 or send an e-mail.
MORE WADE COLUMNS »