Saturday, May 30, 2009

Parrish Sounds the Alarm on Johnson...

And I totally agree. You can read about RCJ's three biggest mistakes here. Get rid of RCJ!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Taggart to the NBA... maybe?

You heard it here first...
In a recent Facebook status update, Shawn Taggart all but declared his intentions to remain in the NBA draft. His exact words were "Willie,p,spoon,dmack,r.dot,white chocolate,and angle......... love yal niggas no homo but...... its ova wit...... yal hold it down ." and generated 17 comments in about 20 minutes, mostly positive, but a few that simply said "stupid decision". Now I understand we all want him to stay because he would be a tremendous help on the floor and give us veteran leadership, but we love Tag cause he is a Tiger and we ultimately want the best for him and if he feels like that is the NBA right now than we should support him no matter how much we do not want him to go.


UPDATE (3:00pm): New status... open for your interpretation.

"
Lmao see how people act when u chase ur dream sad thing about it is I'm not leaving memphis........ lmao yal people make me sick to my stomach!!! See yal memphis madness! Fake memphis fans ..... to the loyal ones who wish me well thanks yall and I appreciate the support..... lets get it coach J!"

Not leaving Memphis?
See y'all Memphis Madness?

-Pistolier

Answers.

AA gave an excellent rundown of the ramifications of this whole debacle over at True Blue Tigers. Give it a read.

Update: Meanwhile, R.C. Johnson continues to bolster his stellar defense of the university in a comment to the AP, "We wouldn't play anybody if we hadn't checked it out pretty thoroughly." Thank God we've got R.C. on the hunt.

Update II: Pat Forde discusses the charges and the vetting process. Is the NCAA so uninvolved to take care of business or to save face?

Update III: Wolken asks RC about his communication with UK about the allegations. The plot thickens.

Calkins' Best...

The CA has an article by Geoff Calkins that is one of his best pieces of writing yet. He dishes a hearty meal, served cold, to RC Johnson and he's right on the money. Check it out.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Just Too Good to Pass Up...

It would be tough to top Colonel Reb, but the Vernon show has come close with Johnny Calipari. Don't miss the very end.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Ghost of Calipari Past

You can now add another thing to the list of things John Crapilari took from the University of Memphis. In addition to recruits, coaches, and dreams, turns out Crapilari took our integrity as a university athletic department and may go on to take our NCAA Record 38 win season, our Final Four banner, Dozier, Anderson, and McGrady's claim to be the winningest college basketball players in NCAA history, a CUSA regular season and tournament championship, and, how fitting, wreck Memphis' chance at breaking the record for most consecutive conference wins... currently held by the University of the commonwealth of Kentucky.

According to the Commercial Appeal, the NCAA has accused the University of serious violations during the 2007-2008 season, during which Crapilari was the coach. The five page letter to Dr. Raines and the accompanying 13 page report state that the violations deal with cheating on the SAT by ONE player, and that ONE player only played ONE year. There could be only ONE...

ONE...

ONE...

ONE...


The report also alleges the University gave $2,260 in free travel to an "associate" of this ONE player. WWW.anyONE?

While serious, these charges only reflect a lack of University oversight and not a lack of control, therefore, and especially since Pastner was not employed by the University at such time, the penalties should only be confined to the 2007-2008 season... mainly forfeiture of games, trophies, streaks, and banners. But the ramifications could reach farther than the 2007-2008 season, especially since Memphis is in the running for recruiting the services of Noel Johnson, who retracted his letter of intent from USC amid a recruiting scandal involving OJ Mayo. Only time will tell. This is disappointing, but with all the politics and doublespeak, it was only a matter of time before something like this surfaced. The University was made aware of the charges on January 16th, 2009... might that have factored in to Crapilari's decision to leave Memphis? We will never know. The CA quotes RC Johnson as saying he is "still working" on his response to the NCAA. C'mon RC, its been over 4 months, put down the crayons and send them your phamphlet already... I'm sure it looks fine.

Personally, I'm glad the Crapilari era is dONE.


-Pistolier

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Latavious Williams to be a Tiger

Latavious Williams is listed as committed to Memphis as of today (5/26) per Rivals. Hopefully this is consistent with what will be announced at 2 pm today. Pastner is hammering out a respectable recruiting class despite the best (or worst) efforts/lies (see Eric Bledsoe) of Coach X. If Pastner finds a way to land Noel Johnson and/or Lance Stephenson, he should get a raise before he even coaches a game.


Latavious Williams


Noel Johnson


Lance Stephenson

- Blake

No Need to Worry About Latavious!

(Update: Latavious, if you're reading this, how about an interview? We are thrilled that you're coming to Memphis!)

Good news, Tiger fans!

There have been murmurings that Latavious Williams will not be academically eligible to play ball at the University of Memphis. However, in a recent interview, Latavious confirmed that he made an astounding 710 on his ACT! This is great and incredible news!
The average ACT score for admission to Georgetown is roughly a 32, so Latavious should not only be a star power forward here at Memphis, but a Rhodes scholar, the mathematics department chair, and, why not, the president of the university. We're coming for you, Shirley.


-JB

Monday, May 25, 2009

In Other News... 5/26/09

Here's a few throwdowns from our new power forward.


Don't forget to sign up for the Coach Pastner Basketball Academy. For a mere two-hundy, you too can glimpse into the mind of the next great Tiger coach. Oh yeah, your kids can come, too.

As mentioned here a few days ago, Kentucky is giving the boot to a few of their sub-elite remaining players to make room for Cal's new recruits. I wonder if Benedict Calipari started the conversation with, "I want you in Kentucky. This is where I want you to play."

And by all means, watch the Magic and Cavs tonight. It's been an awesome series.

It's All Goode...

This looks to be another excellent piece of work by Mike Judge. He's like Seth McFarlane, except he understands the South and he's actually funny. If you're wondering how this relates to Memphis, check it out and don't miss the 1:59 mark. That's right. I wonder if they sell tickets to that convention.

Latavious Announces Tuesday...

Latavious Williams will announce his school of choice tomorrow at 2pm. He'd be a nice addition, especially this late in the year. If Tag packs his bags, Latavious (if eligible) would pick up a healthy amount of his minutes. As always, Tiger fans... say your prayers.