We Love Momo... "No Homo".

*Title credited to the former Tiger, facebook-status aficionado, Shawn Taggart.

According to Zags, point guard Lamont "Momo" Jones has been granted his release from the drowning pool known as USC basketball. Memphis is reportedly in the running, along with Arizona and Florida.

Memphis would obviously be the best fit because we're awesome and we have the Plush Club. We also have a glaring vacancy at the point guard position and Momo would be a serious contender for the starting job.

Twitter of Doom!

Hey Tombers, you can now follow us on our Twitter of Doom!

YOU GO NOW!

Take A Chance With Lance?

There's alot going going on at Memphis. Recently, most of it has been negative. Granted, Pastner has done a standup job recruiting after Benedict Cal dismantled us, but Memphis is still in a state of disarray. Throw in the pending DRose/Dozier allegations, and it starts to look ugly. There is a player out there who could help make Memphis a contender, Lance Stephenson, but do we really want him?


It's June 11, college starts in a few months, and Lance Stephenson does not have a school to attend. He's also ranked #12 in the ESPNU Top 100. In off the court problems, he's #1. Stephenson and a teammate are accused of groping a high school student outside of Brooklyn's Lincoln High School in October of last year. The case is still pending, and he's due back in court on June 29th. Normally that wouldn't keep most college coaches from going after him, but there's more. Supposedly he's a cancer in the locker room, which may be the reason why he was booted off USA Basktball's Under-18 Team last summer. Chemistry was cited as an issue. Still, for one year we can work around that right? Well, there's more. Stephenson has affiliations with Under Armour and as a junior was featured on a web-based reality series that featured his life on and off the court. He was featured on a docmentary Gunnin' For That #1 Spot. Why is this a problem? Rumor has it the NCAA wants to make an example of him and take away his eligibility for being promoted outside of high school. Why? Nobody knows why the NCAA does anything it does, such as institute the NBA rule of no charging calls under the basket this year. Maybe it's a good rule, but they rushed ahead and implemented it for this next season without putting in archs in the paint. So now, it's a judgment call by the referees. Well that's just great, make the most non-absolute call in basketball even more...non-absolute. Back to Stephenson. With all of these affiliations comes in-depth investigations by the NCAA, which could find...anything. Stephenson does have four options at this point: Memphis, Maryland, FIU, and Europe. According to Rivals, we've offered him a scholarship. Almost nobody is recruiting this kid. Do the Memphis fans want him here?

P.S. Don't forget to vote in the poll.

Barton Brothers

I'm a little behind the times. Memphis Roar had this video up a couple days ago, but it's too good to pass up. The Bartons seem like a couple of great kids with a lot of charisma and the attitude I would expect from two Pastner recruits.

My two main questions after seeing this video... Is "Sweet Potato" too long of a nickname? Also, when can we get Kristin Tallent to interview these guys? I think they would appreciate that. I think we would all appreciate that.

Memphis Roar has some other news on the Barton Brothers as well as Casey Prather. Check it out.

M Awards Winding Down!

Be a sport and visit Memphis Sport! They're conducting their annual M Awards for the best of the best in Memphis sports and entertainment. The One and Only Tomb of Doom has been nominated for the Best Memphis Blog, so give us some love if you have a chance! We appreciate it!

Monday Morning Round-Up... 6/8/09

Antonio Anderson will participate in a pre-draft workout for the Memphis Grizzlies. Anderson hasn't shown up on many mock-drafts, so it's good to see him get some attention. It seems unlikely that Anderson will be drafted, so I'd like to see the Grizzlies sign Anderson after the draft. The Grizz made a mistake not going after any of our three NBA-bound Tigers last year. If they'd snagged CDR, their attendance this year wouldn't have been so abysmal. Such is Grizz.

Speaking of the Grizz, there's a fresh and clean new site at http://grizzfans.com/. Check it out.

Dan Wolken shares an update on Tiger news, including some additional RC ineptitude, some recruiting news and an interesting take on the Taggart situation.

Jason Smith at the CA gives a quality rundown of prospects who attended Coach Pastner's basketball camp this past weekend. Joe Jackson spoke highly of our new Coach, which was good to see considering he was an elder statesman compared to the rest of the talent in attendance. Prospects from as far off as 2013 came out to the camp. Pastner also talked about the importance of networking at high schools around the area to keep Memphis talent as Memphis talent. Impressive.

Last but not least, I try not to use this blog for personal causes of any sort, you know, other than expressing my disdain for haters, Loserville, poor stanky leg execution, reality tv, the current president's iPod and Big Willie. However, I feel the need to share the following picture with the readers.

At a recent little shindig, I spent some time with a couple friends of mine and their young baby. Friends is a relative term, as the father happens to be a UK fan. Just kidding. I'm not that trivial, at least, not for another paragraph or two...

There was a little UK rubber ball bouncing around and someone wanted to force this offensive toy upon the newest addition to the group and snap a picture. I vehemently opposed, saying the baby should be able to make his own sportsfanship decisions (while plotting to find several pieces of UofM paraphenalia for the child). The UK fans persisted. They had to get a picture of the newest UK fan. Lah-de-freaking-dah.

I was facing a real moral dilemma. The child wasn't mine, so I had no right to prevent this bluegrass-inspired tyranny. The safety of the child wasn't in jeopardy (arguably), so I felt my hands were tied. I could only hope that the Good Lord would prevent such a heinous intrusion into this young fan's future.

The Lord is just. As the picture was being taken, the young child made, what I believe, the wisest move in his young life. He projectile vomited at the sight of this blue UK ball (which has become a fairly common response to all things UK around the country). Well done, young one. There's always room for you in the Memphis fold.

The Debacle Continues...

I'm sure you've read that along with the Derrick Rose SAT situation, news outlets are reporting on Robert Dozier being in a similar situation. A staff member from Lithonia High School wrote an anonymous letter stating that someone else took the SAT for Dozier, scoring a 1260. Georgia refused to admit Dozier, his score was invalidated, and then rescored a 720. Dozier ended up attending Laurinburg Prep in 2004-2005, then signed with the Tigers. Maybe I'm a little uninformed, but if he became eligible while at Laurinburg Prep, why does the faulty SAT score even matter? Or does it? Someone please tell me.

Secondly, the NCAA is meeting with Memphis to discuss the Derrick Rose situation, then will wait at least 6 weeks to make a decision regarding our 38 wins, our C-USA Championship, and our Championship Game appearance. Six weeks? Seriously? Can we move any slower? My real question is this: If the NCAA clears a player for eligibility, why is it Memphis' fault if he cheated in high school, and we didn't know about it? Why do we have to sacrifice everything for something that happened before he was even associated with our University? Shouldn't the NCAA be held accountable for clearing him to play, then deciding 2 years later to penalize us for it? Could you imagine the monstrosity of it all if Memphis had made one more free throw that day? Would Kansas be the new champion? Or would the 2007-2008 season be deleted from the history books?

On top of all the mess, the women's golf program was charged with major violations under ex-coach Jenny Bruun, who allegedly provided over $3000 in assistance to former players from '04-'08. Why does it seem like that after the coach leaves, the program takes the hit. Where's the accountability from the coaches? I wonder if the NCAA will ever consider fining coaches for such violations, even after they're gone.

Jenny Bruun