Look Who Decided to Skip His Afternoon Nap...

It's been a long summer for the Tigers. Our scheming, sell-out of a coach pull the rug out from under us and took our recruits to UK. Our (statistically) best basketball season was officially erased from the incredibly judicious NCAA record books. Due to theft, injuries and an insatiable desire for Asian culture, our current basketball roster has been trimmed to a mere eight scholarship players. Not to mention, our football team has been smoked like a North Memphis lazy afternoon by two of our nearby rivals (unfortunately lacking the euphoric, carefree after-effects).

Yet, sometimes, you must go through a season of tribulation to become stronger and better. Either that or you have an athletic director who fears for his cushy job and decides to make an effort.

RC Johnson has just hired Mike Tranghese, the former Big East Commissioner, to do some consulting for the Memphis Tigers. Johnson proceeds to emerge from his hole and make large claims about how Memphis wants to join the SEC, but that he really just wants to get into a BCS conference.

Wow, RC. You've really stepped your game up. What's gotten into you?
Before Memphis fans get too excited, hear Tranghese loud and clear when he says, “I can’t get people into conferences. That’s not what I do.”

No wonder this guy is such good friends with RC Johnson.

There's a rumor floating around that Memphis and UCF will be joining the Big East in the next six months. Mind you, this rumor started on a Mississippi radio call-in show.

Needless to say, don't expect anything to happen anytime soon. Memphis needs to improve their football facilities before a move is made. Forget about the SEC. There's no chance a thirteenth team will be added and even less of a chance that a third school from the state of Tennessee will be added. The SEC wants to expand its influence. Memphis cannot offer them that. There are as many Tennessee fans in the city of Memphis as Memphis fans (for football, at least), so there is little motivation for the SEC to expand here.

The Big East is pretty full, too. The main rumor flying is that Memphis will replace DePaul in basketball. However, the Big East is already very basketball heavy. They may not want to add another team who can compete for a top spot. They may want to preserve some knockaround teams so the big boys can pad their record.

Regardless, nothing has materialized other than RC putting forward a moderate effort in the PR portion of the athletic department. Does it sound good to consult with the former Big East Commish? Of course. Will it make any difference in the end? Not according to the Big East Commish. Time will tell.

As always, Tiger fans... pray.

Let the record show... we can't wait to see Joe wearing that Tiger Blue! Joe Jackson joins the highly touted Barton brothers in what's shaping up to be an incredible recruiting class for Josh Pastner in his first full season on the trail. Go Tigers!!!

Hardworkin' III

Its Official! ... Well official that it will be made official today. Last night Joe Jackson culminated his Facebook Status Watch '09 by saying that he will announce his college choice tonight at 6:30pm at the Finch Center. He then lists his choices as Kansas, Tennessee, and Memphis and sarcastically asks "What it's gone be?". Joe Jackson, if you dare to hold a press conference at our gym to announce that you're going to another school, much less Kansas or Tennessee, I promise we'll hate you more than Coach X. So with that, I say "welcome" to the newest member of the 2010 Memphis Tigers, Joe Jackson!

Angel the Garcia

MemphisRoar is reporting that Angel Garcia tore his ACL during an individual workout and is lost for the second season in a row. This is a tremendous blow to the team both numbers-wise and size-wise.

Hardworkin' II

Just as we suspected, our sources tell us that a very important announcement will officially come on Friday.

The Fallout II

As rumors swirl around the message boards from Memphis to Kentucky to Kansas about an imminent national report concerning further allegations against Coach X, The University of the commonwealth of Kensucky may have shed a little light on the situation when assistant director of basketball operations Bilal Batley was relieved of his position on Tuesday. Batley served in the same capacity here at Memphis during the 2008-2009 season. While it is not known for sure what is going to be in the report, if Batley's dismissal has anything to do with the content, it will be a major headline. We'll keep you updated.

Hardworkin'

Those who can view both Joe Jackson's and Will Barton's respective facebook pages have been salivating over the wall-to-wall conversation that has been taking place recently. Many many years from now when Barton's basketball career is over, he needs to come back to Memphis and AT LEAST be a recruiter cause he is giving Joe Hardworkin' Jackson a great pitch. And if that wasn't enough JJax's own status updates are furthering speculation that an announcement might come soon, and it might be Memphis. I mean, how many recruits do you know whose profile picture is them in the actual game jersey of a team that is recruiting them? We'll keep you updated.

-Pistolier