Only in Memphis...

Only in Memphis would a University, specifically the Sports Information Director, approve the sale of a shirt with "Bust a Nutt" written prominently on the front. Actually, maybe it should be "only in the Mid-South" because Ole Miss had to approve the shirts as well. Here's a picture...


And no, the tiger is not in the middle of a pelvic thrust. He is simply swinging a sledge hammer. The fact that both universities and the printing company signed off on this blows my mind. But it makes the shirt even funnier. However, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Ole Miss saw the proof of this shirt, understood the meaning, and went "Seriously, Memphis? ... Seriously?" If I'm Ole Miss and realize the embarrassment and costliness of such an oversight, I absolutely sign off on the shirt and sit back as Memphis has to destroy thousands of dollars in inventory and quell a PR storm. The game is still 5 days away but... Ole Miss - 1, Memphis - 0.

Surely everybody who reads this blog understands the play on words here, but just in case, Urban Dictionary provides a definition of bust a nut (18+). The shirts have since been pulled from every UofM affiliated store. However, there is one store not affiliated with the UofM that is still selling them... that would be The College Station in Wolfchase Galleria. Go get one before they run out!

No word yet if the University had plans to distribute Aloa Chino's Bust-a-Nut Performance Energy Bars as promotional items before the game.

Pop A Cap In Hunger!

Ready the Cannons!

Cannon Smith, son of FedEx founder and CEO Fred Smith, will transfer from Miami to Memphis. He will sit out a year due to the transfer, leaving him three years of eligibility afterward. He will have every opportunity to win the starting gig next season, as Hall will be graduating this year. Welcome, Smith! And thank you for the easiest transition to a nickname in history. Hope it holds true.

+1 more

Drew Barham, CBHS' 3-point specialist, is going to be a Memphis Tiger! Barham, a 6'7 SG, had originally signed with Southern Illinois but started classes today at the UofM. Whether he sees the court this year depends on him getting a release from SIU. Sources close to the situation seem confident a release will be granted but, if not, Drew will have to sit out and lose this year of eligibility. But regardless of whether he sees the court this year or next, Barham brings a 3-point threat the likes of which we have not seen in awhile. Drew will wear #12 for the Tigers. Welcome back home!

-Pistolier

The Only Final Four We Have Left from 2008...

Silly Memphis. Did you not see the sign?

When Tiger fans heard of the NCAA's decision to wipe out Memphis' 2007-08 record, 99.9% blamed Calipari. Cal's knack for salesmanship, coupled with his relationship with William Wesley (I refuse to call him Worldwide Wes unless he joins Memphis Wrestling), led to above-average recruiting and rumors of under the table dealings. Nevermind the already tainted recruiting history Calipari crafted for himself at UMass. That's no reason to suspect he could be trouble in the future.

I was ready to come out with guns blazing when I first heard about the NCAA's decision. I was ready to line up the usual suspects, namely Calipari, the NCAA, the handlers and RC Johnson, offer each of them a cigarette and their last words and be done with them forever. However, the longer I have had to process the scenario and read more of what has come out in regard to Rose's academics, I am truly at a loss for someone to blame. So I've decided to list out the parties involved, discuss what roles they may have played, and open the floor for discussion. Please feel free to comment below...

1. The NCAA:

A) This is the easiest culprit to identify. The NCAA initially cleared Rose to play. In my eyes, this act is as good as the NCAA giving its blessing to Rose, Cal and the Tigers and setting them free to dominate most of the league that year. If they clear an athlete to play, why on God's green earth would the school or coach investigate the validity of the student's test? When dealing with an organization as subjective and schizophrenic as the NCAA (see Gary Parrish's thoughts on the Duke/Maggette/NCAA love triangle), why bite the hand that feeds? Especially when they're offering future number one NBA draft picks for a year?

B) Furthermore, why would the NCAA wait until March or April to notify Rose and Memphis of their interest in Rose's test score? This isn't Watergate. All that was required is to check with the testing center. Whether the identification procedures of the testing center were fingerprints, two forms of picture ID, or verifying a student's identity by their respective tattoos, the testing center could have known nothing more in March than it did the previous summer when they sent in the new and improved Derrick Rose test scores. So why would the NCAA clear Rose to play for a season, then start raising questions at the end of the season? I can't say for sure, but I bet it had nothing to do with the money Derrick Rose brought to the game and the NCAA in his one season as a college player. I also bet that Cal would keep himself clean once he came to Memphis, so take that for what it's worth.

C) Finally, if the NCAA is keeping such a close eye on the academic eligibility of student-athletes, why were there no red flags raised when Rose bombed his college entrance exam three times in Chicago, took the test in Detroit a couple weeks before the semester started, and viola! Rose is a master at the SAT. He's even planning on teaching an SAT prep course next summer. I kid. Yet, this fact is the most important in the debate. Rose took college entrance exams four times and only right before college started, in a city 300 miles away (which happens to be the city in which William Wesley lives), did Rose do well enough to get into school. That is the NCAA screening process?! What a joke.

2. College Board/The Testing Center:

A) No one has really been mentioning the test provider or the testing center, but I feel like they are important pieces of the puzzle. Do you remember taking a college entrance exam? Those tests were administered by disgruntled school teachers who had to follow up a week of babysitting kids by coming in on a Saturday morning and monitoring kids for five more hours. Not exactly a bastion of security or integrity. If these administrators paid any attention and caught on that non-Rose was taking Rose's test, the administrator could've been paid off easily to keep it quiet. At risk of sounding more like a conspiracy theorist, I'll move on.

B) College Board is the organization that makes and scores the SAT. I had planned on railing on them like I did in part C of the NCAA portion, but as I was writing this paragraph, a quote from this Fox Sports story jumped out at me. The story says the Rose failed the ACT three times. Yet, all the commotion has focused on Rose's SAT score. While the SAT is administered by College Board, the ACT is administered by ACT, Inc., a totally different company. Thus, when "Rose" took the SAT and scored exceedingly better, College Board had no previous test to base it on because Rose had only taken the ACT up to that point. So I suppose that lets College Board off the hook. However, that could be a big loophole for this kind of thing in the future. The NCAA should check into that the next time they need a scapegoat.

3. Cal:

A) Seth Davis summed it up best when asked about Cal's culpability, "I think most of the time coaches know or choose not to know."

B) We all know about William Wesley. We know about Marcus Camby. We know about Milt Wagner. The list goes on. Yeah, I know, the guy's past doesn't necessarily implicate him in the future, but if it smells like a horse, acts like a horse, and you can regularly find him at the Derby...

But I've got to hand it to Calipari. He's done a good job of making none of this stick to himself. He'd be perfect for Washington if there wasn't so much money in basketball. Whether the NCAA is turning a blind eye to him has yet to be revealed, but he's getting away with another college basketball murder by allowing Memphis to steal his beloved spotlight for once. If nothing else, the flogging given to Memphis by the NCAA is a testament to Calipari's ability to manipulate the Memphis athletic department...

4. RC Johnson and the Gang:

I can't help but assume the admissions committee and/or athletic department at Memphis knew about Rose's struggle with college entrance exams. For the reasons I've listed above, they likely turned a blind eye to the situation. Was it Cal's salesmanship? Was it the lure of big-time success? Who knows? At the very least, the AD needed to ask questions. Especially considering Cal's past, RC Johnson needed some leverage in the situation, but by maintaining his status quo of asleep at the wheel, he opened the school to wrongdoing and embarrassment.

Well, there are some points to get discussion started. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Sorry for bullet points instead of a story, but I'm still unsettled by this and figured it'd be good for some bantering back and forth. There will be more on this soon, namely a campaign to push an investigation into Darrell Arthur having his high school grades changed. Whatever happened to just playing ball? Geez...

The Fallout Continues...

Although under appeal, our 2007-2008 basketball record has been changed from 38-2 to 0-40. The NCAA has taken wins, a Final Four, a C-USA tourney championship, streaks, and banners away from the University. That makes Tiger fans upset. But what if YOU had to suffer FINANCIALLY for the sanctions imposed on the University of Memphis basketball team because of the actions of John Calipari and Derrick Rose? In this time of economic downturn, every bit counts.

Well all you reading (and not just Tigers fans, but "you" as a collective public) who participated in a 2008 NCAA Tournament pool better ready yourselves for a litigious dogfight. See all you people who won money in such pools may not be the real winners of that money, and you should give it back because 5 of the 38 wins that were turned to dust came in the NCAA tourney. Yeah, you've probably already spent that on important stuff like feeding your family, student loans, mortgage payments, charitable donations or, if you're from Loserville, "health insurance", but guess what, the NCAA could care less about whether or not you eat, or learn, or live! Cheating is cheating, and if you won money, even though you didn't know Rose's test scores were fake and Reggie was flyin' free, you cheated too and you should give it back!

HOLD ON! What about all you people who lost those pools? Maybe you are the real winner of the money in question! Because technically Memphis lost in the 1st round to UT-Arlington. So all you true UTA Mavericks fans, and the brainless 1.3% of the public, who picked the Mavs over the Tigers may have a claim. Yeah I know it was a first round game and only worth 1 point in the pool, but its the bracket aftermath that would benefit you. Where you at Starkville?! You're in the Sweet 16, that's where! Extra 4 points for the Dawgs that picked that one. But now THIS... IS... SPARTA! Assuming the Spartans win the MSU vs. MSU showdown, or you're a cocky bulldog who got drunk and put State in the Elite 8, that's an extra 8 points there. Either way, those two fan bases have equal claim along with Texas for a Final Four spot... worth 16 points. And UCLA will join your battle for the 32 points awarded for correctly picking a team in the championship game. The whole landscape has now changed! That is rightfully your money! Perhaps if the NCAA Clearinghouse had done their job, those winnings would have prevented an over drafted bank account, or defaulted loan, or car repossession! Or maybe, with the confidence that would have came with winning such a large amount of money and owning face over your peers, you would have asked out that cute girl in your Spanish class, gotten married, and have a nice little family! COMO ESTAN SNITCHES!?

According to reports, the FBI estimates that $2.5 BILLION is gambled on the NCAA tourney every year. So that leaves a whole bunch of you looking over your shoulder trying to protect your winnings, and a whole bunch more of you fired up and looking for your rightful share of that $2.5 bil. Either way, since you're upset and at a computer, you've gotta be looking for somebody you can email and say "Thanks for ruining my financial life!" We wouldn't be a friendly Tomb of Doom if we didn't point you in the right direction. Since none of us want to risk life and limb, or at least the contraction of a sick, sick disease, by venturing into the commonwealth of Kentucky to complain to X, and seeing as how the Clearinghouse is a tremendous, collective FAIL, let us aim for the Division 1 Committee on Infractions. This committee is made up of 10 individuals, and, wait, do I see a mutineer?! Yes! Somebody from our very own C-USA! The Commissioner no less! Let's pick him. Simply following this link will take you to the contact listings for C-USA. There you will see all the C-USA administration and their emails... including the Comish. But don't be fooled, clicking the link for his email will send your message to the black hole of info@c-usa.org. Two options here: a) email his poor executive assistant or b) realize that C-USA emails are first initial then last name @c-usa.org.

Either way, you need to let somebody know that you have no plans to give that money back, or you plan on taking legal action to recover the winnings that you deserve! Just lookin' out for our Tombers.

-Pistolier

Like Pitino Paying for "Health Insurance"...

The NCAA cleared Elliot Williams to play for the Tigers during the 2009-10 season. This is great news that is somewhat muffled by the current situation that is keeping Tiger fans awake at night...
Williams is a player who came on very strong late last season to help Duke to the Sweet 16. He can play the point if he needs to, which may be necessary if you look at the Tigers' woes in the backcourt. Most of all, Williams will provide some leadership to a crew who lost 4-year guys Dozier and Anderson.

Welcome, Elliot! Tiger fans are hoping you can help lay the foundation for a future of hard-fought, legitimate wins in the future of Tiger basketball!

The NCAA Cleared Rose to Play

The NCAA cleared Derrick Rose to play. That should be the main issue here. Memphis and its fans are being penalized for something that allegedly happened when Rose was in high school. Yes, the Reggie Rose issue is looming, but is that alone enough to vacate a 38 win season and a championship game appearance?

I just heard Doug Gottlieb say on ESPN that everyone is at fault, including the NCAA. Is the NCAA sanctioning itself? Is somebody getting fired? Probably not.

Garbage.