The big man with the hyphenated name is no longer a part of the Memphis basketball team. Those who are close with the Memphis program say this is no surprise. Henderson-Niles had seen his production drop drastically (he was never really a minutes-eater as it was) and was known to be too immature to handle for first-year head coach Josh Pastner, who is trying to build a team he wants to build ... Read More

Memphis Roar is claiming Calipari is fleeing the state of Tennessee and heading west. Somebody staked out his house by a golf course. ESPN is also reporting it's official, but no link is up yet. UPDATE: ESPN's got it. ESPN.com's Andy Katz reported on Monday that the deal would be for eight years and approximately $35 million dollars, making Calipari the highest-paid coach in the college ranks. UK has got its man. ... Read More

Update: 6:35 p.m. ET: WHAS has reported that Calipari has accepted the job at Kentucky. WLEX has confirmed that report. It's all over but the press conference. Update, 3:43 p.m. ET: News is now starting to permeate that Memphis has asked permission to speak with Missouri's Mike Anderson. That's as much of a surrender outside of a direct quote from anyone that you could ask for right now. A source from ... Read More

John Calipari has reportedly met and talked with Memphis' players. "While Calipari did not say explicitly what he planned to do, players left the meeting convinced that Calipari would take the job. According to the source, Calipari told the team that Kentucky was the Notre Dame of basketball." {Commercial Appeal} ... Read More

It's going to be, or has become, a trend on the Blogosphere to bring up John Calipari's defiance about the importance of free throw shooting. I was inundated at work today and I promise I'll have plenty of college hoops goodness to fill up your stomach for post-Tournament coverage. Anyway, I'd like to point out that, back on Feb. 22, I put up this video before all of this Memphis ... Read More

Well, I'm still not over it. I'm ready to say that Chalmers' shot is the biggest play in college basketball this side of the century. It's just unfortunate that it came from a coaching gaffe. (Preface:. Notice how I don’t even mention the fact that there was overtime. There was five extra minutes for another chance with plenty of time to make up what went wrong. But in sports it’s all ... Read More

9:13 - OK, I'll go on the record and predict wildly: Memphis wins, 84-66. I'm not huge on predictions, but I'm also known for making a fool of myself. Interesting note: Nantz seemed to go out of his way to mention Packer's 34th-straight Final Four broadcast. It does seem like this could be his last. Also, Self just made a nice speech to his team with a "be ourselves, go ... Read More

We've reached the cul-de-sac on the Road to the Final Four. (Unnecessary admission: I once sang "End of the Road" as a joke, karaoke style, back in college. What a night that was, but I digress.) Of course I'll be live-blogging tonight, so be sure to check back in at 9. For now, how about some serious analysis. It is rather humorous how so many people decided that, hey, one ... Read More

Well, I got this one right. Don't worry, I just jinxed myself from correctly picking Memphis to win it all. A few quick hits: -I'll absolutely be putting up that sweet back door pass from Rose to CD-R, who then slammed it in Love's grill (followed by an immature pointing-and-laughing display by Dorsey). -Derrick Rose has gotten more impressive with each Tournament game he's played in. Are we in for the ultimate climax? -Both ... Read More

1) DID YOU HEAR??!! THEY CAN'T MAKE THEIR FREE THROWS!!!!!111111!!1 2) A team that loves to run the dribble-drive offense is going against three defenses that are very adept at drawing charges and tightening up in the paint. 3) Memphis also doesn't pick-and-pop so well, so if UCLA is able to force Memphis to take a lot of uncomfortable jumpers, they could have a bad shooting day. This is a team that ... Read More

Well, a little distraction here and there for the Tigers will probably only continue to help Calipari's "WE'RE GOOD AND NO ONE BELIEVES IT" schpeel. As much as Cal might feign frustration with inevitable intensified media coverage, he will only use this to further motivate his team. According to WREG, a Memphis CBS affiliate, Allen failed a drug test (shocker!), so that's why he didn't fly with the team to Texas. ... Read More

Just to put it all on the table, here's what we're looking at this weekend. The four teams combine for almost 6,900 wins, over 300 Tournament wins, 17 national titles and 51 Final Fours. Roy Williams will be coaching against his former team, Kansas, where he never won a national title, but made four Final Fours. You can make the argument that there are 19 potential NBA players playing amongst the four teams ... Read More

Third year's the charm. Good for the Tigers—I'm rooting for them to win it all. They dispatch of Texas, 85-67. It's going to be Memphis-UCLA for the second time in three years. You'll hear plenty about Bill Walton's greatest performance of all-time leading up to this one, but I remember these two teams for one of the ugliest, most unwatchable contests in recent memory, when UCLA took out the Tigers in ... Read More

Damn right I'm going to nitpick. The fact that Memphis dropped the State off of their name over a decade ago makes this unacceptable. Come on over to this side of the century, Bobby. ... Read More

Memphis and Maryland-Baltimore County have punched their tickets. The Tigers kicked around Tulsa, winning 77-51. The Tigers have to be the overall No. 1 now. Even if Tennessee wins the SEC tournament, I think Memphis should take the top seed. And the Retrievers (good boys! good boys!) handled Hartford, winning 82-65. These two could be pit against each other in the first round, which would not be a close game, but ... Read More

I'm sick of tugging at the carrot in Bloomington and waiting for this damn press conference. So we've got that big game tomorrow night in Memphis...here's John Calipari admitting his commitment to the free throw line. I (seriously) appreciate the honesty. Harken back to these words if they lose on Tennessee on Saturday night. Also put that away until you see who you've got Memphis going up against in the later ... Read More

Quite the convincing win over Georgetown Memphis had. 85-71 was the final tally, in case you missed it. And yes, this headline is no news flash, but imagine this team actually winning the title...does it seem like a lucid possibility to you? Most people kind of cast off Memphis as a team that'll probably win three or four in March, then fall in a tough effort to a superior opponent ... Read More

That was quite an interesting game to watch. After the Huskies recovered from their early-game lashing that they were receiving, they actually recovered and took the lead heading into halftime. Unfortunately for cancer survivor Jim Calhoun, this was not his night. No, the Tigers were much superior from an athletic standpoint and the Derrick Rose/Chris Douglas-Roberts combo was just way too much for the Huskies to handle. Memphis walked ... Read More