Sobering, not Surprising

Your March bloggers are now in somewhat similar situations. Shankar's heart belongs to Indiana, and mine to Memphis. Now that John Calipari is heading to Kentucky, we have a decimated roster, a frantic coaching search, and a distraught fan base wondering (more so than fans would at IU, which has tradition independent of Bobby Knight and is in the Big Ten) how much there is a Memphis without a Calipari. Memphis has tradition, but there's a deep insecurity in the city that was unfortunately assuaged by returning to college basketball glory, and in unprecedented fashion, with the pattern for perennial outsized success firmly laid. 

Calipari could have made his own Kentucky at Memphis, but he went to the one that was already there. That's really all I can say. 

A long night in Memphis and Lexington

Rumors swirling today about whether John Calipari will leave Memphis to take the head job at Kentucky. Despite all the "reports" (many of which are just reporting other reports), this does not appear to be a done deal. For what it's worth, the most recent chatter is that Memphis boosters are trying to put together a last-minute package that will keep Calipari in Memphis.

I have been saying all day long that until it is officially announced by Kentucky, I will continue to believe that this is an effort by Calipari to re-negotiate a huge deal in Memphis. Srinivas can speak to this better than I can, but if that's the case, it would not be the first time for Calipari.

I don't have much to add to this, but I will say that based on my casual surfing, I think that people are understimating the appeal of the Memphis job, both in the abstract and in Calipari's case, specifically. I don't think folks understand the importance of the Memphis basketball team to the city of Memphis, and the resources that the university is willing to commit to the program. After all, Calipari is already the second highest-paid coach in the country, and unlike the highest-paid coach (Billy Donovan), the magnitude of his salary isn't just a function of the largesse generated by a dominant football team.

In any event, it appears we'll find out tomorrow. In the meantime, there are a lot of folks in Kentucky and Memphis who aren't going to sleep well tonight.

Grab some popcorn

Billy Gillispie is out at UK. Kick back, put your feet up, and head over to Rupp Rafters to revel in the chaos.

UPDATE: A TV station in Orlando is reporting that Billy Donovan will be leaving Florida to take the UK job. That'll satisfy Kentucky's insane fan base, but I'm not sweating Billy D at all.

UPDATE 2: Donovan is pushing back on the rumors a bit, releasing a statement that says, "In response to the rumors circulating about my interest in other jobs, I wanted to address this as quickly as possible. I am committed to the University of Florida and look forward to continuing to build our program here." That strikes me as a non-denial denial.

Thursday Recap

Four games, four notes:

1. Boy, was Pitt lucky to win tonight. A disjointed, sloppy, and sluggish effort from the Panthers. From Dejuan Blair's poor finishing to Sam Young's comically bad shot selection to the entire team's defensive disorganization, it was not a pretty sight. Even Levance Fields' climactic three-pointer was one of those "no no no no no no yes!" plays. Jamie Dixon will be thanking his lucky stars that Xavier struggled to finish around the rim and shot surprisingly poorly tonight.
   


2. We said yesterday that the key factors in the Nova-Duke game would be the Wildcats' guards keeping their composure against Duke's ball pressure defense, and Duke's three-point shooting. Well Villanova turned it over on just 16% of its possessions (Duke typically forces turnovers on about 23% of possessions), and Duke shot an abominable 5-for-27 from beyond the arc. End result: 23-point Villanova blowout and much rejoicing throughout the land.


3. I didn't see the Memphis-Missouri game, but every replay that CBS showed me seemed to involve JT Tiller scoring on a layup off of a curl cut into the lane. Easy, peasy, japeneezy. So much for Memphis' vaunted defense, which allowed a remarkable 1.25 points per possession. Missouri will be looking to make its first Final Four on Saturday, but perhaps the more important battle for them will be finding a way to keep Mike Anderson in Columbia after the season is over. As for the inevitable speculation of Calipari to Kentucky, I can't see either party to that potential transaction being particularly interested in it, for a variety of reasons. Sorry, delusional UK fans, it looks it'll be Travis Ford for you. That's what you get for running one of the game's best coaches out of town.


4. I also missed the UConn-Purdue game, but as we suggested yesterday, without a hot shooting night, Purdue wasn't going to win this game. And 6-for-23 from 3 is absolutely frigid. The Boilers could never get the offense going this year, and despite returning much of their top talent next year, if they don't find a way to score, it's going to be a similar story.
   

UPDATE: Just to balance out the less than unbiased appraisal of Memphis' season below, I don't think they did anything that anyone shouldn't have expected in preseason. They may have been underrated by the polls at the time, but a so-so non-conference performance, a sweep through the anemic CUSA, and a sweet 16 exit are not terribly surprising results for this team. This year's award for overachieving goes to the Tigers who won tonight's game. It's a travesty that Bill Self gets more praise for Kansas' season than Mike Anderson does for Missouri's. Everyone wants to know how Self did it after losing so many players from a national championship team. Well he did it with two returning McDonald's All-Americans, 5 top 100 freshmen recruits, and the best JUCO transfer in the country, that's how he did it. Mike Anderson, on the other hand, has stitched together a 25-6 season, a Big 12 tournament championship, and an Elite Eight appearance out of a few popsicle sticks, some pipe cleaners, and a jar of paste. Put that in your expectations pipe and smoke it.

Requiem for a Season

This wasn't supposed to be that team. It wasn't that veteran-heavy, superstar-infused team that was supposed to make it all the way last year, and almost did. It was a team with one great freshman, two proven veterans, and a lot of questions in October. This Memphis Tigers team didn't seem like it had a spark, a heart to push it to greatness. The early losses bore that out, and we settled in for one of those in-between seasons and looked ahead to the next recruiting class. Then, somehow, we moved Tyreke Evans to the point, and we caught fire. And despite myself, I started to see a great year coming from this obviously flawed team that managed to win, and defend, and even shoot. I definitely wouldn't have believed you if you told me in December that this team was a 2-seed. I saw that after all it would be a fitting ending for the careers of Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier.

And then tonight. The despair, the near helplessness of the end of the first half, and the early part of the second. The hangdog looks, that 1 step that we always seemed to be behind. But we burst through that illusion. We woke up, and we sprinted back toward an opponent who thought they'd left us behind.  We drove and drove and drove, and we trusted our superstar, and it all made us realize too late that if we'd only been ourselves a little bit earlier, Mizzou would have been but paper Tigers. But dammit, we went down swinging, a team that wasn't really made to be there, who achieved a kind of greatness in managing to come up just short. Thanks, Tigers, you left it all on the court for us in the end, and that's all we can ever ask. 

Quick Hitter: Blowing It

Well, those two games were lost, not won. Purdue could have been much closer and even led the game at various times, but they managed to blow possessions in a variety of ways. UConn was not the dominant team they were last weekend, as Jeff Adrien was not hitting the foul line jumper on the pick and pop and Chris Kramer had A.J. Price largely contained for much of the game.  Despite mostly being outplayed, Purdue was never behind by all that much. But Purdue could never get over the hump, and UConn finally flexed its superior talent in the last ten minutes and pulled away. Purdue definitely fumbled away a chance to push UConn to the last possession. 

Xavier has to be heartbroken as well. Their long drought at the beginning of the second half turned their 37-29 halftime lead into a seesaw game.  They could not push the advantage they had gained from a quiet first half by DeJuan Blair, and the odds caught up with them. Blair came alive in the second half, with rebounding and scoring, but Xavier could still control the game. Pitt was not really clicking offensively or defensively. Xavier had an incredible run of missed chippies throughout the game, and they had turnovers at the most inopportune times, sometimes after big stops.  They were deflated by the final minute, and when Levance Fields hit that gigantic 3 over a good contest, it seemed like Xavier was basically finished mentally, even though they were only down 1.  Not a fitting way for Xavier to end the season. 

Two Big East beasts escape average performances. On to the late games....

Mitch Barnhart, Our Lord and Savior

I know they take their basketball seriously in Kentucky, but I think the reporter who wrote this ESPN wire services story after UK's season ended in the NIT has missed the mark:

Asked about how he feels about all the judgment he's facing after posing a 40-27 record in two seasons at Kentucky, Gillispie said: "There's only one judgment I'll ever be concerned about, and I hope I pass that judgment. That's the only one I'll ever be concerned about, and I'm really proud that that's the only judgment that will ever have a real effect on me, and I hope I pass that one with flying colors."

Gillispie declined to answer when asked whose judgment he was referring to, saying it was obvious, apparently referring to Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart.

Uh, something tells me Gillispie is talking about something more eternal than his job.