Analysis: Tiger Blue, Memphis Flyer

Tarik Black Leaving University of Memphis

Frank Murtaugh — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:56:00 -0500

In some respects, Tarik Black’s three years at the University of Memphis unfolded as an inversion of your typical college life. Arriving in 2010 as a top-50 recruit and hometown favorite from Ridgeway High School, Black was supposed to fill a two-year void at the center position, one created with the departure of Joey Dorsey after the 2007-08 Final Four run.…

Memphis Tigers Season Recap

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 07:00:00 -0500

The 2012-13 Memphis Tigers won 31 games they were supposed to win. Cream-puff conference and soft nonconference schedule.…

Dancin' Days are Here for Memphis Tigers

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:55:00 -0500

The NCAA basketball tournament is a cruel event. No other sport requires a team play so many games to qualify, then delivers a series of pass/fail tests to earn a championship.…

Six Thoughts on Tiger Hoops

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 08:00:34 -0600

As the regular season's final week unfolds, a few thoughts to ponder:

• Last Tuesday’s loss at Xavier may have proven, once and for all, that Conference USA is college basketball’s kiddie pool. The league champion — 13-0 against its conference brethren — travels to face a foe sixth in the Atlantic 10, minus its point guard . . .…

The Memphis Tigers' Fine Fifteen (Revisited)

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:00:22 -0600

I love rankings. And the more subjective the better.…

The Top 15 Memphis Tigers of All Time

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:00:00 -0600

Tiger coach Josh Pastner loves D.J. Stephens. And there’s much to love about the gravity-defying senior forward, certainly the most popular Tiger since Joey Dorsey grabbed his last rebound five years ago.…

Midseason Grades for the Memphis Tigers

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:48:00 -0600

With 15 games under their collective belt and 16 regular-season games to play, the Tigers find themselves at the season’s midpoint with as many questions to answer, really, as they had back in November. Can the team compete with Top 20 opposition?…

Mixed Signals for U of M Sports

Frank Murtaugh — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:29:00 -0600

It must be an interesting view from Tom Bowen’s desk. Not quite six months after entering his new office, the University of Memphis athletic director is surely checking his notes on his department’s two primary revenue generators.…

Bye-Week Blessing?

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:19:00 -0500

A bye week can be a blessing or a curse for a football team. The Memphis Tigers and their rookie coach get an entire fortnight to stew over the team’s 0-4 start, the worst for the program in 14 years.…

Three Thoughts on Memphis Tiger Football

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 08:00:53 -0500

• Aesthetic Victory
Memphis coach Justin Fuente pays no attention to moral victories. He said as much during his postgame comments just after midnight Sunday morning.…

2011-12 Season Review

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:20:00 -0500

Three years into the Josh Pastner era at the University of Memphis and the win totals are healthy and creeping steadily upward: 24 in 2009-10, 25 his second season at the helm, and 26 this season. Back-to-back Conference USA tournament titles and a regular-season crown this winter.…

Senior Salute: Wesley Witherspoon

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:43:55 -0600

It’s been a long time since I’ve been healthy and been able to play this way. This was an emotional game for me. — Wesley Witherspoon (November 15, 2011)

Say this for Wesley Witherspoon: he didn’t take the easy way out.…

Memphis Tigers Should Raise a Banner: #5

Frank Murtaugh — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:00:30 -0600

Anfernee Hardaway played his last game as a Memphis Tiger on March 18, 1993 (a loss to Western Kentucky in the opening round of the NCAA tournament). Among the eight Tiger greats to have had their numbers retired, Hardaway is the last to have worn that number in game action.…

University of Memphis to Join Big East

Frank Murtaugh — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:31:55 -0600

The U of M is holding a press conference at noon Wednesday (Hardaway Hall of Fame) in which athletic director R.C. Johnson is expected to announce that Memphis will join the Big East Conference, effective with the 2013-14 academic year. The first six thoughts I have on the news:

• Hallelujah.…

No Time to Baby

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:00:00 -0600

The composition of a basketball team is easy to measure. Who’s on the roster?…

Perception vs. Reality

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:00:00 -0600

More often than not, a college basketball season is about revelations. The team we think we know on Thanksgiving is seldom the team we see on the court after New Year’s Day.…

Memphis Tiger Football Starts Over (Again)

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:51:02 -0600

If there was any debate on whether or not the U of M should retain football coach Larry Porter, it went something like this:

• KEEP HIM — There’s a standard thought among college administrators, boosters, casual fans, and even media types when a new coach is hired to rebuild a struggling football program: “You gotta give him three or four years.” Turning around a football program goes beyond a single prize recruit, or a single prize recruiting class. Even with Porter’s reputation as a recruiting star during his days as an assistant at LSU, the Tigers had reached a depth that will require two or three solid recruiting classes and, importantly, the seasoning of those classes before it will show on the scoreboard on fall Saturdays.…

East Carolina 35, Tigers 17

Frank Murtaugh — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:23:00 -0500

The Mountain West Conference has to be licking its chops. A day after the MWC and Conference USA announced an alliance with the hope of landing a future BCS bowl slot, two of C-USA’s bottom-feeders met at the Liberty Bowl to determine a degree of inferiority in C-USA’s East Division.…

Thorny . . .The Derrick Rose Saga Continues

Frank Murtaugh — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:38:00 -0500

It's the most deflating sports story of my 20 years in Memphis. Think about that.…

Three Thoughts on Memphis Tiger Football

Frank Murtaugh — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:00:27 -0500

• It’s hard to measure the progress of a quarterback without a few wins in the mix. Still looking for his first victory over an FBS opponent, freshman Taylor Reed is still in the embryonic stage of his college career.…

Three Thoughts on Memphis Tiger Football

Frank Murtaugh — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:00:55 -0500

• Last season, playing for one of the worst defenses in the country, Jamon Hughes emerged as a star. Consider how well a linebacker must play to earn first-team all-conference honors for a team that allows an average of 39.8 points per game.…

2010-11 Basketball Season Recap

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:00:02 -0500

The parallel is too profound to ignore. Two Conference USA championship games, separated precisely by six years.…

CUSA Tourney Tricks

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:00:00 -0600

As the fourth seed in this week’s Conference USA tournament in El Paso, the Tigers have a mountain to climb if they’re to win C-USA’s lone automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. If seeds hold, Memphis will have to beat a pair of teams — Southern Miss and UAB — a third time this season just to reach the championship, where they’ll likely face a UTEP team on the same floor where they lost to the Miners by 27 points on February 26th.…

Senior Day Salute: Will Coleman

Frank Murtaugh — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:00:13 -0600

Will Coleman didn’t have to come to the University of Memphis. In the spring of 2009, Coleman had a ready-made excuse for finding another program to help sculpt his late-developing skills on the hardwood.…

Freshman Grades

Frank Murtaugh — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:00:00 -0600

The 2010-11 Memphis Tigers are a team that will be remembered for its freshmen. Three of the four upperclassmen who entered the season in coach Josh Pastner’s rotation — Will Coleman, Wesley Witherspoon, and Angel Garcia — all came up short of expectations, for various reasons.…