Due to the recent success of the Grizzlies...also known as having a 12-1 record in November some speculation has risen on whether this city belongs to the NBA Grizzlies or the NCAA Tigers?
Lets Examine....
First the Grizzlies... They had one of the hottest starts of any team in the NBA and certainly the best start of the franchise by far. You had newspapers, fellow bloggers, and ESPN all paying attention to a small market franchise who were just mowing down competition. But could it of been just dumb luck, good scheduling, or something else out of the ordinary? I say its a combination of all those things that resulted in some exciting Grizzlies Action. Conley had the best month of his career posting rediculous highs. Gay had the best month since his first season in the NBA. Not to mention tremendous play by Randolph and Gasol as well as a bench who held their own quite nicely. The Grizzlies currently are 26-14, good for 4th best in the western conference. They play a awful Lakers team tonight that regardless of their record should never be counted out. The 'Dwightmare' as some have referred to it as is bringing the show to Memphis.. Tonight will be a highly competitive matchup that I see the Grizz winning in typical Grizz fashion meaning a close matchup around 90 points each.
Season Prediction: 3rd in Western Conference
Now the Tigers... Just when the Pastner Era seems close to the end he notches some top recruit and now he's safe. The big one last year? Goodwin..This year he grabbed Austin Nichols from our local Briarcrest School. So we forgot for a moment the Tigers had a disastrous showing in the Bahamas. Since then their best win has been against the Vols who almost made a comeback on them. They lost to Louisville in typical Little brother challenging of the Big brother fashion. Now the only game I'm excited about is Xavier whos best win came against Butler but thats not till Feb 26th. For years this was and was never in question a Tiger town. Even when the Grizzlies made their move to Memphis they were still terrible. Rumors of a preseason exhibition matchup against the Tigers were being considered to help market the Grizzlies to its own Memphians.. But it all changed March 30th, 2009.. The Announcement happened. Calipari leaves the program that he had built to a 259-63 record in nine season. The replacement of Jerry West as Grizzlies Chris Wallace saw his moment to strike in the heart of the Memphis souls. Then the hiring of Calipari's apparent heir Josh Pastner.. Since then no one has ever questioned his recruiting skills however its his coaching on the court that has been the concern. He is winless against a Top 25 ranked team yet still the city rallies around its Tigers. Drive down the most poplar street in Memphis and count the number of Tiger statues. Oh, don't forget when the Tigers made the jump from the C-USA conference to join Louisville in the Big East but that excitement didn't last for long as the Big East dissolved into a mere copy of C-USA plus added travel expenses. So that was a bust so what now do we have... Well it's back to reality for us Tigers fans until Joe happened. Joe Jackson has been the savior for Pastner this season as he is stepping up to finish games.
Season Prediction: C-USA Champs
This city belongs to... The Tigers...for now. The Grizzlies are making one helluva case to overcome the Tigers unless something happens soon. The Grizzlies just pulled off a trade to keep Gay, Conley, Randolph and Gasol together for the remainder of this season if not longer. The Grizzlies aren't going to be the best of the western conference but just being Top 4 status of the Western would be Elite Status of the Eastern Conference. So the Tigers need to do something NOW to keep the heart and soul of Memphis from turning to the Grizz.
What is that? Maybe at least a Sweet 16 run if not more! Good Seeding in the tourney could go a long way to accomplish that..
