Go Tigers!

If you're unfamiliar with college basketball, let me clue you in: the newest (as of this past week) number 1 team in the country: The Univeristy of Memphis Tigers. Yep, right here in Memphis.

Indeed, I grew up with football as the sport. But the football team here, well, it leaves a good bit to be desired. (we play teams such as Rice and SMU, and I remember those football programs from the days of the Southwest Conference---not a lot of umph, ya know?)

But basketball, well, wowee! Around here, it's the big deal. For example, Friday night, the Foo Fighters played a concert in Fed Ex Forum--the major arena in town. Saturday morning, the Tigers played Gonzaga at the same place. And Friday night, the Memphis Grizzlies, the NBA team here, played in there. The only event that sold the place out? That's right---the college basketball game at 11 am on a Saturday.

The Tigers have done pretty well in their past. They are even the team that knocked Texas A&M out of the big tourney last year. (so you can imagine my mixed feelings.) But they haven't secured the numero uno spot since some time in the early 80s. Until now. Apparently the win yesterday over Gonzaga was pretty big too, even though Gonzaga is no longer ranked. Our big game comes up next month when we play UT--that's the University of Tennessee around here.

I have several students who did their undergrad here, and it's the fever. So sure, I'll jump on that bandwagon: Go Tigers!

(that is, of course, until they play A&M in any March Madness game. :-) )