observations from late night bball

Yes, I went to the [insanely] late University of Memphis basketball game. Last night's 11pm Tigers game kick started ESPN's 23 hours of college basketball (not quite sure what happened to the 24th hour???). Here are a few brief observations from the night/morning...

• I've never been to a basketball game that started on one day (Nov. 17) and ended on another (Nov. 18).
• Over 18,000 people were just as crazy as me last night. (As a note: this is more people at a Monday night, 11pm Tiger game than last Wednesday night's 7pm Grizzlies game!!! )
• 12th ranked Memphis is now 2-0 and it will be a LONG road until March... and though this year's team is in many ways very different from last year's, I'm just as excited! They might need a few more games to 'gel' but they are good!!
• Calipari became a legend in Memphis last night. With last night's win, the 221st, Calipari officially became the winningest coach in Memphis basketball history.
• He achieved this win against (1) UMass, where he spent many years coaching and (2) Derek Kellogg, his former assistant.
• It's still hard to get used to watching a Tiger game without CDR and Joey Dorsey.
• Antonio Anderson did a great job of leading the team, picking up a double double last night.
• Pierre Henderson-Niles did ok! He actually ran up and down the court for minutes at a time (get that? because it's big for him... "minutes at a time").
• By the way, does anyone have a clue WHY we are supposed to call him Pierre Henderson-Niles this year?!?!? Is he trying to be like CDR??? I'm a bit baffled by this.
• Tyreke Evans put on a nice late night show.
• The two really drunk guys in the section where my season tickets are located provided [interesting] alternative entertainment. Yeah, I seriously thought that one of them was going to fall over the edge in the midst of his dancing.
• Xavier Henry just announced this morning that he is committing to the University of Memphis for the 2009 season... the fun just keeps coming! And he picked Memphis over Kansas!
• Go Tigers!