Wednesday, April 1, 2009

a very wild ride indeed

No, I’m not going to convert this blog into a sports blog but with all the recent developments in Tiger Nation (coupled with my love for Tiger basketball), I must make a few remarks. Apparently next year’s basketball season will be a bit of a wilder ride than I originally thought however, not for the reasons I anticipated when I wrote this last Friday. Here are a couple of my remarks given recent developments:

-Our “rebuilding year” probably just got extended from this year to next and depending on who the new hire is, potentially the year following too… I say that because in the span of a week we’ve gone from having a great team, competing for a spot in the Elite 8 (last Thursday) with the number one recruiting class in the nation in the wing to currently having quite literally approximately 5 people TOTAL on our team. (Thanks for taking next year's team with you out the door Cal!)
-The past season marked the end of an era for more than just the graduation of Robert Dozier and Antonio Anderson. It seams Cal’s era here at Memphis is over as well. It’s kinda sad to me because he was the coach the entire time I was in school at the university and he is a great coach too!
-I have to say for those who know me and fear this might be the case, I am not bitter. Seriously. Who can blame Coach Cal for leaving? Kentucky has a fantastic history and it is a big deal to coach there. If he can rebuild the Kentucky program anything like he did Memphis’ he will have solidified his spot in the Hall of Fame. No questions. And if Kentucky was his dream job and that’s where he really wanted to be then that’s where he needed to go.
-With that said, I do like Coach and I’m sad to see him go but no doubt he did a lot of phenomenal things for Memphis’ basketball program in his tenure here. He built it up to a nationally competitive program and I for one, have enjoyed the ride! But guess what? The show will go on. Memphis will again have their day in the spotlight and we will win a national championship. What would make that win sweeter? Winning over a Cal coached KY team.
-More than anything, I’m not a fair-weather fan so you’ll still find me at every game next year yelling just as loudly for my Tigers… just with a new coach.
Go Tigers!

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