A Day With The Memphis Tigers
by Bill Kintner
MEMPHIS – The Memphis Tigers are a big-time program in a conference that is on the very upper end of the Mid-major conferences. When you look at the resources available to this program, it is clear they are near the upper end of all Division I programs. There’s a chef to cook their meals, NBA-quality training facilities, flying charter jets to their away games, a media guide that is as thick as a small phone book and of course, Coach John Calipari getting paid a small fortune to run this whole operation.
The resources available to the Memphis Tigers put them at the top of Conference USA. With Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and USF leaving C-USA next year, Memphis is poised make this new re-configured conference its own personal playground. They are in a position to dominate the new C-USA to an even greater degree than Cincinnati did for most of the life of the conference.
This program is clearly a unique program. I thought it was time to go down to Memphis to actually take a look at the Tigers and their new palace, the FedEx Forum. I called Ed Schilling, an assistant coach at Memphis and Calipari’s right-hand man. He thought it was a great idea and invited me to spend the whole day with the team. This was for their last home game of the year against Cincinnati, a big game for both teams. It worked out great for me because I was over in Nashville covering the OVC Championship that being held at the Gaylord Center.
The plan was to arrive at the Marriott in downtown Memphis a few minutes before 11 A.M. so that I could join the team for their pre-game meal. Memphis puts their players up at the Marriott before home games to isolate them so they can concentrate on the tasks at hand: prepare for the game and study. Of course, the hotel is just a short walk from Beale Street, making one wonder if players ever sneak out for a night on the town.
I was staying at the Hampton Inn-Vanderbilt in Nashville, which was right down the street from the Gaylord Center. I got up early to drive to Memphis, an easy three-hour drive right across I-40. Right outside of Memphis I stopped at a gas station to get a paper towel to clean the cigar ashes off my dashboard. I heard a voice call out, “Wild Bill!” I kept walking to my car from the gas station because there is no way anybody around here knows me. And again I heard, “Wild Bill!” I looked up and it was Ed Schilling sitting in a very nice Ford Explorer in the corner of the lot. He had his daughter and a friend of hers in the car. He was waiting for the friend’s mother to arrive and pick her up. Well, this made my life easier, since I could just follow Ed to the Marriott.
On the drive in behind Coach Ed, I figured this would be a good day since I was already off to a good start. When we arrived at the Marriott, which was within spitting distance of the Pyramid (the Tigers’ former home arena), there was a farmer’s convention in town. There were pick up trucks parked everywhere and no parking to be found. Ed pulled right up on the sidewalk and motioned for me to do the same. Hey, when you are with the Memphis Tigers, you are big-time in this town.
11 A.M.
Ed and his daughter led the way up to the room were the pre-game meal was held. We were among the first to arrive and took a seat at a table in the corner of the room. After the longest three minutes of my life, Ed gave the go-ahead to work our way through a very impressive buffet. They had pancakes, bacon, orange juice, chicken planks with BBQ sauce. There was pasta, salad, scrambled eggs and a bunch more that I didn’t get around to sampling.
After all the players arrived Memphis coach Derek Kellogg called everyone’s attention to the TV monitor so he could review some video of today’s opponent, the University of Cincinnati.
11:45 A.M.
After most of the players had finished, those wishing to attend chapel stayed in the room. The Memphis chapel program was started by Ed and is attended by usually seven or eight players. Ed’s friend, Ken Bennett conducted today’s chapel. Ed, who at the appropriate time read from the scripture, assisted him. The message was about building a foundation. Just like a foundation is important to a home so it won’t collapse, a foundation of faith built upon God’s word is important for the players. As Ken talked the players were smiling and eagerly nodding their heads. One of the highlights of chapel was that they kept the food out. After chapel ended with a prayer, Ed and I kept on eating. We were the first to arrive and just about the last to leave. When free food is involved, that is good.
12:15 A.M.
We went down to the pool where Ana was busy swimming. She had organized some of the other children in some pool games. This was a great time to pull out the tape recorder and do my interview with Ed. Sitting around the pool with full bellies was a good setting to conduct an interview. At about 12:40, we headed up to one of the coach’s hotel rooms to change. We got in Ed’s Explorer and drove to the FedEx Center. When we pulled up to the entrance the guard looked inside and didn’t immediately recognize Ed. Ana was more than happy to roll down her window and inform the guard that her father was a Memphis coach. The guard laughed and waved us in. We drove down under the arena and parked right next to Coach Calipari’s Jaguar. It was a very short walk in the door and to the Memphis area. I call it an area because it is a lot more than a locker room.
1 P.M.
Ed set his bag in the coach’s room. All of the assistant coaches share a locker room right across from Coach Calipari’s office. It is an impressive office with a big executive desk. Down at one end of the hall is the locker room. It is round, well-lit and the plushest locker room I have seen at the college level. At the other end of the hall was the player’s lounge. It was a very large lounge with plush couches and tables with chairs, filled with trophies and plaques that the Tigers had won in past years. There is also a large, flat screen, plasma TV screen on one of the walls. In other words, it’s pretty much what you would see in the NBA.
1:30 P.M.
The players took the court for a shoot around. They went over some UC plays, walked through defensive situations and then some players just shot a few extra shots. It lasted about 30 minutes. I was setting up my computer on press row – well, it was Ed’s computer. My computer was down so I borrowed his and Ana actually set it up for me. After Ana finished setting up Ed’s computer for me, she disappeared. She is one of the ball girls for Memphis and was wearing her Tiger t-shirt. She seems to know everyone that works at the FedEx Forum. It is her personal playground.
2:00 P.M.
Ed led me over to the media room where we grabbed some cookies and watched the St. Louis/Marquette game. Early in the second half the score was in the low twenties. Ed had an interest in the game because he is a good friend of St. Louis coach Brad Soderberg. About 20 minutes later, Ed had to go courtside to tape his pre-game radio show on the Memphis Broadcast Network.
While Ed did his show I spotted UC broadcaster Dan Hoard sitting courtside watching some UC players shoot baskets. Since I had listened to him on the radio for years I felt like I almost new him. I went over and introduced myself to him. We talked about UC, Memphis and some of the arenas we have had both visited. It was a very enjoyable 10-minute chat.
About that time Ed came looking around for me. We head back toward the Memphis locker room, and on the way he sees TV broadcaster Steve Lavin. He walks over and says, “Hey Lavs!” They shook hands and talked for a few seconds. Ed got to know Lavin when Lavin was a coach at Purdue. He used to teach for Ed at some clinics when Ed coached high school ball in Indiana. We head back to the lounge and sit down on a big leather couch. For the next 10-minutes we finish the interview we started at the pool.
After that, Ed joins the team and I head out to press row. Since I have a few minutes before tip off, I head up to the concourse level to get a look around the FedEx Forum. Like any NBA arena the concourse is wide, the upper seats are too high and the food is too expensive.
5:00 P.M.
The 22nd-ranked UC Bearcats beat Memphis 62-60 when James White hit an eight-foot baseline jumper with 16.2 seconds remaining. White scored the jumper after UC’s Armein Kirkland missed a 3-pointer giving the Bearcats (24-6, 12-4) their sixth straight victory.
It was a tight game the whole way with Memphis leading much of the game. The Tigers called timeout with 5.2 seconds left in the game, but Rodney Carney lost the ball on the inbound play, sending the Tigers (16-14,9-7) to their forth-straight loss.
Cincinnati survived by out rebounding Memphis 53-37 despite shooting only 33 percent from the floor and 18-34 from the line.
“This could have been a momentum builder going into the conference tournament, but we couldn’t rebound” said Memphis Coach John Calipari. “If we could have gotten one more rebound in the last five minutes of the game, we could have won.”
Kirkland led the Bearcats with 16 points. Eric Hicks added 12 points and 11 rebounds, while White had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
“We didn’t leave anything in the bag. We played virtually every defense we could play,” said a tired Bob Huggins, the UC coach. “We ran a bunch of sets we hadn’t run in a long time. Both teams really gutted it out.”
Darius Washington led Memphis with 19 points and Jeremy Hunt kicked in 13 points. Memphis shot just 34 percent for the game.
It was an exciting game with a fatiguing finish. The fans left this game tired and a little disappointed by the outcome.
After the game I went and got comments from both coaches. Then I packed away Ed’s computer and headed to the Memphis player’s lounge, where Ed’s family was waiting for him. I ate a few chicken fingers with BBQ sauce, but I was still full from all the food I ate earlier in the day. Ed’s wife Shaun took the kids home and Ed was just waiting until Cal was ready to meet.
5:55 P.M.
The coaches were called into Coach Cal’s office for a post game meeting. One of the video guys brought a tape into the lounge to watch on the big screen TV. He couldn’t get it to work. So I just sat there and watched a college game on ESPN. I think I dozed off for a few minutes.
7:25 P.M.
Ed pops his head in and says it is time to go. I think he wanted to make a break for it before Coach Cal found something else for him to do. We walk out to the parking garage, his Explorer was right there no more than 40 feet from the door.
Both of us are tired as we chatted on the drive to my car. Ed was anxious to get home to his family, so he said he would call me when we were driving and we could finish our conversation then.
As I drove back to Nashville, I thought about how much fun I had enjoying a full day of college hoops with what I think is an amazing basketball program. As always, nobody got hurt and nobody went to jail – a successful day indeed.
