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Why The University Of Memphis Deserves A No. 1 Ranking
By Jay Busbee | January 22, 2008
Memphis is the No. 1 team in college basketball right now, and if you don’t understand the significance of that, friends, you don’t know Memphis.
We love the Bluff City. We went to grad school at the U of M, we set one of our novels there, and we channel our inner Faulkner by drinking in the Peabody lobby as often as we can. Memphis has a reputation for basketball greatness–the ’72 team that ran into an ungodly Bill Walton in the championship, the star-crossed ‘85-’86 team, the shoulda-couldas with Penny Hardaway and Lorenzen Wright in the ’90s–but they’ve never quite been able to clear the big hurdle.
Why? We submit that there’s something in the makeup of the city. Allow us, if you will, to quote ourselves (again) on why this ranking is so important:
In its existence, Memphis has been a home for every halfwit sports league from Canadian League Football to Donkey Basketball, with a stunning roster of defunct or departed teams — The Showboats, the RiverKings, the Pharaohs, the Chicks, the Houn’dawgs, the Maniax, the Xplorers, the Blues, the Fire, the Hot Shots, the Tams, the Sounds, the Americans, the Rogues, the Rockers, and on and on and on. The pre-Titan Houston Oilers used Memphis like A-Rod uses handy blondes, popping down I-40 for football games and then scooting back to Nashville the moment the clock reached all zeroes. (Which led to the really embarrassing scene of Memphis standing out on Nashville’s lawn screaming for the Titans to come out, and the Titans telling the kids to go to bed, nothing’s wrong, and Nashville telling the Titans that if they didn’t get that WHORE off the lawn right now, they could just go LIVE with her on Beale Street, and…)
We’re not alone. Consider how the Commercial Appeal’s Geoff Calkins started his column today:
Go ahead, take a another look. It really does say what you think it says:
1. Memphis.
That’s right:
1. Memphis.
Can’t quite believe it, can you?
1. Memphis.
And the ranking isn’t for crime rates, obesity or public corruption…
You get the idea. Anyway, now Memphis is No. 1, and deservedly so. Riding that ranking for another ten weeks won’t be easy, but if ever a Bluff City team had the horses to do it, it’s this one. Friends, start prepping your Elvis metaphors now.
Topics: Basketball, Memphis |
