The AP Poll No. 7 ranked Memphis Tigers beat the daylights out of the team that sounds the most herbivore-like of any D-I program, the Rice Owls.
The Tigers put up 99 points in an impressive offensive performance that the Owls just couldn’t keep up with. The win secured the Conference USA regular season title for Memphis for the second straight year, but the players and coaches conspicuously hardly noticed.
“I don’t even know if we addressed it. So we did win it outright. Huh. Congratulations,” said Memphis coach John Calipari, shrugging his shoulders and glancing at his wristwatch. No big deal.
Calipari added, “That’s not why we’re playing. It’s not, and the league tournament is not why we’re playing. That stuff is all part of the bigger picture.”
Sure, Coach. It’s great to keep focused on your larger goals in this thing. But if NCAA Tournament tickets to Memphis Tigers games don’t show up on StubHub.com after the first round, you might be pulling that C-USA banner out of your back seat and trying to unwrinkled it for the all the Tigers fans back home.