When Memphis is just hoopin', it's a joy to watch

SAN ANTONIO

The problem with tonight's NCAA championship game? It's the last time we get to watch these rollicking good-time Memphis Tigers, as superb freshman point guard Derrick Rose likes to put it, "just hoopin'."

Now, Memphis just hoopin' is outstanding stuff that's created a nearly indomitable 38-1 team and one of the all-time great seasons in college basketball.

But OK, maybe Memphis' loose, free-form profile doesn't tickle your twine. Maybe you're suspicious of chatty coach John Calipari and his school's supposed academic shortcomings or his relationships with the street agents of the world, topics that have gotten play here at the Final Four.

I know what you might think when you think Memphis basketball. You envision a second shoe, hovering, poised to thud to the floor. Memphis used to be a regular stop for the NCAA's legal hounds. When Calipari coached Massachusetts to the '96 Final Four, star Marcus Camby was later found to have taken money from an agent.

Those things linger, but put them aside. Or at least understand that every program has its question marks, dim corners and skin tags - and appreciate the prodigious skill with which Memphis will pursue its first NCAA crown against Kansas.

"We just want people to look at us as regular student-athletes," says junior All-American guard Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis' leading scorer, "because I'm pretty sure there's a player on Harvard and Yale with a tattoo somewhere."

Douglas-Roberts, among a handful of wry and glib Tiger spokesmen, broke up his audience Sunday with that one. And this one, on whether Memphis and Kansas were really double digits better than UCLA and North Carolina: "That's what it looks like."

And this one, on a recent team visit by Jesse Jackson: "We have an academic advisor named Jesse, so when coach Cal said Jesse's coming in, we're all thinking, 'Uh oh, who didn't go to class?'"

But to his first point, beyond the laughter, Douglas-Roberts, a sport and leisure management major, is right. Memphis isn't alone with its foibles, failings or bad raps, although Calipari is the only coach I've heard recently discuss a suspended player's "intervention."

Nonetheless, to spend time with the Tigers, even in such a tightly controlled backstage environment as the Final Four, is to find they hit a slew of right notes, on or off the court.

"All I can tell you is, I got a bunch of good kids," Calipari says. He is quick to note he's on his second school that is about "access and opportunity," where many players "aren't coming from families and cultures where they're on third base. They're starting in the dugout and they're gonna make some mistakes at times.

"It's always, for me, not what they come in with - it's what they leave with.... So I'm trying to do the best job I can. If people respect that (or) if they don't think that's very good, I can't control that."

Words and deeds do suggest Calipari has been true to his mission over eight years. Then, Memphis basketball had a zero graduation rate; Calipari says 15 of his last 17 seniors have graduated. Calipari also wields substantial influence in the community and helps Memphis high school players get into prep schools and colleges.

Then there's the bottom line: Memphis is 219-64 under Calipari, with nearly half of those wins in the past three seasons. He constructs and orchestrates tremendous teams. This is his best.

Enjoy these Tigers - win or lose, one final time - for all that they are.

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com