Tonight’s Thoughts:

1. I don’t care if the twirler is a former Miss Tennessee, there’s no reason for a baton routine at halftime of a basketball game.

2. Cal really likes his team. He went to great lengths in the postgame to stress the great chemistry they have.

3. Lute Olson may return to the sideline(my gut instinct says he won’t). That said, it’s Kevin’s program now. They are playing defense at a level Arizona hasn’t seen in a long time.

4. The Memphis Dance Squad is truly a national treasure.

5. The quality of officiating in college basketball is at an all time low.

6. The Memphis media is already gearing up for the Tennessee game. So are the scalpers.

7. I sat behind the NBA scouts in the plaza level media section. It’s fascinating to watch how differently each guy goes about his job. Some guys took 20 pages of notes and diagrams. Others never picked up a pen.

8. Chase Budinger needs to get thoughts of leaving early for the League out of his head. He’s a fabulous athlete, but his game still needs a whole bunch of work.

9. As Cal said after the game, we saw tonight the element Shawn Taggart adds to the Tigers. That’s a dimension they didn’t have last year.

10. I’ll be very surprised if both teams on the floor tonight don’t play deep into March.

Overall, a great weekend of hoops in greater Memphis.

Tags: road trap