A Little Love for the Grizzlies

I just now got a chance to read espn.com today and the first thing I go to is their "Daily Dime." Looks like David Thorpe is a fan of Juan Carlos Navarro's.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-071129&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos2

Thorpe lists Navarro as his leader for rookie of the year and writes this:

1. Juan Carlos Navarro, Grizzlies (6)
He's terrific when he gets 30-plus minutes; the Grizzlies are 2-1 with him as a starter. He followed his 28-point performance -- on only 14 shots -- against the Wizards with a gritty, 16-point, 11-board showing in a big win in Jersey on Tuesday. If he can maintain these minutes, he will put up enough numbers to compete for rookie of the year with the "Big 3" (who follow him here).

He lists Kevin Durant as #2. I think Durant will be spectacular even though his team is terrible. Durant will have to learn how to be more than just a pure scorer. With his 6'10'' frame he needs more than 4rebs a game too. This will come with age and strength. I'm sure the 2.1apg will go up too, but it probably won't be this year.

Grizzlies/Raptors

The Grizzlies are getting slaughtered right now by Toronto. It's a 26pt lead for the Raptors with about 1:30 left in the 3rd. This game is nothing more than Toronto having much more rest than the Grizzlies. Iavaroni's squad is on the 2nd game of a back-to-back while Toronto hasn't played since Sunday. The Raptors are a better team than the Grizzlies, but not 20pts better (especially since Chris Bosh is out for the game).

Tigers and other stuff

Tigers game last night? BORING. They didn't play like a top 3 team, but that really doesn't bother me. Defense seemed to be the issue according to the paper and if you're giving up 82 points to Austin Peay then defense is an issue. I don't worry about it because this team showed against Oklahoma and UCONN that they can play D when they want to. They will do it against USC and come away with a win. The only thing that scares me about this game is that USC will come to play and they have the athletes to play with Memphis. Do they have enough athletes 1-10 to play with Memphis for 40 minutes? We'll find out next week and my first inclination is that they do not. However, if Joey Dorsey is in foul trouble then they can.

Grizzlies finally won back to back games for the first time this season. It took them 73 games last season to win 2 straight and just 14 games this season. I didn't get to see any of this game because I was at the Tigers game, but it was good to see that despite Jason Kidd (triple double), Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson going off they still got a W. We'll see if they can make it 3 straight tonight against Toronto. I was at the Toronto game last week and they should've won, but didn't really come to play. If they win tonight then Minnesota should be 4 in a row on Saturday with a chance to make it 5 next Monday vs. Portland.

So the Grizz and Tigers won on the same day. The last time that happened? tick tick tick tick tick...Answer? November 20th 2006. Memphis beat Oklahoma in Maui 77-65 and the Grizz beat Orlando 95-86 at FedExForum. That Orlando game would be the last full game Kyle Lowry would play his rookie season. He led the charge to that win over Orlando with 6 assists and made a bunch of high energy plays. The next night the Grizz played at Cleveland and Lowry broke his wrist, ending his rookie campaign.

Because this song has been in my head all day, I'll post it as my music video of the day. "Hip Hop Is Dead" by Nas.

Sean Taylor

My thoughts and prayers go out towards the Taylor family. This guy was on his way to being the best safety in the NFL. He was one guy you never wanted to see in the middle of the field. That being said, if you google this guys name you will find out he has a pretty long rap sheet. Don't get me wrong, he didn't deserve to die, but I think when this is all said and done you just might find out he wasn't exactly living like a great American citizen. I'm definitely going to miss watching him play (the thought of him and LaRon Landry in the same secondary for years to come made many receivers fall into the fetal position). He will be missed and all of the "he was turning his life around" columns are starting to come out, but believe me, this isn't the end of this story. People don't just break into rich people's houses. First off, those neighborhoods constantly have security everywhere. The people that broke in had a personal vendetta against Taylor and I'm sure it wasn't just because he's in the NFL. Something happened and we'll know sooner rather than later.

RIP Sean Taylor (1983-2007)

Thanksgiving Weekend

I don't ever want to have 3 days off of work again. Most of you would say I'm crazy for saying something like that, but I'm not a big fan of spending money and that's always what I find myself doing on days I don't work. I dropped way too much $$$$ at Best Buy and other places around the Wolfchase area. Yes, I did go to the bars every night and even ran into Pau Gasol and Navarro at Pat O's on Saturday night. They were wearing the exact same thing (leather jacket, jeans, black shirt). Anyways, I talked to him for a minute and he was pleasant. He said Marc Gasol will stay overseas this year and that more than likely he'll end up in LA next season. The weekend was fun and my boy Andy had some wasted fat girl dancing all up on him at 152 Saturday night. The bouncers even had to tell her to chill out.


Now for football:
Mississippi is terrible and Coach O is now gone. Candidates? Rick Neuheisel, Bo Pelini, Dennis Franchione, Jimbo Fisher, Ron Zook, Bo Pelini, Art Briles, Glen Mason, Gus Malzahn (now some of these probably won't even get a shot, but they were just names that came to the top of my head). They need someone that will stay for longer than 3 years. We know there is talent on that roster and the offense definitely needs a shot in the arm (Texas QB transfer Jevan Sneed could be that shot). Neuheisel's name comes up a lot and if he was hired and had immediate success, I could see him bolt in 3 years. We know Franchione isn't the most loyal guy. Ron Zook is kinda crazy and Mississippi just got rid of a crazy coach. Some of these coordinators may not get looked at because that would be "taking a chance" and Mississippi just took a chance on a guy and it was a total disaster. I would look for a guy who has been a head coach or is a head coach to get this job. I guarantee you whoever gets it will win at least win a SEC game next year. You know what the video of the day is, right?

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to wish everyone out there a very Happy Thanksgiving. Wherever you go, drive safely. If I see you out at a bar tonight then come holla. Take care everyone.

Last Night and Tonight

I went to the Tigers/Arkansas State game last night. Pretty much, it was a boring game. Willie Kemp learned how to shoot. Doneal Mack's head is ridiculous. I went as a fan and not a member of the media last night. First off, I met some folks at the Saucer. I know the debate of me being an alcoholic came up on the show yesterday and it doesn't make me look any better seeing as how I went to the Saucer immediately after work, but whatever, sometimes you just want a drink. After the boring game? I went back to the Saucer. Yes, I had a few more drinks (2 to be exact) and I called it a night around 10. I was in bed by 11 and got a good nights sleep. While at the Saucer, there was a guy playing acoustic guitar. Let's just say he sucked. He kept playing Dave Matthews songs and was butchering every one of them. He forgot the words to "Jimi Thing" and "Crush." Absolutely pathetic. Don't make yourself look stupid. Sing the songs that you know. As for tonight? I'm headed to cover the Grizzlies/Raptors game and then I'm off to have a drink somewhere. There probably won't be too much consumption of the beverages tonight because I'm sure I'll do plenty of that tomorrow night. Thanksgiving night is probably the best night to go out. Everyone have a safe holiday, eat turkey, watch football, and do the damn thing. Oh yea, I owe Andrew 2 drinks now. JP Losman happened to stay in the game Sunday night and the Tigers didn't cover.

PAY DAY

We got paid today here at 730 ESPN so there can only be one choice for my music video of the day. You guessed it. 50 Cent's "Straight To The Bank." I'm laughin straight to da bank with this hahahaha ha ha hahahaha...

Weekend Review

The Memphis Tigers basketball team won the 2K Sports Shootout benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer. Although the Tigers have only played 4 games, I think these are true statements:

1. They could lose Derrick Rose and still be a top 10 team

2. They could not lose CDR or Dorsey and be a top 10 team

Joey has an incredible effect on games. UCONN couldn't do anything when Dorsey played. I looked at my buddies at halftime and said: "Memphis is at least 10 points better than UCONN." Ask Andrew (www.mrjohnsonsclassroom.blogspot.com or check out my links). Of course, they won by 11. You get great at these kind of predictions when you hang around Chris Vernon all day.

Now for the Grizzlies. I'm not as down on this team as some others may be. Despite losing 3 straight, they've played hard and battled back. Iavaroni has not lost this team at all which was the case last season under Fratello. Rudy took the last shot in the New Orleans game. Good, I like it when that happens. Pau took a big shot in the Dallas game (I know it wasn't the final shot b/c Navarro missed two 3's at the end). I don't want to sound like a broken record, but we know what this team is when Pau is the go-to-guy. We don't know what this team can be when Rudy is. If I had to give my opinion on Rudy, I'd say he's going to be a Vince Carter like player w/ better defensive attributes. Now, Vince Carter's teams haven't exactly gone too far in the playoffs (except for the ECF appearance in Toronto), but VC is better than Pau Gasol. This team will still be in the thick of things by the end of the year. Remember, Baron Davis nor Peja Stojakovic have gotten hurt yet.

NFL Notes:
-New England is awesome (because JP Losman managed to play the whole game I lost a shot to Andrew. What's it gonna be next weekend Mr. Johnson? Jager, Purple Heart?

-Indianapolis is still good, but they have fallen off with the loss of Dwight Freeney

-TO won that game for Dallas. You can say "Romo threw him the ball" and that's true, but TO constantly abused the veteran Shawn Springs. Romo threw him the ball b/c Springs couldn't hold him anywhere on the field. JP Losman could've made those throws.

-DeMarcus Ware should be NFL Defensive Player of the Year

-The Ravens are done and it's not getting better soon. The defense is aging (aside from Ed Reed) and the offense is terrible. They have one playmaker in McGahee but don't have their best o-lineman (Ogden). Ogden retires, Ray Lewis will be shortly after that, then comes Samari Rolle and the Ravens are in rebuilding mode.

-Pittsburgh is bi-polar. They will still destroy Miami next Monday.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL NOTES:

-LSU will have a tougher time with Georgia than Tennessee in the SEC Championship

-Lloyd Carr is gone at Michigan (thank god)

-Michigan/Ohio State is a boring game (exception would be last year)

-knowing how insane and irrational Alabama fans are, I bet some of them are wanting Saban gone after Saturday

-Mississippi sucks (you already know that, but I just like reminding you)

WEEKEND:
I went to Blue Fin Friday night w/ Jason, Allison and 2 people I didn't know. It was kinda lame. Beale Street looked like a ghost town Friday night. We gathered at the Double Deuce after the Fin. DD was empty. Pretty much a boring night. Saturday it was Posey's birthday party at Yosemite Sam's. We got down, took some shots, sang some karaoke (Higher by Creed) and yes, I rocked.

ON TAP FOR THE WEEK:
Grizz/Sonics tonight
Tigers/Arkansas St Tuesday
Grizz/Raptors on Wednesday

I'll be at all 3. Holla.

Nothing

I really can't think of much to say today, but here are some random thoughts:

-Hard Rock Cafe has a really good burger

-bums that try to sell me stolen cd's from Starbucks are funny

-"The Thrill Is Gone" is a great song

-Joey Dorsey is awesome (I don't care if he makes it rain or beats people up..he plays with an attitude that you need in basketball...the Grizz could use a mean player like him...well, a better mean player than Dorsey)

-The Grizz will be lucky to get 10,000 people in that arena tonight (I'm watching the Tigers game...aren't you?)

-that 2K Sports commercial w/ Greg Oden and Mike Conley is terrible

-Miss Lippy's car.....is green

Now for the music video of the day. I picked up Public Enemy's "It Takes A Nation" the other day and it's amazing. Here it is..."Don't Believe The Hype"




Oh yea, goin to Yosemite Sam's this weekend for some chick's b-day. Holla if you come.

Grizzlies/Bucks

So I did the usual last night. Grabbed a 12 pack and headed over to a friends place to watch the Grizzlies and the Bucks. I ended up over there around the end of the 1st quarter. I did get a chance to hear my man E-Hass on the way over. Good call E on the Pau to Rudy alley. Even though the team didn't play that well, there were some good things that came to light. Darko looked impressive on the 2nd night of a back to back. Casey Jacobsen actually did something. My only issue was Kyle Lowry driving to take the game tying shot. It wasn't a terrible decision due to how frequently Lowry gets to the line. The problem is that Rudy had hit a 3 to tie the game. Desmond Mason came down and broke the tie with about 13 seconds left. GO BACK TO RUDY!!! He and Lowry look like the only guys on this team that want to take the last shot. Well, that's not totally true. Damon would, but he's old and I don't want to see that happen. We know this team will not be great until someone better than Pau Gasol steps up. Rudy looks like he wants to be that guy. Give him a chance. You give him the ball late in the game and let him create. His jumper isn't horrible and he can get to the rim at ease. MAKE RUDY GAY THE GO TO GUY!

CHANGES

If you look at our website here at 730ESPN or Verno's Blog then you know by now that there will be a major announcement taking place next Monday on the show. I guess you could say there will be some "changes." Today's music video of the day is "Changes" by 2Pac.

Grizzlies/Rockets and Pint Night

Good luck to the Grizz tonight. They're gonna need it. So far, Yao Ming has been unstoppable (even made Tim Duncan look like Popeye Jones the other night). Grizz will need to be virtually flawless to win this one. This means don't play Casey Jacobsen.

So I left the Tigers game early last night (prob around 15min left in 2nd half) and made my way w/ some friends over to the Saucer. My buddies girlfriend, Beka, always has this thing with arm wrestling when she's drunk. Her friend, Liz, also likes to arm wrestle. Well, I had consumed enough beverages that I decided I wanted a piece of this action. I challenged Beka (I'm a tough guy aren't I?). She accepted the challenge. My friend Andy locked us in and then felt he would give Beka an advantage. It wasn't a good enough advantage and I defeated Andy and Beka. I was Saucer arm wrestling champ for the night. After the Saucer, we went back to a friends place to chill out. I ended up arm wrestling my friend Drew and proceeded to dominate him. Drew and I are good friends, but it's a competitive friendship. He thinks he can do a lot of things better than me and vice versa. I always end up being right. Well, Drew is licking his wounds and I know he doesn't want anything to do w/ JFR from now on. That was Monday night for me. It's A Bed Of Rosers. BELIEVE THE HYPE!!!

Saturday Night

It was bumpin at the Windjammer....I dominated "Zombie" and I'll try to post pictures if I can find anybody that took some....Holla back young'n

Karaoke Time!!!

I'm doing some karaoke tonight with a bunch of friends. It should be the greatest night ever. This is my karaoke song and so it is my music video of the day. Enjoy....

College Football Picks

I'll use this blog as my own form of philanthropy. Here are the college football picks for this week...

Arkansas pick Tennessee (take the Hogs)

Kentucky -4 Vandy (Kentucky is the pick)

East Carolina -7 Marshall (East Carolina...that's easy money)

California +4 1/2 USC (Da Bears)


Take these picks and go paper chasin'.

American Gangsta

I saw the movie....it's incredible. Rapper T.I. actually has a role in it and isn't too bad of an actor. Anyways, one of my all time favorite songs is in the movie and it was also featured at the beginning of the movie "Jackie Brown." "Across 110th Street" by Bobby Womack is my music video of the day.

Fun with Interview Requests

As you know one of my jobs on The Chris Vernon Show is to try and set up interviews with various guests. I am responsible for getting the mullet man Dog The Bounty Hunter, Criss Angel, Joe Rogan, Chris Daughtry, etc. Well, I haven't been getting much sleep in the last week so I thought I would crash early last night. I fell asleep around 8:45 and woke up only between 11 and 12 due to the cell phone ringing (normally that would upset me, but there's something about 50 Cent's "Straight To The Bank" that wakes me up). Anyways, I didn't get to see any scores from last nights games. Well, I did see that Rudy stayed out of foul trouble last night and the Grizz finally won a game. I get to the office this morning around 10am and sit down to send in an interview request to the University of Kentucky. Kentucky is in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic w/ Memphis, UCONN and Oklahoma. I figured there's a good chance Memphis could meet Kentucky in NYC. After all, Kentucky only played Gardner-Webb last night and UCONN isn't exactly incredible this year. Memphis should beat Oklahoma and Kentucky should beat UCONN and everything would set up great for us to have Coach Gillispie on. As Lee Corso would say: "NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!!!" I receive an email back from their basketball SID that goes something like: "As you should know by now, Kentucky lost last night and will not be going to NYC. Now is probably not the best time to do an interview w/ Coach Gillispie." How the hell do you lose to Gardner-Webb? Check out the aftermath of that game here: http://kentucky.rivals.com/forum.asp

Memphis Tigers

So I went the last 2 nights to FedExForum to see the #3 nationally ranked Memphis Tiger basketball team. I must say that they were quite impressive, but didn't blow me away. Here are a few notes from the 2 games:

-Chris Douglass Roberts was the best player on the team last year and could be this year. He didn't look to good in the game vs. Richmond. Roberts forced a lot of shots, but I think that was mostly his way of saying "I'm the best player and we need buckets." Also, was in the locker room getting audio from Derrick Rose after the UT-Martin game I noticed that Roberts' locker is next to Rose's. CDR has Sean Banks locker room tag put up inside his locker. I guess that's to remind him of what not to become. More Sean Banks references to come....

-Derrick Rose is as advertised. He will be one of the best 5 players in the country by the end of the year. The kid knows how to turn it on and maybe only Ty Lawson (UNC) can match him end to end with the ball.

-Joey Dorsey WILL be the most important player on the team. Gary Parrish said it the other day on the show and I think this is something most people already believed. When Joey is in the game and is out of foul trouble then the Tigers roll. He didn't play in these 2 games and it was very noticeable.

-Jeff Robinson will be a better player as the year goes on, but I don't see much PT for him this year. He looked lost against UT-Martin and didn't play vs. Richmond.

-Andre Allen is the best defender and will be the heart and soul of the team. This guy takes pride in being from the city and putting on that Memphis jersey. He still can't shoot free throws.

-Shawn Taggart was being compared to Sean Banks in the off-season. Whoever made that comparison is an idiot. Taggart looks like a big stiff compared to Banks. Banks could take over games. Taggart will never do that. His attitude is better.

-Willie Kemp will be much better this year. His shot looked better against Richmond even though this team can't shoot very much. I also saw Willie get upset with Shawn Taggart (correct me if it wasn't Taggart) which shows he's growing more comfortable with being vocal. That's good news. This team will need him down the road (like next year when Rose is gone).

-Robert Dozier is the Stromile Swift of college basketball. This guy just comes and goes. He had a few good post moves for dunks, but he also let guys bully him around. He has not gained 20lbs of muscle. I don't care what anyone says. No way. I hope Dozier needs a heart transplant and Andre Allen offers his up.

There will be more to come as the season goes on....now for my music video of the day:

"We gonna rub yo ass in the moonshine. Let's take it back to '79."

Note: if you don't like hip-hop then don't watch it.

Grizzlies/Spurs Opening Night Review

So I attended the Grizzlies/Spurs game last night. First off, there were actually more people there than I originally thought would be. They passed out flags to the first 15,000 fans and that really made the atmosphere better. The pregame festivities were great. Michael Buffer was cool. The fruit booty did a good job on the National Anthem. Honestly, do you really care about that? My surprise of the night was Darko Milicic. He did the best he could do on Tim Duncan. There's a reason Duncan is a 4 time champion. The guy is unguardable. Tony Parker almost gave Damon Stoudamire a career ending injury in the first quarter, but that being said, Stoudamire did some good things last night. As much as I would like Kyle Lowry to start and Mike Conley to back him up, Damon is a better PG than Conley right now. You see the complaints about his lack of speed, but you look up at the scoreboard and the guys got 13 points on the board. I don't know how he does it. Now this is the time where I get to really whine. WHY DOES CASEY JACOBSEN PLAY OVER TARENCE KINSEY? Kinsey doesn't shoot the ball as well from the outside, but his mid-range game is better, his defense is better, he's quicker up and down the court, and he can create his own shot. Greg Popovich said the Grizz looked like a playoff team last night and they did. Consistency will be the problem as the season goes on. The effort was great, but San Antonio really hasn't started playing ball yet. They will need consistent double digit efforts from a lot of players each night to be successful. Ultimately, this team will make the playoffs.