ASU removes its useless Nutt..

KAIT-8 in beautiful Jonesboro is reporting that there will be a presser at the Convocation Center at 6:30 P.M. to discuss the Men's Basketball program. However, the DemaZette is reporting what will be announced: that the thirteen-year career of Dickey Nutt (younger brother of Houston Dale Nutt) is over.

In 13 years at the Convocation Center, Nutt was 189-187 overall, 102-101 in Conference play. the fact is, if he hadn't been lucky with his 1998 Sun Belt tournament champions, he would have been gone a couple of years ago, at least.

Hat tip to the good folks at the Arkansas Times Blog. Oh yes, and GO TIGERS.

UPDATE: ArkansasSports360.com is also reporting that Nutt personally confirmed to them that his resignation is effective immediately; he will not accompany the team to Little Rock tomorrow night for their battle with arch-rival UALR.

Calkins rightly smacks Raines & Johnson about the head and shoulders

Geoff Calkins stepped up to the plate today to ask just what RC Johnson and the University of Memphis have in mind to fix their beleaguered football program, and it appears that the answer is NOTHING.

Here's an excerpt:

I'm not changing coaches," Johnson said.

Hmmm. Not even if Memphis loses the rest of its games?

"Tommy West will be our coach next year," Johnson said. "I guarantee it."

Well. That settles that, then. The athletic director guarantees Memphis isn't making a coaching change.

So go ahead and get all outraged if you like, Memphis fans. Call the talk-in shows and flood the message boards and send off angry E-mails.

But Johnson is right about one thing: The head coach is not the only problem with Memphis football.

The problem is also Johnson. And president Shirley Raines. And a university that says it wants a first-class football program but doesn't have the ambition or the vision to get it done.

Ok then. Regardless of whether you support an On-Campus Stadium for the U of M or not, you have to agree that the football program is wandering aimlessly, as we have gone from a coach who could recruit but couldn't coach his players (Rip Scherer) to a coach who could coach the hell out of his players but couldn't recruit good ones (West). The University does not appear to give two hoots in hell about the program, so if you're not going to commit to it, why keep it?

Read the rest of Calkins' column; as always, it's well worth your time.

Hat tip to Julie for the link!

The Grizzlies may be doomed here....

Yes, it's just that bad. The fact that the Grizz, with the worst record in the NBA, got the 4th pick in the upcoming NBA draft, means that we'll only see Greg Oden when Portland comes to town and Kevin Durant when Seattle visits the FedExForum.

This franchise, which went from three straight playoff runs to the bottom of the NBA in a heartbeat, now has to convince a grumpy populace that Corey Brewer or Al Horford can bring that championship magic with them from Gainesville. Given that A) the U of M Tigers are predicted to be a Final Four team and B) the Grizzlies are expected to be staring up from the bottom this coming year, Grizz season-ticketholders can expect to be pretty lonely this fall.

Michael Heisley is no doubt learning that a professional sports franchise, especially one in a lower-income market like Memphis, simply cannot be turned around for a quick profit like other companies.

His attempts to sell this franchise to anyone appearing to have money (EXCEPT his LOCAL partners!) crippled Jerry West's ability to build on the previous three years. And, not to leave the Logo out of the blame, the Rudy Gay deal simply has not panned out, while Shane Battier went to the Rockets and proved to be their missing link, returning Houston to the playoffs. Of course, the Rockets went out in the first round like the Griz had, but at least their series went to a 7th game!

So, Heisley can put some money into the franchise, hire a combo like Dave Griffin and Marc Iavaroni of Phoenix, pray that they can make honey out of horseshit, and turn the franchise around. Or, he could treat the team like the western version of the Atlanta Hawks and lose his ass.

Given that we had three remarkable years of Tiger football with DeAngelo Williams and three solid playoff years with the Grizz, only to watch everything but Tiger hoops turn to crap, maybe our sports karma has taken a turn for the worse. Unless the Griz make a trade to get up in the top two, crowds of 7500 may be commonplace for the NBA at FedExForum this year.

That's not good for anyone.