The 2022 NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket was revealed yesterday, and it was not long before Memphis’ name appeared. After four years, Penny is taking his Tigers to the Big Dance.
Memphis is seeded 9th in the West, set to play 8 seed Boise State at 12:45 PM Thursday on TNT. If the Tigers win that one, their reward Saturday will be…
Gonzaga. The number-one seed of the entire thing.
Penny, that’s your chance. Beat Gonzaga and no one will ever be able to say “he’s a great recruiter, but he can’t coach” again.
Also in the West region bracket: Arkansas, a 4 seed. They play 13 Vermont at 8:20 Thursday evening, also on TNT. It’s possible Arkansas and Memphis could meet in the round of 16.
Two more notable teams in the region: 2 Duke and 6 Alabama. That’s gonna be the Wild, Wild West for sure.
Other notes:
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- Kentucky is the 2 seed in the East. They face 15 St. Peter’s at 6:10 PM Thursday on CBS.
- AAC champion Houston is the 5 seed in the South. They face 12 UAB Friday at 8:20 PM on TNT.
- Thursday we are all 14 Longwood fans. They face 3 Tennessee at 1:45 PM on CBS.
- LSU is the 6 seed in the Midwest. They meet 11 Iowa State Friday at 6:20 PM on TBS.
- Auburn is the 2 seed in the Midwest. They will play 15 Jacksonville State Friday at 11:40 AM on truTV. Auburn and LSU could potentially meet in the round of 16.
- SMU didn’t make it into the field.
When Tennessee’s matchup with Longwood was announced, the geriatric high school clique at the corner table at Max’s Sports Bar started hooting and making penis jokes (“long wood” – get it?) Let’s take a moment to learn more about Longwood. It’s located in Farmville, Virginia, and has a student enrollment of 5096. Its nickname is the Lancers. The Ramones have performed on its campus.
Lancers, I want you to know you’ll have a lot of people in Memphis cheering for you Thursday afternoon. Go make that 14/3 upset happen. I could not put it any more eloquently than the guy sitting next to me at the bar yesterday – “Fuck Tennessee.”
I have sad news to report to my fellow pro wrestling fans: “The Bad Guy” Scott Hall is scheduled to be taken off life support this morning once his family has gathered. Hall had been hospitalized for a week with a broken hip, and yesterday he had three heart attacks. Hall wrestled in the WWF as Razor Ramon. In WCW under his own name, he was one of the founding members of the nWo.
EMORFIK will bring heavy bass to Carolina Watershed on April 22. Tickets
River Time Market & Deli will be closed today.
Last week I mentioned that a Downtown bar had started charging customers separately for sales tax and liquor tax, rather than including them in the drink price, effectively increasing the cost to the consumer. Their justification was, “EVERYONE Downtown is starting to do it.” Well, since then I’ve done a little research, and found:
- I visited Max’s Sports Bar yesterday, and they don’t do it
- I have it on good authority that The Vault isn’t doing it
- I’ve been to the Blind Bear multiple times and they don’t do it
So no, EVERYONE is not doing it. In fact, I’m curious if ANYONE Downtown other than one family of restaurants adopted the practice within the past three or so weeks.
The Shelby County Clerk’s Office is planning a new drive-thru location to renew licenses and tags. The hope is this would help reduce wait times. A friend of mine renewed his tags recently at the Downtown office and had to wait in line for two hours. In the past, the Downtown office has never been known for long waits.
Dillon the Villain is back and he led the Grizzlies to a 125-118 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Grizzlies remain in second place by a half game in the Western Conference.
The Brass Door will have an all-day-long St. Patrick’s Day celebration 11:00 AM-10:00 PM, with a cover starting at 2:00. Entertainment will include
- Local violinist Alice Hansen at 3:00
- Memphis Pipe Band at 4:30, followed by The Blessing of the Kegs
- The Blackwater Trio at 6:00
A vigil was held last night for a teen shot Downtown last week.
StyleBlueprint recently talked with Tessa Blakney, owner of fashion boutique Silk N Honey at 6 West G.E. Patterson.
Today is Pi Day.
Russia struck a Ukrainian military base less than 10 miles from the border with Poland.
The Bugaloos will play a St. Patrick-palooza Thursday at 5 at Slider Inn Downtown.
Psymon Spine will perform a DJ set Saturday at 7 PM at Downtown Wiseacre. Free to attend.
Tin Roof hosts a St. Patty’s Crawfish Boil Saturday at 3 PM. Tickets are $25 and include all-you-can-eat crawfish, corn, and taters, plus a drink ticket for a draft beer of your choice. Live music by Adam McClelland and Ethan Willis. $25 is a very reasonable price for all-you-can-eat crawfish – some other places Downtown only give you one pound and no beer for that price.
Kids can fish in the kids’ catch & release pond at Bass Pro at the Pyramid Saturday and Sunday. Free photo download.
Vampire Poets Guild of Memphis (didn’t know that existed) hosts an evening of dark poetry at The Broom Closet Saturday.
Tom Brady has changed his mind about retirement. He’ll return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for his age-45 season.
Perjorie T. Roll made a new friend at Max’s Sports Bar yesterday:
That’s it for this post. Back tomorrow with more news.