Tiger Injuries Not Serious

Tiger injuries not serious

By Dan Wolken
Monday, October 29, 2007

The injury news was positive Sunday for the University of Memphis basketball team, which lost two starters during Saturday's closed-door scrimmage with Saint Louis.

Freshman point guard Derrick Rose strained his right knee, but he has already been cleared to practice and is on schedule to play in the Tigers' season-opener next Monday against Tennessee-Martin, head athletic trainer Chris Simmons said.

Senior forward Joey Dorsey suffered a right shoulder sprain and is listed as day-to-day, but Simmons said he expects Dorsey to be ready for opening night.

Sophomore forward Shawn Taggart sprained his left ankle late last week, but he is not expected to miss any practice time.


Tale of the tape

Coach John Calipari brought the team into the Finch Center on Sunday for a two-hour film session from Saturday's scrimmage, which he had broken down practically frame by frame.

Calipari said immediately after the scrimmage -- which was closed to the public and media per NCAA rules -- that the Tigers were "outplayed" by Saint Louis, and he said watching the tape confirmed it.

"The greatest thing about tape is, it never lies," Calipari said. "Some of it was funny, like, they laughed at each other like, 'Oh my gosh, look at you.' Some of the stuff, again, we play different styles, and it wasn't quite as bad as I thought, but the stuff we needed to see on that tape, we saw."

Calipari said Saint Louis played the Tigers the way certain teams have successfully slowed them down in the past -- play physical and grind out offense in the halfcourt. But just as important, Memphis faced a team that was, "playing for their lives when we're just playing to play," Calipari said.

"And hopefully they see that what they're supposed to be doing ... They didn't compete. We had one guy dominate his position, and that was (Rose), and he played five minutes. And he even broke down defensively."

The Tigers now realize the emotional predicament they'll face nearly every time they play, aside from their marquee non-conference games.

"We came out there lackadaisical and not really up for the game," Dorsey said. "They came at us; their intensity was higher than ours. They beat us to balls, and they were up for the game. That was the first taste of playing against somebody not as good as us but coming right at us. Every game is going to be like that."