Coach Cal Countdown: Top-ranked Memphis falls to No. 2 Tennessee, but Derrick Rose’s rise begins
Memphis guard Derrick Rose (23) shoots over the reach of Tennessee’s J. P. Prince, left, in the first half of a college basketball game in Memphis on, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008. Rose led Memphis with 23 point, but the top-ranked Memphis Tigers lost to Tennessee 66-62. (Alan Spearman/AP file, photo illustration by Kelsey Bowen/The Daily Memphian)
All eyes in the college basketball world were on Memphis.
Coach John Calipari, then in his eighth season with the program, had led the Tigers to a No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25. He’d led them to a 26-game winning streak. He’d led them to back-to-back NCAA Tournament Elite Eight appearances before that.
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Memphis Tigers Basketball John Calipari Subscriber Only Derrick RoseThank you for being a subscriber to The Daily Memphian. Your support is critical.
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Parth Upadhyaya
Parth Upadhyaya covers the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team. A Raleigh, N.C., native and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Media and Journalism, Upadhyaya is a longtime college hoops junkie. Prior to joining The Daily Memphian in 2022, he covered high school sports in western Pennsylvania for the Beaver County Times and Penn State football for the Centre Daily Times.
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