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Bowl bids are out. The Memphis Tigers are in — in the Dec. 17 Frisco Bowl, that is, to face 6-6 West Virginia of the Big 12. That was the big news of the week for The Daily Memphian sports staff, which had Frank Bonner II delivering news of the No. 25 Tigers’ 11th straight bowl invitation and Tim Buckley writing both a column on the Tigers’ destination and an in-depth piece examining how the West Virginia-Memphis marriage in Frisco, Texas, came to be. On Sunday, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl matchup was set — it’s Arkansas against Texas Tech on Dec. 27 at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis — and Buckley and Bonner had the news and breakdown on that one, too. As for the Tigers basketball team, it overcame Louisiana Tech last Wednesday night but got bit by Sun Belt Conference-member Arkansas State on Sunday as Parth Upadhyaya reported from FedExForum. Buckley and John Martin both weighed in on the loss, which dropped previously No. 16 Memphis out of the Associated Press Top 25. Now, coach Penny Hardaway’s team faces a tough end to the non-conference portion of its schedule with three of its next four — Saturday at No. 16 Clemson, Dec. 21 at home against No. 25 Mississippi State and Dec. 28 at home against No. 19 Ole Miss — coming against ranked opponents. Memphis also has a Dec. 18 date at unranked Virginia before opening American Athletic Conference play Jan. 2 at Florida Atlantic. “So, realistically, how can the Tigers cleanse their NCAA Tournament palate after taking a bad loss?” Martin wrote after the Arkansas State game. “Splitting the next four feels like a fair goal.” The Memphis Grizzlies, meanwhile, are riding high with wins in nine of their last 10 games, including a victory Sunday at Washington. The Grizzlies are off until playing host to the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night and visiting the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night. Our Grizzlies writers have been anything but idle, however, with Drew Hill delivering a super piece Tuesday morning on Brandon Clarke’s battle back from a blown Achilles tendon and Chris Herrington answering readers’ questions in the second installment of one of his quarterly mailbags. In the preps world, John Varlas set the table with three well-done preview stories before traveling late last week to Chattanooga to cover three Memphis-area high school football teams chasing state championships. Houston High and Melrose both came up short, but MASE returned home with the Class 1A title. On the same day Varlas was watching Houston and Melrose play, Jody Callahan from over on news side was covering the St. Jude Memphis Marathon, with his words accompanied by wonderful photography of the race from Patrick Lantrip. Geoff Calkins wrote before the marathon, whose 23rd edition of the St. Jude Memphis Marathon is now in the books. Here’s a look at some of the staff’s top work from the week: — Deputy sports editor Tim Buckley
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By Frank Bonner II
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