FanHouse RobertDozier

This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.

Today, we have enlisted Chris Vernon of Fox Sports Radio 730 AM in Memphis and Verno's Blog to break down the Memphis Tigers.

The way the season ended for the Memphis Tigers last year was totally devastating. Memphis ended the season 38-2 and many in Memphis still have a hard time thinking about the 38 wins. Rarely has there been such an amazing season that brought upon such intense disappointment.

Now that Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas Roberts, and Joey Dorsey have NBA contracts and Memphis looks to who will replace much of what made the team such a success in the previous few seasons. While Rose was only in Memphis for one year, CDR and Dorsey were key components of a team that went to the Elite 8 twice, and the Final Four (and championship game) once. With Dorsey in the middle, and Douglas Roberts on the wing, Memphis went 104-10 over the last three seasons.

Well, Memphis will get back one player from last year's National Championship runner-up squad ... and lose another one.

Robert Dozier will take his name out of the NBA Draft and return to school. The junior will be the top returning scorer on the team (he trailed Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts last season) and should be a guy that John Calapari will lean on next season.

He joins Antonio Anderson as Tigers who declared for the draft but returned to school.

On the flip side, reserve guard Doneal Mack will leave Memphis and transfer. The Charlotte, NC native hinted that Clemson, LSU and Wake Forest are the schools he's looking at heading to.

Mack was fifth on the team in scoring last year (6.9 ppg), but played just 12 minutes in the Tigers' last four NCAA Tournament games (from the Sweet 16 on) and scored no points. During the season, Mack only saw extended amounts of playing time in blowout victories.

Memphis guard Antonio Anderson withdrew his name from the NBA Draft. Because he didn't hire an agent and kept his college eligibility, he will return to Memphis for his senior season.

"I've decided to take my name out of the draft," Anderson told CSTV.com. "The feedback I received is that I would be taken in the second round, and I wasn't comfortable with that. I took my name out this morning and I'm coming back."

It isn't any shock that Anderson would've come back to school. He wasn't viewed as a strong prospect to be a first round pick.

As of now, Anderson will be the Tigers' top returning scorer (he was fourth on the team last year with an 8.6 ppg average). Teammate Derrick Rose will be one of the first players taken in the draft, while Chris Douglas-Roberts is projected to be a late first rounder. Robert Dozier has entered his name in the draft but hasn't hired an agent either.

The cupboard won't be bare, however, as Memphis brings in super recruits Tyreke Evans, Angel Garcia and Wesley Witherspoon.

No. 1 Memphis dispatched another inferior opponent Wednesday night, pummeling SMU 77-48, running its record to 22-0 and its home-court winning streak to 45 games.

But while the Tigers' record is perfect on the floor, not everything is perfect off it. Memphis played without Robert Dozier, who served a suspension related to an off-court incident. Dozier faces an assault charge after his ex-girlfriend claimed that Dozier followed her out of a club and hit her early Sunday morning. Memphis coach John Calipari said he's dealing with the issue:

"It just shows you that good kids do stupid things too," said Calipari to open his postgame remarks. "I'm going to figure out where we go from here. I'm disappointed. But when you sit back and look at your own children, you realize, boy, they do dumb things. They think they're bullet-proof, they think they're invisible. Hopefully it's a situation where he learns.

"I'll be firm and fair," Calipari continued, "like I am with all of these situations. It's hard for these kids to understand that they're all tied as one. When one of them screws up, it's ugly for everybody. He has a tough row to hoe if he's going to stay on this team. But I will not throw these kids under the bus. I treat them like they're my own sons, or their your sons. These kids are targets in this town. Right now, we've got the microscope on us. We're the number-one team in the country."