Rose has tummy ache

Memphis point guard Derrick Rose was scheduled to take part in about an hour of media activities on Saturday.

But as the first news conference was about to begin, Rose walked into the room, whispered something to coach John Calipari, then left. He wasn’t seen again.

“He said his stomach was bothering him,” Calipari said, “so I told him to go back and see the trainer.”

The Memphis players didn’t seem concerned with what was bothering Rose. Teammate Chris Douglas-Roberts said it probably stems from Rose’s sweet tooth.

“He eats Gummi Bears and Starburst for breakfast, and Twizzlers and honey buns for dinner. That’s why his stomach hurts,” Douglas-Roberts said. “It’s nothing serious. And even if it’s a stomach flu, they only last one day. : He’ll be fine.”

A news release was passed out Sunday afternoon saying Rose would play tonight.

Will zone work?

Memphis is 38-1 and averaging 80.2 points per game. So the question was posed to Calipari on Sunday: Have teams ever tried zone defense on the Tigers?

“They’ve tried everything,” Calipari said. “The people here that watched our team closely, we’ve seen 1-3-1, 2-3, 3-2, two-man zone, one-man zone, we’ve seen box-and-one, triangle-and-two.

“: Kansas now could throw a 3-2 at us. They’ve played that. They played box-and-one against (Davidson’s Stephen) Curry. They could do that. They played triangle-and-two. They can do that.

“The only thing is, we’ve seen every one of those. We may not play well against it, but it’s not because we haven’t seen it.”

Calipari doesn’t expect any defense to change Memphis’ offense.

“It doesn’t matter what they play, we want to attack,” Calipari said. “We’re going to try to attack the rim.”

Jesse Jackson visits

The Tigers received a visit last week from Jesse Jackson, who spoke to the team on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

The players were surprised at the appearance.

“We didn’t even know he was coming,” Douglas-Roberts said. “We have an academic advisor named Jesse, so when coach told us that Jesse was coming, we all looked at each other and thought, ‘Oh no, who didn’t go to class?'”

Jackson, a friend of King’s who was with him when he was killed in 1968 at a Memphis motel, said the former civil-rights leader would be proud of the Tigers.

“I think Dr. King would find this a source of joy,” Jackson told the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. “After all, this couldn’t have happened 40 years ago in Memphis. And now we see the flowering and the blossoming of seeds Dr. King planted here.”

Taggart knows KU

If anyone on Memphis is closely connected with Kansas, it’s reserve forward Shawn Taggart.

Taggart, a 6-foot-10 sophomore who averages 6.0 points per game, played his freshman season at Iowa State in 2005-06.

He averaged 5.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game that season and played Kansas twice – compiling six points in one game and four points in the other.

“I know a couple of things (about KU),” Taggart said. “But I’ll tell the coach. I can’t tell ya’ll.”