Bulls' Rose heading back to Memphis campus
Even in the midst of a remarkable rookie season with the Bulls, Derrick Rose often wishes he could once again walk through the quiet, leafy University of Memphis campus.
"Of course," he said Thursday at the Berto Center. "Sometimes I wish I could go back to class or go in the cafeteria or hang out with my old teammates. But I had to make this move."
Rose got a chance to return as a visitor late Thursday when the Bulls arrived for tonight's game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Both the Grizzlies and the Memphis Tigers play their home games at the Fed Ex Forum, which is located on Beale Street, a long way from the actual college campus.
"I'll get some sleep first, then probably go see my team practice or go see my old coaches," Rose said. "By the time I get there, everybody should be in class, so I'll probably just walk on campus. They (his former teammates) told me to call them when I get there."
Rose said he's still good friends with everyone who plays for No. 17 Memphis, which owns a 5-1 record even after losing Rose, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Joey Dorsey to the NBA.
The friendships are what Rose misses the most about college basketball. The Bulls seem to get along well, but NBA players tend to have more hired help than close, personal friends.
"Even the young players, when they were getting recruited, I was showing them around campus or talking to them," Rose said of the Memphis players. "So I'm pretty good friends with all of them.
"It's totally different. In college, you're with your teammates the whole time. Here, people have their own thing. They've got businesses to go to, got families. So it's hard to get to know them, really."
It's not just teammates. Rose also has a close relationship with Memphis coach John Calipari and his family.
"I can talk to Coach Cal about anything - family, girls, anything - he'll talk about it," Rose said. "That's the type of person he is. He's a helping guy. But I look at him really as a father figure because while I was down there, I used to go to his house a lot, do a lot of things. I talk to him almost every week on the phone.
"It meant a lot for me to go to Memphis. I wasn't ready to go out of high school. Coach Cal, he coached in the NBA. He groomed me to be where I am now and the coaching staff at Memphis. I think they did a good job."
Rose hadn't been to Memphis since the end of school in the spring. He stuck around after the Tigers lost the NCAA title game in overtime to Kansas in order to finish a finance class before moving out to Los Angeles to begin preparing for the NBA draft.
"I can't wait to be back. I haven't been there in so long," he said. "The best memory - there were a lot of them - but I'd have to say just walking on campus.
"The fans were great. The students were great, the teachers. They showed us a lot of love in the city because we were a big positive thing that was going through there and a lot of people fed off it and it helped us a lot."
Rose never attended a Grizzlies game last season, so this will be something of a new experience for him. Memphis has a couple of standout rookies of its own in shooting guard O.J. Mayo (20.8 ppg) and center Marc Gasol (11.5 ppg, 6.8 rpg).
Before leaving the Berto Center on Thursday, Rose grabbed a box of taffy apples, sent by a company obviously sympathizing with his apple-cutting knife injury suffered Monday.
Rose ranked eighth among Eastern Conference guards in the first all-star voting returns. Dwyane Wade, Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, Ray Allen and Jose Calderon were the top five.
• Center Aaron Gray practiced Thursday after skipping a day with a sore right knee and is expected to play tonight.