MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Take Elvis Presley Boulevard past the sign for the Days Inn with the guitar-shaped pool and you'll see it on the left.
There is Graceland, bathed in blue light at night in honor of the Memphis Tigers and their trip to the Final Four. (See it at elvis.com).
Across town on Monday night, Coach John Calipari was holding court on his radio show in front of a standing-room only crowd at Cal's Championship Steakhouse.
A woman phoned in.
"You are now the King," she said. "Not Elvis."
Yes, the scene is a little different here than in Los Angeles. UCLA goes to the Final Four every year -- or three in a row, anyway.
Memphis has not been since 1985, and that ended badly. Then known as Memphis State, the school was put on NCAA probation the next year for violations under coach Dana Kirk and others, and Kirk was fired and served four months in a minimum-security prison for tax evasion and obstruction of justice.
Now Memphis is back for a third appearance. The first was in 1973, when the Tigers lost to Bill Walton and UCLA in the title game after Walton scored 44 points and made 21 of 22 shots.
"Coach Cal" took another caller.
"UCLA beat us, and I've been waiting 35 years for my dreams to catch up to me," the man said.
For that man and many others, seeing Memphis in the Final Four is good news in a city that sometimes seems as if it has seen nothing but the blues.
Memphis basketball has become a rallying point in this city of 643,000 that is 63.5% African American and has a 23.5% poverty rate -- higher than the 19% rate in Los Angeles -- according to 2006 U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
"You know how a town needs something?" Calipari said before his radio show, sitting on the back patio at his house after the players filed out from a meeting.
"This town needed something. The mayoral race was just ugly. The senate race before that [won by Republican Bob Corker over Democrat Harold Ford Jr.] was ugly in this town. And we had the Tennessee Waltz," a federal corruption sting that led to the conviction of 12 public officials or aides.
Gas prices are up, like everywhere else. So is crime. People are struggling.
"I think this is one of those things that brings everybody together," Calipari said. "My players represent a lot of what people have had to live through. And they see them as them."
