Remember when Memphis was perceived as a top 10 team? Remember when Penny Hardaway made waves by saying his team might win the national championship, and he wasn’t entirely off his rocker in saying so even though that raised eyebrows?
It’s hard to forget that, as well as the potential this team had. And it seemed the potential was still very much there through a key piece of adversity early on. But a lot of it seems like a distant memory now, because Memphis is looking more and more like a team that may not make the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers entered Thursday night’s tilt at Cincinnati off a home loss to South Florida, which might not have seemed unthinkable before the Bulls lost their best player to injury before the season. That dropped them to just 6-4 in American Athletic Conference play, and it’s not a conference that has been overwhelming in terms of its strength as only Houston remotely resembles a lock for the NCAA Tournament from the conference. The Tigers left Cincinnati with a 92-86 overtime loss, certainly nothing to be ashamed of but also their second straight loss, the third time they have dropped consecutive games since the calendar turned over to 2020.
Of course, the Tigers have had to deal with plenty this season. At one time, it was thought that they would hit their stride in conference play as heralded freshman James Wiseman returned from an NCAA suspension in January, but he strangely decided to leave part way through the suspension. Meanwhile, the Tigers won without him, so the feeling was this was still very much an NCAA Tournament team and a contender in The American.
Instead, little by little the Tigers seem to be hitting a plateau. Precious Achiuwa, one of the nation’s top freshmen and at one time a reliable double-double machine in Wiseman’s absence, has now had just three of those in the past seven games; the Tigers have lost three of the other four games. He had 22 points and 17 rebounds in the tough loss last night. He’s not alone, and Wiseman’s suspension and subsequent departure is not the only adversity they have faced, as injuries have come along as well. The latter is always a wild card for a team’s season.
There is no shame in losing at Cincinnati, but the Tigers need some quality wins now. Non-conference wins over Ole Miss, NC State and Tennessee all look less impressive now than at the time, and while none of their losses are earth-shattering, several of late have come against teams they should beat, especially at home. It’s one thing to go to Wichita State or Tulsa and lose (with the Golden Hurricane annihilating them), but quite another to lose at home to likes of SMU and South Florida, not to mention Georgia in their last non-conference home game.
Fortunately, the Tigers have two shots at Houston, including on the road in the regular season finale, but first they have to go to UConn in a battle of teams that have had their share of adversity. The Huskies have lost some tough ones, but might be on the verge of turning a corner, so this will be far from an easy win for Memphis.
You can’t blame Penny for having high hopes for his talented team a few months ago. A coach is supposed to think highly of his team whether they have the kind of talent Memphis has or not. But at this point, the Tigers may need a conference championship to get to the NCAA Tournament in the first place, which isn’t something that was expected a few months ago.
Side Dishes
The Pac-12 race has heated up even more after Thursday night, starting with Oregon using a big second half to rally past visiting Colorado 68-60 to even up the top of the standings at 8-4. It marks the fifth time this season the Ducks have rallied from a double-digit deficit to win, as the Buffaloes led by as many as 14 in the first half before the Ducks got better defensively, forcing turnovers and then making shots at the other end from it. Just a half game back of those two, but even in the loss column, are Arizona, who dumped Cal 68-52, and a real surprise in surging Arizona State, who held off Stanford 74-69 for their fourth straight win and sixth in seven games. Making it more interesting is that just a game back of the leaders is UCLA, who moved to 7-5 after an 86-83 overtime win over Washington.
Indiana has been a tough team to figure out, and in a conference that from one night to the next has been unpredictable. The latest instance of this came on Thursday night, when the Hoosiers made a big first half stand up in an 89-77 win over Iowa in Bloomington. The win puts the Hoosiers at 6-7 in Big Ten play and snaps a four-game losing streak, which came after they had won four of five
Other results of note: Wichita State got back on track with a 75-58 win at UCF behind 27 points, eight rebounds and five assists from Erik Stevenson; Merrimack and Robert Morris remain tied atop the Northeast Conference after both went on the road and got wins, with the Warriors beating St. Francis Brooklyn 60-50 and the Colonials taking care of Mount St. Mary’s 77-60; Hofstra beat College of Charleston 76-63 to strengthen their hold on first place in the CAA, and Delaware is now in second after the Blue Hens won at Elon 81-75; Texas State knocked off Sun Belt leader Little Rock 74-66 to snap the Trojans’ seven-game winning streak, but Little Rock is still two games up on everyone else; USC rallied past Washington 62-56; Montana routed Weber State 72-37; and Austin Peay won the big Ohio Valley Conference showdown 71-68 over Murray State, which ties them up in the standings at 11-2.
South Carolina received a notice of allegations from the NCAA coming out of the FBI investigation into corruption. They are charged with a Level I violation related to former assistant coach Lamont Evans accepting money in bribes from Christian Dawkins in 2015-16. Evans admitted to accepting bribes while an assistant at Oklahoma State a year later. He was one of four college assistant coaches arrested in September 2017, when all of this burst out in the open.
Texas has had plenty of challenges this season and had a tough time pulling some games out, but now the Longhorns are banged up. Forward Jericho Sims might not be able to go at Iowa State on Saturday because of a back injury that has bothered him for a few weeks, and they were already down two players against Baylor on Monday night as Jase Febres and Kai Jones both had to sit with injuries.
Radford was coached by Ron Jirsa in their 81-71 win over Presbyterian on Thursday night as the school suspended head coach Mike Jones for the game. The move came from Monday’s big win at Winthrop, where Jones and Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey got into a shouting match early on. Interestingly, Kelsey coached on the evening, and Gardner Webb knocked off Winthrop 74-70 to drop the Eagles back into a virtual tie with Radford in the Big South as both teams have two losses (Winthrop has one more win).
Tonight’s Menu
As is custom, it’s a light night of action in terms of number of games, but a few matchups are good ones.
- The night gets going with a MAC game as Buffalo visits Toledo (6:30 p.m.), while a little later on Central Michigan hosts Akron (7 p.m.)
- Davidson will try to stay above .500 in Atlantic 10 play as they travel to St. Bonaventure (7 p.m.)
- In Horizon League action, Northern Kentucky hosts IUPUI (7 p.m.), then UIC goes to Wright State (9 p.m.)
- It’s a busy night in the MAAC as Monmouth goes to Canisius, Fairfield visits Marist, Manhattan visits Iona and Quinnipiac visits St. Peter’s in early action (7 p.m.) while Siena hosts Rider later on in a televised game (9 p.m.)
- A full slate of Ivy League action has a first place showdown with Yale at Princeton, along with Brown visiting Penn, Cornell visiting Harvard and Dartmouth hosting Columbia, all tipping at 7 p.m.
- A pair of Summit League games with the top two teams at home tip at 8 p.m. as South Dakota State hosts Denver and North Dakota State hosts Purdue Fort Wayne.
