There wasn’t much for head coach John Calipari to complain about Friday night after his Tigers clobbered Team Georgia, 107-67, in their first of two exhibition games at The Pyramid.
In fact, if 12th-ranked Memphis doesn’t give Calipari something to worry about tonight when the Tigers face the Universal All-Stars at 7 p.m. at The Pyramid, Memphis can probably go ahead and pack its bags for the NCAA Tournament in March.
On Friday, the Tigers got 26 points on 8-of-19 shooting from freshman phenom Dajuan Wagner and a double-double from senior forward Kelly Wise (15 points and 12 rebounds) to help lift Memphis over Team Georgia before an estimated crowd of 12,100.
“We’re very big, and we can beat you off the dribble,” Calipari said Friday after watching his team dismantle Team Georgia. “We’re explosive.”
So explosive that it took the Tigers all of five minutes to open up a double-digit lead.
So explosive that Memphis outrebounded its opponent 62-39 for the game.
And finally, so explosive that Calipari was able to use eight different lineup combinations on the court — and that was just in the first half.
Leading 30-19 with just under 10 minutes remaining before intermission, the Tigers closed out the first half on a 23-8 run en route to a 53-27 halftime lead. Memphis also played well defensively over that stretch, holding Team Georgia to just 29.7 percent from the field in the first half.
Although Memphis hit a scoring drought midway through the second half which prompted Calipari to ask his assistant coaches, “We’ve been stuck on 74 for a while, haven’t we,” the Tigers shot a blistering 57.1 percent (20-of-35) from the floor after the break. For the game, Memphis shot 50.7 percent.
Besides Wise and Wagner, two other Tigers finished with double-digit scoring games. Sophomore Scooter McFadgon had 14 points and six rebounds while junior college transfer Chris Massie finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Every Tiger had at least two points.
Meanwhile, Jermaine Spivey, a guard who played his college ball for the University of New Orleans, led Team Georgia with 24 points.
A seemingly content Calipari told reporters after the game Memphis would have to work on its conditioning as well as its communication on defense, especially transition defense. The Tigers were burned by Team Georgia for several fast-break opportunities early in the game.
“We just don’t talk,” Calipari said. “No one says anything. We don’t talk enough defensively.”
Tonight’s exhibition game will be the final for Memphis before it opens up the regular season Nov. 13 against Wofford at The Pyramid.
