At times during Thursday night’s opening round game of the National Invitation Tournament against UNC-Greensboro, Memphis’ bench looked like a revolving door.
In front of 6,826 at The Pyramid, nine Tigers saw at least four minutes of action as Memphis crushed UNCG, 82-62, to move on to the second round of the NIT.
Tiger head coach John Calipari said his players had to show effort on the court to maintain playing time.
“If you’re not diving on the floor for ball, you shouldn’t be out there,” Calipari said. “If you are not doing X, Y, or Z, you are coming out immediately.”
With the playing time being shared, the Tigers performed with balance on both the defensive and offensive ends of the floor against Greensboro Thursday night.
Memphis held the Spartans to 32 percent shooting from the field and three points below their season average.
On offense, the Tigers shot a blistering 51.8 percent from the floor. Five Tigers scored in double digits, led by sophomore guard Scooter McFadgon’s 21 points, one off his career high.
Junior Chris Massie posted a 15-point night to go with 14 rebounds while freshman Dajuan Wagner chipped in with 16 points.
Center Earl Barron contributed 10 points and nine rebounds and freshman guard Anthony Rice added 14 points on 4-0f-6 shooting from three-point range.
Freshman forward Duane Erwin, who played 17 minutes, said he was shocked by the balanced performance of the Tigers.
“To tell you the truth, I was surprised,” Erwin said. “I was impressed with our effort to come out hard. We showed up.”
After Massie got the scoring started with two powerful lay-ups in the paint, Memphis jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead and never looked back.
With Massie and Rice scoring nine points each in the first half, the Tigers led 37-29 at the break.
Memphis came out in the second half hot, outscoring the Spartans 29-15 to jump out to a 66-44 lead. The Tigers led by as many as 26 points.
The Spartans end their season at 20-11 while Memphis improved to 23-9.
Rice said the Tigers’ victory would hopefully ignite a run to the NIT finals in New York..
“We need this first game to build momentum,” Rice said. “We wanted to get in the NCAA Tournament, but unfortunately things didn’t go our way. Now our minds are set on trying to win the NIT.”
After losing four games this season without the services of senior forward Kelly Wise, the Tigers finally put together a winning effort without the Conference USA first teamer.
Calipari said his players are beginning to understand their roles and adjust to life with Wise not on the court.
“We’re fine. They are going to go out there and do their jobs,” Calipari said. “If (Wise) doesn’t play, we will go on without him.
“But if he can go out there, even to give us some Willis Reed, a lot of people would say, ‘That is great.’ But if he can’t do it, he can’t do it.”
With or without Wise, the Tigers face BYU in the second round of the NIT Monday.
