The Tigers' misery from beyond the three-point line continued last night in their 78-47 win over Christian Brothers University.
After shooting 5-for-29 in last week's 113-63 exhibition win against Lemoyne-Owen, the struggles continued last night for a team that will have to rely on outside shooting this season in order to break the zone defenses they are sure to face.
The Tigers are 11-for-65 from the three-point line in the three games going back to last season's 50-45 loss to UCLA.
Memphis was 0-for-8 in the first half and 4-for-19 for the game against CBU, a number coach John Calipari said he liked as far as total number of shots.
"That's about the number of threes we want to shoot in a game," he said. "None of my teams has ever been great shooting teams, though."
While the team struggled shooting the outside shot, the rest of their game obviously came together enough to put away the Buccaneers, a team Calipari was quite complimentary of following the game. Their slow, deliberate offensive pace kept the score low and they trailed just 30-26 at the half.
But when The U of M opened with a 36-5 run to start the second half, the shooting woes seemed to disappear, as the Tigers hit four of their first nine threes.
"We were just concentrating better in the second half and were knocking them down," said senior guard Jeremy Hunt. "We just came out with a lot of energy from the locker room."
The rest of the team seemed to be bothered little by the early season woes, as Hunt and fellow guard Chris Douglas-Roberts believed it was just a slow night.
"We do have great shooters," Douglas-Roberts said. "They picked it up in the second half."
But "they" mostly consisted of himself: Douglas-Roberts was 2-for-2 from behind the line for the game.
The Tigers faced zone defenses consistently during last season's 33-4 Elite Eight run, something the team can expect this year without long-range specialist Rodney Carney.
Freshman point guard Willie Kemp believes the struggles will go away as the season goes along, noting the shots were there and players were simply missing them.
"We came out shooting 4-for-9 to start the second half, so it'll be fine," he said.
Sharp shooting freshman Doneal Mack, a late-summer recruiting find for the Tigers, has had the roughest start shooting the three, going 0-for-8 in his first two games.
But with the two exhibitions behind them and their 9-for-48 slump out of their heads, Memphis takes on Jackson State Nov. 16 at FedExForum for the start of their regular season - a game each Tiger shooter is looking forward to undoubtedly.
"I think we're going to be fine once the season gets going," Calipari said.
