The University of Memphis men’s basketball team enters the 2015-2016 basketball season on the heels of an 18-14 campaign in 2014-2015 – Josh Pastner’s worst record since taking over in 2009 and the program’s fewest wins since 1999-00 when they won 17 games.
The Tigers return six players from last season while welcoming 10 newcomers, eight of whom are freshman.
Here’s a deeper look at Tiger basketball – by the numbers.
956 – The number of points scored last season by players that will not be on this season’s roster, including leading scorer Austin Nichols, who poured in 358 points. The Tigers returning this year scored a combined 1,199 points last season led by Shaq Goodwin, who scored 299 points.
2 – The number of McDonald’s All-Americans on the Tigers roster – Shaq Goodwin and Dedric Lawson.
3 – The number of players on the Tigers roster listed at 6-9 or taller. Freshman Nick Marshall (6-11) is the tallest player to play at Memphis since Angel Garcia in the 2009-10 season, Pastner’s first season as head coach.
44 – The number of points senior forward Shaq Goodwin needs to become the 50th player in program history to score 1,000 points in his career.
718 – Josh Pastner’s career winning percentage at Memphis. Only John Calipari (.762), Dana Kirk (.731), Gene Bartow (.722), Bob Vanatta (.762), and Fred Grantham (.750) have better winning percentages as head coach at Memphis.
148 – The number of wins Josh Pastner has amassed during his six seasons at Memphis. Only Zach Curlin (173), Dana Kirk (158), Larry Finch (220), and John Calipari (214) have more wins at Memphis.
1,259 – The number of points senior guard Ricky Tarrant has scored over the past three seasons – two of which were with Tulane and the other with Alabama. Tarrant was the 2012 Conference USA Freshman of the Year and selected to all-conference teams in 2012 and 2013. Tarrant has hit 152 career threes – which would rank tenth most all-time in Memphis history. The other six players on the Tigers’ roster, who have played college basketball, have hit a combined 202 career threes. Tarrant has also accumulated 265 assists and 126 steals over his career, both numbers lead all Tigers.
12 – The Memphis Tigers 2015 recruiting class was ranked as the 12th best class in the country and first in the American Athletic Conference, according to 247sports.com. The class is headlined by Dedric and K.J. Lawson, sons of assistant coach Keelon Lawson, Nick Marshall and Randall Broddie, all of whom were rated as four-star prospects by 247sports.com. This was Pastner’s third top-15 recruiting class at Memphis.
32 – The number of steals both Avery Woodson and Markel Crawford recorded last season which led the team.
74 – The number of assists Kedren Johnson recorded. The former Vanderbilt point guard led the Memphis last season in that department.
221 – The number of rebounds Shaq Goodwin recorded last season. The 6-foot-9 forward led the team in rebounds despite the presence of Austin Nichols.
61 – The number of threes junior guard Avery Woodson made in 2015, which led the team.
Memphis point guard Kedren Johnson averaged a team-high 2.7 assists per game in 2015.
