Lawson was named player of the year after his freshman season. He averaged 15.8 points and 9.3 rebounds a game.
Dedric Lawson will win the 2016-17 American Athletic Conference player of the year.
This isn’t an outlandish prediction considering Lawson was named the preseason co-AAC player of the year. Lawson had one of the most prolific freshman seasons in the history of Memphis basketball, joining the likes of Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and Dajaun Wagner, among others, as the only freshmen to score over 520 points in a season; and his 307 rebounds were only outdone by Lorenzen Wright and Keith Lee as freshmen. Lawson tested the NBA Draft waters this summer before ultimately deciding to return to school after receiving feedback from NBA personnel. He’s now had a full summer and fall camp to work with Tubby Smith on improving his game and his body—putting on nearly 10 pounds in the offseason since one of the knocks on him at the NBA Draft Combine was his frail-looking body.
Markel Crawford will double his career scoring average.
Markel Crawford came to Memphis as one of the highest-rated shooting guards in the country. Injuries derailed his career early, but he’s been able to play the last couple of seasons; albeit in crowded backcourts that featured guys like Ricky Tarrant, Trahson Burrell and Avery Woodson taking the majority of the shots. For his career, Crawford has averaged 5.6 points per game, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him with double-digit points per game this season. He’s the most experienced guard the Tigers have this season, and he will be relied upon heavily.
Tubby Smith will not win as many games as Josh Pastner did in his first season.
But that’s fine because neither did John Calipari, and I think we all know how that worked out. I do think that Tubby could come close to tying Calipari, who won 21 games his first year at Memphis, but it’s not likely that he can reach Pastner, who won 24 games. It’s also different circumstances. When Pastner took over, Memphis was still in Conference USA, and the AAC is much more challenging. I do think there’s a good chance that Tubby can surpass Pastner’s win totals from his final two seasons of 18 and 19, respectively.
Jake McDowell will double his career starts and triple his career minutes played.
But that’s assuming his health holds up. McDowell has struggled with knee issues this summer, but if he remains healthy, his senior year should be his most prolific. The Tigers are scheduled for 31 regular season games this season, so if Jake starts two of those games and plays at least 330 minutes (or roughly 10 minutes per game), he will have doubled his career starts and tripled his career minutes played.
K.J. Lawson will be an all-conference player.
It’s easy to forget about the other Lawson because Dedric was so good, but before suffering a season-ending injury last season, K.J., a borderline top-50 recruit coming out of high school, was averaging 8.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in under 20 minutes per game. K.J. should see a vastly expanded role this season, and with his talent level, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to think that two Lawsons could make the AAC all-conference teams.
Memphis will have the best big man duo in the AAC. .
With the offseason addition of Chad Rykhoek and the return of Dedric Lawson, the Tigers are poised to have the best starting big-man duo in the conference. Lawson at 6-foot- 9, 236 pounds and Rykhoek at 6-foot- 11, 230 pounds have the necessary size and length to cause problems for teams on both ends of the court. But it’s their unique and versatile skill sets that will separate them from other talented bigs in the league. Smith has raved about Rykhoek ever since he set foot on campus, and if Dedric can improve on last season’s 15.8 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, the Tigers will have an interior advantage in every game they play in this season.
Tubby Smith will land the best 2017 recruiting class in the AAC.
And he will do that with a commitment from Rayshaun Hammonds, a 6-foot-7, 190-pound power forward from Georgia who’s ranked as the 50th best prospect in the country according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. Memphis has only landed one player ranked in the top 50 in the composite rankings since 2014: Dedric Lawson. If Hammonds were to commit to Memphis, he would join Jamal Johnson, David Nickelberry and Victor Enoh in the class of 2017, giving the Tigers four commitments and competing with UConn for the best class in the AAC. Hammonds visited Memphis on Sept. 23 and visited Miami on Oct. 7. He also has visits scheduled with UConn and Texas in November.
