The Memphis Tigers are preparing to play against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Penny Hardaway’s team will be looking to notch their second road win over a conference opponent.
The Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team (12-6) is fresh off another lineup change and another American Athletic Conference win over the SMU Mustangs (11-6), 83-61. The Tigers are 4-1 in conference play, but the inconsistency in the starting lineup has become a factor.
Penny Hardaway shuffled the starting lineup nine times in an effort to give the Tigers a better shot to win. While some variations have proven to be more efficient than others, Hardaway said that the lineups will continue to change, and the constant variations have not hindered the players or their team chemistry, but rather helped them be prepared for any situation.
“We do that in practice,†Hardaway said. “I think we do a great job of mixing the lineups we don’t just go starters versus the second group, we mix the lineups so it’s better competition.â€
The Tigers’ initial lineup to start the season with forwards Isaiah Maurice and Kyvon Davenport, along with guards Tyler Harris, Alex Lomax and Jeremiah Martin, was shaky at best. Opening up the season with a 2-2 record, they shot a mediocre average of 41.18 percent from the field. They were also inconsistent behind the arc, averaging 28.45 percent.
The shooting was not the only reason Hardaway made a switch. Opposing teams were having their way with the Memphis defense throughout the season. Tennessee Tech was the only team to average less than 40 percent from the field against the Tigers while LSU, Yale and OSU combined to an average 53.23 percent shooting from the field and an average of 35.77 percent from deep.
After suffering a blowout at the hands of Oklahoma State, Hardaway made a change, starting with Mike Parks and Raynere Thornton in place of Maurice and Davenport. While the Tigers handled Canisius with ease, their failure to close out games against Charleston and a top 25 team in Texas Tech raised speculation as to why Memphis had issues down the stretch.
The University of Memphis men’s basketball team continues to work towards the AAC tournament. After their win over UCF, ranked 30 spots above them, their ranking has improved and helped their chances at obtaining a bid to the tournament.
The Tigers did bounce back with two wins against both San Diego State and the University of Alabama at Birmingham before suffering a loss to then No. 3 ranked Tennessee Volunteers.Â
During this run, some of the Tigers found their grooves. Davenport notched two more career double-doubles off the bench, and Harris looked confident from deep and led the team in scoring four times in that stretch.
Antwann Jones showed his value to Memphis during the Vols’ matchup, leaving the game with nine points but an excellent display of court vision with five assists, putting him into the starting five in place of Lomax.
Memphis hit a stretch of dominating performances from the offensive end, averaging 54.7 percent from the field and 40 percent from three. There was a single lineup change before the Florida A&M, due to a disciplinary action by the team against Jones.
The Tigers protected home court, sometimes running away with games as they did against TSU, in which they won 99-41. Memphis looked like a hard team to beat, but Hardaway decided to put in Maurice over Parks in the first road game in a month against the No. 19 ranked Houston Cougars. The Tigers fell short 90-77 and were outplayed in virtually all assets of the game. This prompted another change where Hardaway decided to run all seniors in the matchup against ECU. Even though the Tigers won, the final score of 78-72 was too close for comfort.
Against Tulane, Victor Enoh took the place of Parks, but once again the Tigers did not win in a dominating fashion. Jeremiah Martin did have one of his best games of the season, especially from deep, going 5-8. However, the rest of the team struggled to go 1-13. Hardaway again altered the starters before SMU, replacing Enoh with Jones.
Brewton had a great shooting game, going 6-11 from three and showing his reliability beyond the arc. Davenport has had some great moments as a starter, but has yet to match the level of production he was displaying off the bench. Hardaway continues to say the lineup is experimental and completely dependent upon the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.
“I think it’s kind of dictating what other teams are doing,†Hardaway said. “You know just like today (Jan. 18), no one did anything wrong, we had to go small because they were small and we matched up really well. You know, it just goes from game to game. It might be small again next week, it might be big, I don’t know. We are gonna start matching up, to match up with teams, because you don’t want them to get off to a great start having the wrong lineup put there.â€
