It has been a long offseason full of headlines, national doubters and preseason predictions for Penny Hardaway and his No. 14 Memphis Tigers. While his group certainly played hard and helped restore that feeling of pride around the program one year ago, this season was always going to be the one where Hardaway gets to truly leave his mark on the city.
The Memphis Tigers will kick things off Thursday night at FedExForum when they take on Christian Brothers University Buccaneers in an exhibition contest. While it will not count as an official game on the schedule or record, it will serve as the first opportunity for fans to see this team in real game action for themselves, which is more than enough cause for excitement.
Last year when these two teams met, the Tigers rolled to a 95-68 victory behind an intense team defense. With a brand new roster in place comprises players Hardaway chose, expect the same style of play early on regardless of the exhibition nature of the contest. Along with a tenacious team defense mentality, these are the other things to watch for Thursday.
How well is the team meshing?
One of the main reasons analysts nationwide are doubting Memphis is the fear there will be too many cooks in the kitchen. From top to bottom, there are talented players at every position who will be looking for their opportunities to shine with the ball. Despite the more laid-back nature of the contest, it will be crucial for this team to show some discipline early on to silence some of those critics and prove they have bought what Hardaway is trying to sell.
While the Buccaneers will not present the toughest competition by any means, they will serve as a gauge to see where Hardaway’s group is right now. With a trip to Oregon looming early on the schedule, any early-season kinks will need to be worked out fast before they prove costly.
“We want carry over from what we’ve done in practice,” Hardaway said. “We’ve been working really hard on defensive schemes and weak side help, things that they haven’t seen in high school that they have to learn on this level for us to be really good and be able to compete, and then also sharing the basketball. We want to see both of those.”
Just how deep into his bench will Hardaway go?
While it will obviously be subject to change as the season wears on, it will be interesting to see just how many players get minutes in this one. Ryan Boyce and Jayden Hardaway, who were both redshirted last year, and Lance Thomas, who was forced to sit out due to NCAA transfer rules, are all returning players who did not even see the floor last season. All three will be vying for time in rotation along with fellow returnees Alex Lomax, Tyler Harris and Isaiah Maurice.
“The flow of the game is gonna say that,” Hardaway said. “We want to have these guys maxing out effort level from when they first step on the floor. I don’t see any guy being able to play above three, three and a half minutes at the max level, so we’ll see. It just depends. Obviously, we did that in the Bahamas where we just subbed five in, five out, but I don’t know if we’re going to do that tomorrow.”
It feels certain the freshmen duo of James Wiseman and Precious Achiuwa will be locked in to the starting five, with the rest of the spots seemingly up for grabs. While Hardaway is certainly no stranger to experimenting with his lineups, expect to see a lot of fast-paced substituting Thursday as the coaching staff tries to get a feel for what will work best once the games start to take on more significance. Hardaway said he will not hesitate to start five freshmen if it gives them the best chance to win, but Memphis fans may be looking at a team that goes twelve or thirteen-deep from the bench regardless.
Tip-off against CBU is slated for 7 p.m. at FedExForum.
Alex Lomax speaks to reporters on a media availability on Oct. 23, 2019.
Penny Hardaway speaks at a media availability Oct. 23, 2019. Memphis basketball is ranked No. 15 in the Preseason AP Poll.
Tyler Harris speaks to reporters in a media availability on Oct. 23, 2019.
