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Tigers look to rebound after embarrassing loss at Tulsa

When head coach Penny Hardaway inked the top recruiting class over the summer, this was never a part of the plan.

It is safe to say no one saw a 40-point road loss to Tulsa coming despite the Tigers not seeing success against the Golden Hurricane on the road since joining the American Athletic Conference (five-straight losses at Tulsa).

Now, after an embarrassing showing that will surely drop them from the AP Top 25, they must quickly regroup and figure out what has gone wrong over the last couple weeks. With a visit from SMU awaiting them Saturday, the pressure for Memphis to save this season is officially on.  

 

At 14-4 with a 3-2 AAC league record, Memphis currently sits fifth in the standings.

Perched right above them is SMU, who enter this weekend’s contest at an identical 14-4 mark with a 4-2 record in conference play. They are led by Kendric Davis, a sophomore guard averaging 16 points, 7.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game and Feron Hunt, a second-year forward averaging 13.1 points and a team-leading 7.5 boards per contest.  

The Mustangs, who rank in the top 25 nationally in team rebounding rate, will provide a stiff test for a team that is doing some serious soul-searching. Despite losing key production from Jahmal McMurray and Jimmy Whitt Jr., the program has not skipped a beat in Tim Jankovich’s fourth year at the helm.

For Memphis, the season has reached a crossroads.

How they respond to the 40-point drubbing at Tulsa may define what they are capable of the rest of the way. They have showed a strong sense of resiliency all season long, but nothing could have prepared them for what happened Wednesday night.

In a crucial league tilt, their loss was the worst defeat for a ranked team against an unranked team in 27 years. The forty-point margin was the second largest margin of defeat ever for the Memphis men's basketball program.  

For too long, too many things have had to go right for a team as talented as Memphis to pull wins out. They have struggled with turnovers pretty much all year, they have rebounded inconsistently at stretches and the shot selection at times have been ill-advised. Against Tulsa, all these issues came to a head and Memphis turned in its worst performance to date of the Penny Hardaway era.  

It remains to be seen if Hardaway will make drastic changes to his rotation. Up until Wednesday night, the new starting five of Alex Lomax, Lester Quinones, D.J. Jeffries, Precious Achiuwa and Malcolm Dandridge seemed to work better than some of the other lineups that have been leaned on thus far.

However, outside of Achiuwa, Lomax and Jeffries, a team that once had championship aspirations has looked largely unimpressive for a while now. The one thing that feels certain is that the time for Hardaway to figure it out is right now.  

They will look for motivation from eager Tiger fans who want to see them succeed this Saturday afternoon against SMU. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. at the FedExForum. 


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