Despite going 3-7 over the last 10 games, including an 80-71 loss to the USF Bulls (7-21, 4-11 AAC) Saturday, Josh Pastner and the Tigers still hope to salvage their season over the final four games and American Athletic Conference tournament.
Memphis will have no room for error through this stretch though, as it faces three of the conferences top-four teams and an ECU team that already upset the Tigers at home earlier this season.
The season’s final stretch will begin when No. 24 ranked SMU travels to Memphis Thursday.
Pastner said his team needs to use this stretch to get as prepared as possible, so they can make a run in the conference tournament.
“We have two weeks of regular season basketball left before the conference tournament, so we have to keep tweaking and finding the good Memphis team that is capable of winning the conference tournament and making that run,” he said.
The Mustangs (22-4, 10-4 AAC) enter Thursday’s matchup coming off of a 74-63 win over ECU.
Memphis (15-12, 6-8 AAC) will need to be hitting on all cylinders Thursday, if it wants to get on a run.
The Mustangs took down Memphis 80-68 in their first meeting earlier this season. The Tigers allowed SMU to shoot 46.2 percent from behind the three-point line. Senior guard and reigning American Athletic Conference player of the year Nic Moore led all scorers with 22 points for the Mustangs. Memphis on the other hand couldn’t get anything going offensively, shooting just 32.6 percent from the field and 25 percent from behind the arc.
The Tigers will need a much better effort this time around, especially on the defensive end of the floor as they faceoff against one of the best offensive teams in the conference. According to Kenpom.com, SMU ranks seventh in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency.
Moore, who ranks second in the conference in scoring with 16.8 points per game, leads the way for the Mustangs. He also averages 5.3 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game.
SMU has three other players who are averaging double figures in scoring as well.
Junior forward Ben Moore averages 11.9 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, senior forward Jordan Tolbert racks up 11.9 points and team leading 8.7 rebounds per game, and freshman guard Shake Milton averages 10.8 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
SMU has two other key producers in Markus Kennedy (9.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game) and junior guard Sterling Brown (9.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game) as well.
Memphis will need all it can get from its star frontcourt tandem: senior Shaq Goodwin (14.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game) and freshman Dedric Lawson (15 points and a league leading 9.3 rebounds per game) if it has a chance to get the win over SMU.
Lawson has been on a tear recently, posting five straight double-double performances. The freshman only needs four more to tie Keith Lee for the school record for double-doubles through a player’s freshman season.
Pastner gave credit to Lawson for the way he has played this season, even citing that the freshman should be in the running for multiple conference honors.
“The kid should be a senior in high school, he’s 18-years-old and he’s putting up those numbers,” he said. “He is basically averaging a double-double so you have to give him a lot of credit. He is really on a roll right now and obviously we need him to continue to be on a roll.”
Memphis still needs to average 6,812 fans in its final two home games this season to get a portion of the FedExForum venue payout from the Grizzlies.
With the potential payout in jeopardy and the Tigers needing all the support they can get, Pastner urged fans to attend the games regardless of their feelings for him.
“We need the fans to show up on Thursday and Sunday (against Tulsa),” he said. “It’s very important to the University and this athletic department that we get great crowds to both games. Regardless of how you feel about Josh Pastner you need to come and support the Tigers and most importantly your supporting the athletic department and the University which is such an important fabric of this city and we can’t take that for granted. Come to the arena and if you want to boo me, feel free to boo me, but please come to the game because we need to hit that number for the athletic department.”
Memphis and SMU will tipoff 6 p.m. Thursday at FedExForum.
The Tigers hope to earn their first win against a ranked opponent since 2014 Thursday. Memphis has dropped seven of its last 10 games.
