The Memphis men's basketball team lost their second and final exhibition of the season 100-71 to No. 20 Auburn in Atlanta Thursday night in a sloppy showing they would like to forget.
It was a non-competitive affair, as Auburn jumped on Memphis 15-2 and got up as much as 36 points in the second half.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shocked at how we played,” said Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway after the game. “Right now, we don’t have enough guys that are willing to leave it all out on the line. And that’s unfortunate.”
The main reason for the loss was the inability to take care of the ball, as the Tigers struggled mightily against Auburn’s matchup zone. Auburn forced 23 Memphis turnovers in the game, including 12 turnovers in the first 5:54 of the game.
Additionally, Memphis shot just 36.8% from the field, 20% beyond the arc, and missed 15 free throws, shooting 25/40 from the charity stripe.
“They came out in zone, which really shocked us because we really haven’t worked on zone offense,” Hardaway said in his postgame radio interview. “We had to make it up on the fly.”
First year Auburn head coach Steven Pearl knew this strategy would be effective, saying after the game that he told his team that if they stayed in the gaps defensively, Memphis would turn the ball over.
“Credit to our guys for really locking into the scouting report,” Pearl said.
All 15 Memphis players saw the court in this game, with Sincere Parker’s 19 points and Aaron Bradshaw’s 10 points leading the way for the Tigers.
Point guard Dug McDaniel, who was the best player on Memphis in their previous exhibition, a 99-75 loss against No. 14 Arkansas, only had six points, three rebounds, and four turnovers in the game against Auburn.
Despite the unfavorable results of the two exhibitions, Hardaway still appreciated playing them to see what his team looked like against other competition besides themselves.
“I’m glad these two exhibition games are over,” Hardaway said. “We’d been practicing, and I’d been seeing some really good things. But that’s why we play these games.”
The regular season will start for the Tigers on at 2 p.m. on Nov. 8 when they welcome the San Francisco Dons to FedExForum.
