The Memphis men's basketball team got drubbed by former Tigers coach Josh Pastner and an incredibly shorthanded UNLV team 92-78 Sunday afternoon at FedExForum, which became the biggest home loss margin in the Penny Hardaway era.
UNLV has home losses to UT-Martin and Montana. They were missing three projected starters due to injury, and had a fourth usual starter, Naas Cunningham, only play 17 minutes due to an ankle injury. Two of UNLV’s starters today, leading scorer on the season for the Rebels Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and Jacob Bannarbie, only played three minutes combined in the second half.
Despite all of that, the Runnin’ Rebels dominated the Tigers.
“This is very tough for me, because we haven’t been in this position this early in the season before,” said head coach Penny Hardaway after the game. “I’m trying, along with the staff, to just go to war every day and find five guys, find seven guys, find eight guys that can just run through a wall. Not even shoot well or play well, just fight.”
Howie Fleming Jr., who went scoreless in UNLV’s 102-93 loss to Montana, dropped 25 points and 12 rebounds, and Issac Williamson added 25 points of his own as well to lead the way for the Runnin’ Rebels.
On the team side, UNLV took advantage of the sloppy play of Memphis, garnering 30 points off of 18 Memphis turnovers.
For Memphis, players expected to be key contributors this year struggled greatly, as Dug McDaniel six points on 1 of 10 shooting with six turnovers, Aaron Bradshaw only played nine minutes due to his own turnover problems and defensive lapses, and Zach Davis fouled out in only 18 minutes of play.
Defensively, The Tigers allowed 50 points in the paint and let UNLV shoot a sizzling 50% from the field.
“We just got to guard our yard. We got to have pride and know my man is not going to score and beat me every possession down the court,” Julius Thedford said, who led the Tigers in scoring with 16 points today. “You got to be a dog to be on the floor.”
The best players for Memphis were Thedford and freshman Simon Majok, both of whom have earned more minutes than expected due to a combination of their play and the play of their teammates.
“Those two guys are definitely the cornerstones of who we’re going to start with moving forward,” Hardaway said about Thedford and Majok. “You got guys that have played in major conferences that have been successful before … but (Majok and Thedford) are actually outplaying them and they definitely earned more minutes.”
The road forward does not get any easier for Memphis, as their next game is against No. 2 Purdue and the Preseason National Player of the Year Braden Smith.
Ahead of that battle, and after an embarrassing defeat against a coach that once upon a time Memphis ran out of town, Hardaway had one message for his team.
“It’s not about X’s and O’s, it’s just about fight. Just compete and fight every minute, every second that you’re on the floor, and we can work with that.”
The Tigers play the Boilermakers at 5 p.m. on Thursday in the Bahamas in the opening round of the Baha Mar Championship.
