In the 91st meeting of a longtime basketball rivalry, Memphis fell to Louisville 99-73 in blowout fashion at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville Saturday afternoon.
The Cardinals took control early and never looked back in the contest, thanks to an absurd performance from behind the three-point line. Louisville led 57-37 at halftime after shooting 12-22 from three in the opening period.
"Obviously a terrible, terrible outcome for us with a week to prepare," Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said after the defeat.
The lone bright spot for the Tigers was the play of Hasan Abdul-Hakim. In his third game as a Tiger, Abdul-Hakim showed flashes of his upside, scoring 17 of his 18 points in the first half, singlehandedly keeping Memphis in striking distance.
The game started fine for Memphis. Coach Hardaway started a seventh different starting lineup on the young season — this time starting Aaron Bradshaw with Simon Majok in the frontcourt and Abdul-Hakim, Zach Davis and Dug McDaniel on the perimeter.
The Tigers got out to an 8-7 lead, but Louisville went on a quick 8-0 run to take full control. When the first half horn went off, Louisville had 57 points on extremely effective shooting. The Cardinals were 5-6 from two and the previously mentioned 12-22 from three, good for a 60.7% clip from the field.
In classic blowout fashion, the second half was not much to write home about. In a normally rare occurrence, ESPN bumped the game off of their network to ESPNNews in the second half, encapsulating the Tigers' afternoon.
"It's just a bad coached game by me," Hardaway said. "I have to do better."
Dug McDaniel did find his footing in the second half after struggling in the first, but there was no point where Memphis looked a threat to make a game out of it.
Sincere Parker added 12 points for the Tigers, and Aaron Bradshaw put up 8 points and 5 boards.
For Louisville, star freshman Mikel Brown Jr. finished with 16 points, his backcourt mate Ryan Conwell added 17 and Kasean Pryor, a player Memphis fans may remember from his time at South Florida, scored a season-best 11 points.
The story of the game was the three-point line, where Louisville consistently got and made good looks. The Cardinals finished the game 18-35 from three, compared to Memphis' 3-11.
The home team also won the passing battle, assisting on 24 of their 30 makes to the Tigers' 8 assists.
"That's crazy," Louisville coach Pat Kelsey said in response to his team's passing statistics.
For Memphis, the loss was disheartening. The Tigers still have two critical games to come with Vanderbilt coming to FedExForum Wednesday followed by a road game at Mississippi State, but the lack of fight in a rivalry game does not bode well for those two contests.
"Louisville just played good basketball and we didn't," Hardaway said.
Still, a 2-0 week could have the Tigers back in theoretical at-large contention. That will be no small feat however, as Vanderbilt is undefeated with one of the most prolific offenses in the country.
With the emergence of Hasan Abdul-Hakim, the Tigers' offense could continue to improve, but Memphis will have to defend the three-point line better to have any chance of getting back to .500 against the Commodores.
The Tigers will play Vanderbilt at 6 p.m. CT on Wednesday night at FedExForum. The game will be on ESPN2.
I'm a senior journalism major with a sports media concentration. I have been at the Daily Helmsman for three years now, including two years as the sports editor.
