The Memphis Tigers continue without D.J. Jeffries Wednesday night when they welcome Temple for their only meeting of the season. Over the weekend in their win over UConn and for most of the year frankly, they have shown that they are capable of rallying through adversity as a team. They are going to need to rely on that the rest of the way.
While these are not the same Owls that made an NCAA tournament appearance a season ago, they still feature a dynamic pair of guards in Quinton Rose and Nate Pierre-Louis, their two top scorers. Rose, a senior from Rochester, New York, played a big role in Temple’s win over Memphis last year, finishing with 26 points on 5-9 shooting from three. He is a dangerous scorer who can take over games if he gets hot.
While Pierre-Louis does not present quite the same threat offensively as his backcourt running mate, he provides more versatility as a defender, averaging more than 2 steals per contest.
One of the major storylines to watch will be the continued development of Lance Thomas. His recent uptick in production has played a huge part in their last two wins and suddenly, he will be relied upon heavily to get clutch buckets as they prepare to make a push towards the postseason.
While the American Athletic Conference tournament is still over a month away, every game is pivotal towards eventual seeding. Memphis finds itself deadlocked in the middle of the pack with the likes of SMU, Cincinnati, Wichita State and East Carolina. Luckily for the Tigers, they still have games against all those opponents remaining on the schedule. They cannot afford to drop any of those contests.
This late in the year, the hope would have been that by now Penny Hardaway would have this young team of freshmen humming and ready to go for March. However, it has not turned out that way.
Rushing through plays and sloppiness with the ball are still grave concerns. 24 turnovers is not exactly the ideal way to pay homage to Kobe.
Expect Hardaway to slow the pace down and take more control of the offense, similar to how he did in the waning minutes against the Huskies. He is long preached his desire to give his players more freedom in games, but the matter has simply become too urgent. Something must give.
“Every game is a big game,” Hardaway said. “There are no more small games for us because it’s getting too close to seeding for the NCAA and you got to win out. You’ve got to do everything possible to get a win. You can’t give games away that you’re supposed to win at home. Not at this time of the season.”
The race for a top-four seed and coveted first round bye in the league tournament is on. They can no longer afford any slip-ups. While no one may have expected the season to end up like this, they must continue to fight their way through the negativity and adversity.
Tip-off against the Owls is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at FedExForum.
