Memphis tunes up for shaky Auburn
Coming off a rough first week of the season, Memphis basketball bounced back to go undefeated during its recent three-game homestand.
But after wins over Arkansas State, Central Arkansas and Mississippi Valley State, the degree of difficulty will go back up when the Tigers (4-2) play Saturday (4 p.m., SEC Alternate) against Auburn (2-2) in Atlanta. The Tigers, who self-imposed a postseason ban last month, were 25-6 last season and reached the Final Four in 2019.
Things haven’t gone quite as well for Auburn (ranked No. 77 by KenPom.com), which has wins over Saint Joseph’s (in overtime) and South Alabama, with losses to No. 1 Gonzaga and UCF.
Here are five things to know before tip-off.
Memphis vs. itself
Tigers coach Penny Hardaway has said how difficult it can be to motivate players when the team across the floor isn’t playing well.
Memphis’ three most recent opponents have a combined record of 1-13.
“Obviously, those opponents weren’t the best in the country. But we were kind of playing against ourselves,” Hardaway said. “Kind of judging ourselves in those games, not by what (the other team) did, but what we did. We can see the rotations. We can see the close-outs. We can see the man-to-man defense one-on-one. We can also see how we execute our offense.”
Sophomore wing D.J. Jeffries believes viewing the games that way helped.
“We’re trying to get our defensive schemes right, our offense right, so when we get to games like Auburn … we can be crisp,” Jeffries said.
Hardaway’s takeaways from recent homestand
Memphis has made significant progress in a number of areas as a result of treating its recent games as opportunities to fine-tune itself.
Most notably, according to Hardaway, ball movement and defensive technique.
“The things we’re teaching in
practice about closing out with high hands to try to discourage 3-point shooting,” Hardaway said. “The hover hands, so a guy can’t just raise a shot right in front of you. I’m starting to see those things in the games and it’s making me feel better. Also, what we call ‘shrinking the court.’ We’re not hugged up on our man. So we’re just kind of up the lane and making teams feel uncomfortable.”
Auburn scouting report
Hardaway compared Auburn’s personnel scheme to an opponent his team is quite familiar with.
“They play four smalls and a hybrid. Kind of like how Houston plays, where they play four guards and a 6-6, 6-7 center,” he said. “They do have one big man over there on the bench, but they try to play the hybrids.”
Freshman guard Justin Powell leads Auburn in scoring (14.5 per game) and assists (15). As a team, though, the numbers aren’t pretty. Auburn is heavily reliant on 3-point shooting — 58.4% of the field goal attempts come from beyond the arc, which is the highest ratio in the nation.
Auburn’s 18.8 turnovers per game rank 289th.
What Memphis should be wary of
Hardaway pointed toward Auburn’s rebounding as an area of concern. Especially because he acknowledged his team still has work to do in that area.
“They crash the glass really well,” Hardaway said. “That’s something we haven’t been doing well, boxing out.”
Auburn is averaging 42.5 rebounds, 14.5 of which are coming on the offensive end — good enough for 28th in the nation. Memphis’ 41.5 rebounds per game rank 55th.
Getting healthier
Hardaway said he expects Landers Nolley II and Damion Baugh back in the lineup against Auburn.
Baugh was held out of Tuesday’s win over Mississippi Valley State due to an aching back, and Nolley was lifted in the first half after he came down hard on the court following a flagrant foul. Hardaway said Nolley did not practice Thursday, but all signs point toward him being ready Saturday.
Hardaway said he hopes Nolley, who leads the team in scoring (15.0), and Jeffries (11.8) are getting closer to feeding off each other.
“If those two guys are hitting shots, then we’re going to get closer to 80-90 points a game,” Hardaway said. “When those two guys are on, we’re tough to beat.”
jason.munz@commercialappeal. com or on Twitter @munzly.