Confident Tigers set for UCF showdown
When Memphis basketball tips off at UCF on Tuesday (8 p.m., ESPNU), so begins a gauntlet-like January for the Tigers.
Memphis (6-4, 2-1 AAC) is scheduled to play six games in a shade over three weeks, four of them coming on the road, starting with the Knights. If the Tigers' game at Temple is rescheduled for this month, it makes Memphis' month even busier. Saturday's game against the Owls was postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests and ensuing contact tracing protocol that put the program on pause.
The Tigers will head to Orlando with some confidence and momentum after battling back from a 12-point deficit with under 10 minutes to play to beat South Florida on Tuesday.
“I hope that sparks something on this team,” sophomore guard Lester Quinones said. “I feel like those last six minutes was the kind of team nobody's seen all year. Everybody was scrapping. Everybody was fighting. Everybody was just communicating and talking on defense. We were executing on offense. I hope that starts a spark this season for us to just take off from here and really lock in and be the team everybody's expecting us to be.”
The Tigers were outspoken through the first month about the fact that some players have been slow to embrace the concept of playing together and playing to win. Junior forward Deandre Williams alluded to as much prior to Tuesday's win.
“Guys can get in their own little bubble when things aren't going right,” Williams said. “I feel like if we stay more locked in to the present and what's going on in the game, I feel like no team can beat us. We're very talented. That ain't the problem. It's just making sure we execute together, keep our head up and be a team and be together.”
Williams later said Memphis made progress in that area during the weeklong layoff between the home loss to Tulsa and the game against USF. And it
showed.
The Tigers banded together to hold the Bulls to 4-of-9 shooting from the field over the final 10 minutes. They unified to force nine USF turnovers in less than eight minutes. They became more cohesive, with a 9-of-16 shooting effort (3-of-7 from three) and only three turnovers (Memphis committed 12 over the previous 30 minutes). They were 3for-4 from the free throw line after going 3-for-6 before that.
Quinones, the team’s fourth-leading scorer (10.4) and third-leading rebounder (5.7), said it can be frustrating to look back on the way the season has gone. But if the Tigers apply coach Penny Hardaway’s message of “next-play mentality” to the season as a whole, it would only help.
“Coach tells us this is the most talented team he’s ever coached,” Quinones said.
“With the talent level we have, we should definitely be playing way better and we shouldn’t have lost the games we lost. But I feel like coach has us with this next-play mentality. I feel like all that stuff is behind us now. We’re just moving forward from those last six minutes we just played (and) moving forward from there.
“We’re going to be a way better team. We’re going to be way more disciplined (because) everybody’s just kind of starting to gel together.”
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.