Hardaway, Wichita State both concerned of Tigers
On the eve of what could be a pivotal matchup for Memphis and Wichita State, Penny Hardaway and interim Shockers coach Isaac Brown are worried about the same thing: the Tigers.
Hardaway is concerned by his team's continued demonstration of the same problems. Three-point and freethrow shooting. Turnovers. Players straying from the game plan in crunch time. Whenever the Tigers (6-5, 2-2 AAC) have lost in the past two seasons, one or more of these things have been largely to blame.
"(So) we have to worry about ourselves," Hardaway said ahead of Thursday's 6 p.m. tip-off at Fedexforum (ESPN2), where approximately 3,500 fans will be permitted to attend.
On the flip side, the Shockers (8-3, 4-1) are also uneasy about the Tigers — for different reasons. Where Hardaway sees the need for improvement, Brown sees a team that poses a viable threat. Brown took over when former Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall resigned amid an internal investigation into widespread allegations of physical and verbal abuse.
“We'll see the best Memphis team that has played this year,” Brown told reporters Wednesday. “They're the most talented team in the league. They have great size. They have a lot of talented one-on-one guys. We'll have to do a good job of taking care of the basketball, rebounding at a high level and defending at a high level.”
Brown is honing in on ball security and rebounding because Memphis has proven to be an elite defensive team and a top-tier rebounding club. The Tigers are ranked 12th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, 31st in turnovers forced per game (16.7) and are tied for 26th with 40.9 rebounds per game. But defending against Memphis' offense has not given many teams much trouble.
The Tigers are 270th in the nation in field goal percentage (41.8) and 205th in points per game (70.7). Which is precisely why Hardaway has chosen to spend "95%" of the team's preparation time working to better itself.
“It's all about us right now,” said junior guard Alex Lomax. “The guys that's in the locker room, the game plans and us just being in the right spots at the right time. Just within these last couple days, we've been working on a lot of motion, a lot of passing and cutting, a lot of guys coming up, setting good screens, better spacing.”
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.