Here are 3 keys for Memphis basketball to win AAC Tournament championship,
On the day before the Memphis basketball team left for the American Athletic Conference Tournament, coach Penny Hardaway said what so many around here have been saying this week. Ever since the Tigers fell one lucky, half-court heave from knocking off Houston.
“We have the ability to beat anybody,” Hardaway said. “It’s a great feeling to know you can go to a tournament and win every game.”
But why do so many of us feel this way?
Why does the hope for a Memphis postseason run feel so much more reasonable than recent years, when the Tigers were also faced with the prospect
of likely needing to win the conference tournament to make the NCAA Tournament?
Beyond the straightforward and obvious answer that the Tigers looked like a totally different team over the final 11 games when compared to the group that stumbled through the first 11.
Here’s my answer, and the answer Hardaway gave, too: It’s because Memphis has a historically good defense. It’s playing defense like some of the best Memphis teams of all-time, the ones that went all the way to the Final Four.
“Defense travels,” Hardaway said, “and our defensive presence and our intensity and what we bring to the table defensively, that’s going to hold us down for three days.”
Hardaway probably gets too much blame for the Tigers’ inconsistent offense, considering a lot of their issues
are tied to inexplicable turnovers. He also probably doesn’t get enough credit for how remarkable Memphis has been defensively the past two seasons.
The statistics, frankly, are stunning when studied through the lens of previous teams.
The Tigers are nearly three points better per 100 possessions than last season’s team, which led the country in defensive field goal percentage. They are allowing just 62.3 points per game, which is better than all but two Memphis teams during the shot clock era.
That figure dropped to 60.8 points over the past 11 games, when the Tigers turned their season around. If they did that over an entire season, it would be the second-fewest points Memphis has allowed in the shot clock era.
Memphis has also given up fewer than 75 points in all but one game this season (against Western Kentucky in South Dakota). If that holds through, it would be the first time the program has allowed 75 or more points just one time since the 1951-52 campaign.
Over the past two years, the Tigers are allowing an average of 63.6 points. There are only three other two-year spans in which Memphis gave up fewer points per game – 1983-84 and 1984-85, 2006-07 and 2007-08, and 2007-08 and 2008-09.
What do those years have in common? They each featured a team that went to the Final Four.
None of this is meant to predict this Memphis team will make the Final Four. If the NCAA Tournament started today, the Tigers would likely be on the outside looking in because they turn the ball over too much, they miss too many free throws and they don’t have a quality nonconference win on their résumé.
But it does suggest why this group is perhaps better positioned than most other bubble teams to win three games in three days in Fort Worth, and it suggests how they’ll pull it off.
All the more impressive is the way Memphis plays defense under Hardaway this season. The Tigers deploy multiple full-court presses and traps. They play man-to-man defense and they play zone, and they switch between the two frequently.
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson called them the toughest defense the Cougars had to prepare for this season. Memphis then held Houston to its worst shooting performance (36.7%) since the calendar changed to 2021 last weekend.
This is, Hardaway said, the closest representation to how he wants to play over the long haul during his coaching tenure at Memphis.
“I didn’t allow Jeremiah (Martin) and that (2018-19) team to fully press. That’s been who I am,” Hardaway said. “Last year’s team didn’t really get engulfed into it because Lester (Quinones) and Precious (Achiuwa) and Boogie (Ellis) had never really played that style, so I kind of held back on it. This year, I just said I was going to go all-in on what I wanted.”
He went on the credit the 19-day pause Memphis went through in January, when it was still permitted to practice because the COVID-19 issues had to do with the opponents that were on the schedule at the time. That’s when Hardaway installed the complete version of this organized chaos.
The end of that pause coincided with the beginning of this team’s transformation, from an underachieving outfit to one that inspires confidence and hope heading into the conference tournament. Defense, as the football saying goes, wins championships. But defense, in this case, might just be the Tigers’ ticket to finally putting their Selection Sunday misery behind them.
NASHVILLE – Iverson Molinar scored eight of his 21 points in the final 3:07 to erase a five-point deficit and Mississippi State held off Kentucky 7473 on Thursday in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Mississippi State made just 3 of 14 from 3-point range until Molinar sank 3s on two straight possessions to retake the lead at 72-71 – after leading by as many as 15 earlier in half. He had a 3 roll off on their next possession and Olivier Sarr gave Kentucky a 73-72 lead at 1:18.
Molinar, an 81% free-throw shooter, made two with 7.1 seconds left for a onepoint lead. Davion Mintz dribbled it down the court and found a hot-shooting Dontaie Allen on the wing but the shot bounced off the rim.
Mississippi State (15-13) advances to face top-seeded and No. 6 ranked Alabama on Friday. The Bulldogs lost both of the regular-season meetings, by eight and five points.
Kentucky (9-16) will not play in the NCAA Tournament, along with Duke – marking the first time both programs missed it in the same year since 1976.
Mississippi State dominated the inside in the first half, outscoring Kentucky 36-12 in the paint and outrebounding them 29-15. Six-foot-11 senior Abdul Ado scored 12 first-half points, and forward Tolu Smith had nine points and seven rebounds. Ado made all six of his shots as the Bulldogs shot 57.6% while holding Kentucky to 32.4%.
But Allen, a freshman, led Kentucky’s second-half comeback with 20 of his 23 points and five of his six 3-pointers.
Allen sank his sixth 3-pointer with 6:22 remaining to give Kentucky its first lead of the game at 65-64, capping a 12-2 run. And a minute later, Mintz made his fourth, following an offensive rebound, to make it 71-66.
Kentucky made seven of its first 11 3pointers of the second half.
Smith finished with 13 points and 10
rebounds, and Ado added 12 points and nine rebounds for Mississippi State. D.J. Stewart had nine points, seven rebounds and 10 assists.
Mintz had 16 points and eight assists and Sarr added 14 points for Kentucky. Terrence Clarke, a top-10 national recruit in the 2020 class, played in his first game sine Dec. 26 due to an injury
and scored two points in 10 minutes.
Allen scored a career-high 23 points with seven 3-pointers in the only regular-season meeting between the teams – a 78-73 double-overtime victory for Kentucky on Jan. 2. Kentucky coach John Calipari was ejected after being issued consecutive technical fouls with 9:04 left in regulation
On Monday, March 1, 2021, Patrick Brent Wilson - devoted husband, dog father, son, brother, uncle and friend - left this earth at the age of 38. Everyone was drawn to Brent and became friends with him from the moment they first met. He was smart, funny and incredibly thoughtful, and loved nothing more than doing for others, watching the Memphis Tigers and spending quality time with his wife, Beth, and their dog, Baxter.
A native of Bartlett, Brent attended The University of Memphis, where he met his wife 19 years ago and received a degree in business administration. It served him well, as he had a successful career in sales for the last 15 years.
Brent leaves behind a lifetime of incredible memories - full of laughter and thoughtful gestures - along with family and friends that span the globe. He was so loved, because he loved so big. Brent showed that love for others through cooking and acts of service, and he never asked for or wanted anything in return.
Brent will be forever remembered by his wife of nearly 14 years, Beth, brother Ben (Christina), sister Brittney (Frank), brother Tyler (Marsha), sister Taylor (Blake), father-in-law Fred, mother-in-law Sue (Tony), sister-in-law Laura (Cary), sister-inlaw Ashley (Ian), and father, Gary (Cindy). He is also survived by six nieces and five nephews, along with many friends’ children, who only knew him as Uncle Brent.
A celebration of Brent’s life will be held at 10 a.m., on Monday, March 15, at Memphis Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens, 3700 N. Germantown Pkwy, Bartlett, with Pastor Eddie Davis officiating.
Brent will be dearly missed by his family and friends, but he will never be forgotten. In lieu of flowers, his wife asked that donations in memory of Brent be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.