Three things to monitor when Memphis meets Lemoyne-owen
The unveiling of perhaps the most promising Memphis basketball team in more than a decade is here. The Tigers are set to face Lemoyne-owen on Sunday (4 p.m., ESPN+) at Fedexforum in exhibition fashion. It will be the first time the reigning No. 1 recruiting class in the country — along with Memphis’ trio of transfers and those it brought back from the NIT championship team — faces anyone other than their own teammates since convening in the offseason.
Tigers coach Penny Hardaway, who met with members of the media Friday, said there will be specific things he’s looking for against Lemoyneowen: offensive execution and how his players handle running the team’s shell defense.
“It’s going to be one of those games where we’re going to be judging really hard, because we challenged the guys to carry over what we teach,” Hardaway said.
Beyond that, here are three things worth monitoring when the Tigers get on the court against the Magicians.
Memphis basketball’s starting lineup and rotation
Memphis, ranked No. 12 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, has one of the deepest rosters in the country. Which makes decisions like a starting five and who makes the cut for the nine- or 10-man rotation Hardaway still insists he will abide by quite difficult.
While Hardaway did not reveal which players will make up Sunday’s starting lineup or which ones will see the most minutes, he did drop a few hints about what the biggest factors in his decision-making process will be.
“What we’re doing, we’re interchanging lineups a lot (in practice),”
said Hardaway, who added he expects to have his entire roster available. “Trying to see who works well together. It’s really gonna be about chemistry over talent, if I can say that, in the starting lineup. It might not be our best five as far as talent. It’s going to be the best team chemistry in that starting five. (But) I think I’m still figuring it out because we just started really thinking about a lineup (Thursday), and it’s gonna change today.”
Among the team’s returning players, Landers Nolley II, Deandre Williams and Lester Quinones were the only Tigers to start more than 20 games in 2020-21.
Hardaway also reiterated his intention to keep the rotation to nine or 10 players.
“That’s the way this is gonna work now,” he said. “We don’t have time to be playing around. The top nine or 10 guys are gonna play – the guys we see that are able to, for a large majority of the game, be effective in the things we’re trying to do.”
Emoni Bates’ role for Memphis basketball
Hardaway has spent much of the preseason talking up the likelihood that 6foot-9 freshman Emoni Bates will see the majority of his playing time at the point guard position.
He seems to have softened his stance on that recently. Bates, who generated as much or more hype of any recruit in the country over the past decade, made his name as an elite scorer. Bates has expressed a desire to become a more wellrounded player who wants to showcase his ability to run an offense and be a skilled facilitator.
Hardaway still plans to use Bates as a point guard — just maybe not as much as he initially thought he would.
“In the beginning, I would’ve said the majority of his minutes are going to be at the 1,” Hardaway said. “But, here lately, he’s kind of been drifting more over to the 2. Which I think is good for him to get to know the college system early and maybe later he’ll want to play at the 1 more. But I think for him to be the most effective, we need him to do both. So, it might be split or a little more at the 2. But he’s gonna start with the ball in his hands, probably.”
Hardaway added Alex Lomax and
Earl Timberlake are in line to assume point guard responsibilities when Bates is lined up somewhere else.
Can Memphis basketball cut down on turnovers?
Memphis’ days of being one of the most careless offenses in the country might be nearing an end, according to Hardaway.
The Tigers ranked 343rd in non-steal turnover percentage last season. Two seasons ago, Hardaway’s team committed 15 turnovers in its first exhibition game against Christian Brothers, which forced just 13.8 per game that season.
The turnover issue was viewed as one of the primary reasons why Memphis failed to reach the NCAA Tournament last season.
“You don’t want to lead the conference in turnovers anymore,” Hardaway said. “I think it just (came) from guys trying to do too much, so I think we’re simplifying it this year. The turnovers have been way down in practice, which is a good sign. It shows we have adjusted properly.”
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.