Was this season a success or failure?
Will Tigers’ disappointing ending spoil entire body of work?
A conference championship.
A win over the No. 1-ranked team in the country for the first time in program history, the most wins in nearly a decade and one of the best individual seasons by any Memphis basketball player – in Kendric Davis.
On the other hand, a season filled with so many highs came to a bitter halt last week when the Tigers were upset by FAU, 66-65, at the NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio. A yellow-brick-roadlike path to a juicy Sweet 16 game (that would have been against Tennessee at Madison Square Garden, as it turned out) was wide open.
Had it overcome the Owls’ clutch play, the officiating crew’s questionable calls and its own on- and off-court issues, Penny Hardaway’s team would have been heavy favorites to end Fairleigh Dickinson’s Cinderella story and advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009. But that blend of assorted obstacles was a task too tall for these Tigers. So, it ends a season and sparks what might be one of the more polarizing glass-half-full versus glass-halfempty debates the program has seen in recent memory.
Will the 2022-23 season be remembered as a success or a failure? Once the painful sting of the abrupt, disappointing ending subsides, will the big picture feature enough good that it will eventually outweigh the crushing conclusion?
In the eyes of the Tigers, answering those questions is a challenging reconciliation process – at least in the moment. Late Friday, Hardaway especially was having difficulty getting over the very recent finality of Memphis’ loss.
“We just came up short, man,” he said. “We had a good season – a good-togreat season. But it ended in a firstround knockout, and that makes it way more sour for me. That’s just how I look at it.”
Last week’s loss marked the last time for many in a Memphis uniform. Davis, Deandre Williams, Alex Lomax, Elijah Mccadden and Damaria Franklin have each exhausted their collegiate eligibility. Other Tigers may choose to transfer. Others may not and still wind up in the transfer portal. And others still may decide the time is right to pursue professional basketball opportunities.
For Lomax, this season was the ultimate endurance trial. Following offseason ankle surgery, he openly accepted a shift in role (when Davis was brought in) in exchange for a shot at greater team glory. He battled through lingering ankle issues and harsh criticism from fans to become one of the country’s best in steals this season. Then, in January, Lomax tore his groin during a game at UCF. It could have ended his playing career at Memphis. But he returned in less than six weeks and gave the Tigers valuable minutes in some big games.
Even though his time as a Tigers player has come to an end at sixth all-time in steals (218) and eighth in program history in assists (488), Lomax took a step back to evaluate both the past and the future.
“It’s not a season of defeat,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re still champs. The program is still on track to doing things how we want. We’re gonna keep growing. Keep building.”
The centerpiece of this season’s version of the Tigers, Davis’ senior campaign will go down as one of the most productive ever at Memphis. His 744 points are second-most in single-season history, trailing only Dajuan Wagner’s 762. The former SMU star established a new American Athletic Conference record for scoring, assists and free throws while leading the Tigers to a 26-9 record – the most wins since the 2012-13 season.
Davis led the league and is currently tied for eighth in the country with 21.9 points per game, the highest average by a Tiger since Hardaway’s 22.8 in 1992-93 and the fifth-most in program history (behind only Larry Finch, Hardaway and Win Wilfong).
Davis was the poster child for Hardaway’s shift in roster construction strategy. In his first four seasons as coach, Hardaway leaned into loading up on high-profile high schoolers, landing the No. 1-ranked recruiting class in the country twice in three seasons. But he eschewed that approach last offseason, opting instead to land Davis out of the transfer portal and build the Tigers around him with a combination of returners and other transfers.
As such, there wasn’t the same buzz around this Memphis team as in years past. Which is part of what made its run all the more special, according to Davis.
“Didn’t nobody think we was gonna do this,” he said. “We didn’t have the five-stars. We didn’t have all the hype. We didn’t have the Memphis Madness. But I think we had a damn good year.”
“We’re going in the right direction,” said Hardaway. “From no tournament to NIT championship to second round of the NCAA, then getting back here with the season we’ve had. We’re starting to get some traction on making the NCAA Tournament. You just never know what year it’s gonna actually turn. But I’m happy with where we’re going.”
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.