One last implosion
Tigers cap a confounding season with loss to Wichita State
FORT WORTH, Texas — No tears were shed, no water bottles thrown.
Not like in years past, when emotions gushed from faces of the Memphis basketball program, and coach Penny Hardaway’s frustrations boiled over in times of crisis.
When the few seconds left on the clock expired Thursday in the AAC tournament game, the harsh outcome of so many blown opportunities finally came home to roost.
Not unlike the way this Memphis team perhaps will be remembered, the moment — while disappointing — lacked much in the way of raw, palpable feeling. In this time and intersection of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness eras, the vibe cloaking the first-round 71-65 loss to Wichita State felt more transactional than reactional.
Hardaway was composed and spoke plainly during the postgame news conference, lamenting everything from the “devastating” season-ending injury Caleb Mills suffered to building a team geared more toward scoring points than preventing them from being scored.
Nae’qwan Tomlin and David Jones — the Memphis players made available to the media following the loss — sat mostly silent, sporting blank, thousand-yard stares for most of the dozen minutes allotted to reporters.
Hardaway was asked at one point why Memphis, knowing its albeit slim NCAA tournament hopes were on the line, came out flat against Wichita State, which took a 14-9 lead into the first media timeout.
“You’ll have to talk to the players. I don’t know. You want to hear from them,” Hardaway said before looking toward Tomlin and Jones. “He wants to know how the start of the game, why we were so flat.” “I don’t know,” Tomlin said. Hardaway rued, as he has time and again throughout this season, the fact that the team was fully prepared for everything the Shockers did Thursday.
“All we needed was the heart and the effort into it,” he said.
A season that not all that long ago was hailed as Hardaway’s big breakthrough somewhere along the way crumpled. The Tigers, once 15-2 and ranked 10th in the Associated Press Top 25 poll in mid-january, imploded after Mills, whom Hardaway regarded as the team’s glue, got hurt on Jan. 4.
But against Wichita State on Thursday, there was no obvious breaking point. Memphis’ offense devolved into isolation ball or was beset by poor shot selection. Its defense waited too long to pin its ears back and folded almost as soon as the tide turned.
Hardaway, who has faced more criticism this season than he ever has as the sixth-year coach of his alma mater, let it be known that he is ready for a break.
“No, sir,” he said when asked whether he plans to accept an NIT bid should an invitation be extended. “I’m not accepting any invitations.”
The common thread during Hardaway’s news conference was directed toward the future. More specifically, how he expects to ensure such a catastrophe never happens again.
To him, the biggest thing is the overall mindset of his program. He circled back to the Tigers’ apparent approach to their matchup with Wichita State, a team they had beaten twice in the regular season.
“We came out like we had another game tomorrow,” Hardaway said. “That’s not Memphis basketball.”
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.