No Wiseman just fine for No. 9 Tigers
Memphis leaning on four freshmen in 10-game streak
Memphis is showing there’s much more to its heralded freshman class than departed center James Wiseman.
He played just three games for Memphis before leaving school to prepare for the NBA draft, where the 7-foot-1 center might be the first player selected. But the ninthranked Tigers are doing just fine without him so far.
Memphis (12-1) is undefeated without Wiseman and has reeled off 10 consecutive victories. The Tigers have their highest ranking since reaching the No. 8 spot in November 2011 as they chase their first NCAA tournament berth in five years.
“We’ve just been staying together,” freshman forward D.J. Jeffries said. “We’ve been coming in and staying as a family. Losing James is hard, but he’s gone now so we’ve got to stick together, keep winning and keep doing what we’re doing, and we’ll be good.”
Memphis is winning consistently with a starting five that features four freshmen: Jeffries, forward Precious Achiuwa and guards Boogie Ellis and Damion Baugh.
Freshman guard Lester Quinones was in the starting lineup earlier this season but has come off the bench in the two games since returning from a broken right hand. Quinones has averaged 14.5 points in the two games since his return.
This inexperienced roster has remained focused amid all the distractions surrounding Wiseman’s brief and tumultuous stay.
When the NCAA ruled Wiseman was likely ineligible, he played the season opener only after his lawyer obtained a temporary restraining order less than an hour before tipoff. Wiseman later was suspended 12 games because the NCAA determined Memphis coach Penny Hardaway was acting as a booster when he paid the prospect’s family $11,500 to assist in a move from Nashville to Memphis in 2017. The payment occurred before Hardaway started coaching Memphis.
Wiseman would have been eligible to return Jan. 12 at South Florida, but he instead announced Dec. 19 in an Instagram post that he had left school to begin focusing on his pro career.
“I think we’ve done a good job of kind of not making it a focal point with us,” Hardaway said. “Of course, they read it in social media and things of that nature and we were in the midst of it — we were in the storm of it — but we never really talked about it a lot. We just kind of moved on, business as usual, let’s get to work and let’s keep playing. Lucky for us, we were winning during those storms.”
Rutgers
Women’s coach C. Vivian Stringer has offered her condolences to the family of late radio personality Don Imus, who used a racial slur to describe the Scarlet Knights in 2007 after the team lost the national championship game to Tennessee.
Imus died at the age of 79 last week of complications from lung disease. Stringer prepared a statement for her news conference after a 66-56 loss Tuesday to Indiana addressing the disc jockey’s passing.
“The Rutgers family has found peace through the years, and we are proud of our response to hateful words spoken years ago,” the statement said. “We are proud of the positive change it has brought about and the lesson that came with it — women and African Americans should be treated with respect, not only in the media, but in all walks of life. It is our prayer that Don finds eternal peace in his passing and we wish his family strength.”
Stringer said she hasn’t thought much about Imus since forgiving him years ago. She said she met with Imus after he used the slur on his radio show and he told her he “didn’t come to save his job but to save his soul. That’s what he said, and he felt remorse for the words he said.”
West Virginia
Tynice Martin scored 19 points, Kysre Gondrezick added 14 and No. 19 West Virginia (10-1) beat Cornell (6-6), 68-62, at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, W.Va. Kari Niblack added 10 points for West Virginia, which has wins against No. 10 Mississippi State, 19th-ranked Michigan State, and Syracuse this season. The Mountaineers lone loss was to Creighton (10-3). Samantha Widmann led Cornell with 21 points.
Penn State
The Lady Lions struggled to find an offensive rhythm and fell to Michigan (10-3, 1-1 Big Ten), 82-48, in a New Year’s Eve game in Ann Arbor, Mich. Senior Siyeh Frazier and junior Kamaria McDaniel led Penn State (6-7, 0-2) with a game-high 16 points apiece.