Talk with mom ends Lawson’s slump
University of Memphis freshman Dedric Lawson couldn’t hold back a laugh as senior teammate Ricky Tarrant Jr. tried to distract him from behind the cameras Monday during a media session at the Finch Center.
Just four days earlier, Lawson, Tarrant and senior Shaq Goodwin had looked sick and embarrassed having to answer questions about a 20-point home loss to Connecticut. But the mood around the Finch Center was considerably lighter Monday with the Tigers coming off a 63-59 win over Cincinnati on Saturday at FedExForum that snapped a two-game losing skid and appears to have restored some of their confidence.
“Man, that was a big win for the city because Memphis and Cincinnati (are) rivals. And it’s good for us moving forward,” said Lawson, who broke out of a two-game slump against Cincinnati with 20 points and 11 rebounds. It was Lawson’s ninth double-double of the season, tying him with David Vaughn and Sylvester Gray for the third-most by a Tigers freshman.
“It’s just good to win a close game, just showing guys that we can do it, we can play with those guys who are supposed to be at the elite level,” Lawson said. “We’re just glad to win altogether as a team.”
Lawson said he didn’t do anything differently in
preparation for Cincinnati after going 4 of 20 from the field and scoring a combined 13 points in Memphis’ previous two games against SMU and UConn. The long-armed, 6-foot9 stretch forward had 14 points and six rebounds by halftime against Cincinnati and seemed to play with more determination and toughness than he had early in games recently.
A talk with mom might have helped in that.
“The next day (after the loss to UConn), my mom texted me and told me to call her when I got out of class,” Lawson said. “She (told) me the normal things. She said, ‘You had a bad game. Get over it. You’re in a little slump. Get over it, and then go out the next game and just play as hard as you can.’
“It’s always tough love from my mom. My mom can be tougher on me than my dad, really.”
Memphis (14 -9, 5 -5 American Athletic Conference) might want to keep mom in Lawson’s ear then as it prepares to face Houston (16-7, 6-5) on Wednesday at Hof heinz Pavilion.
With three opponents coming up after Houston ranked 162nd or worse at Kenpom.com (in Tulane, UCF and South Florida), Memphis could put together a nice winning streak over the next two weeks if it can earn just its second road win of the season Wednesday against the Cougars — one of two teams the Tigers will face just once in AAC play this season (the other is Tulsa on Feb. 28 at FedEx-Forum).
Houston is 12-2 at home this season under secondyear coach Kelvin Sampson, whose high-octane Cougars rank second in the AAC in scoring offense (77.6 points per game) and could have the conference’s leading scorer, 6 -2 sophomore guard Rob Gray Jr. (17. 3 ppg), back from an ankle injury Wednesday that’s sidelined him the last two games. Without him, Houston beat No. 16 SMU 71-68 at home last Monday and lost 77-63 at Tulsa on Sunday.
“First of a ll, (Sampson) is a great coach. Secondly, they’ve got a team that’s dangerous because they can really score,” coach Josh Pastner said. “They’ve got the leading scorer in the league in Gray. (Senior forward Devonta) Pollard can be a matchup problem. (Junior guard Damyean) Dotson can flat-out shoot the ball. (Freshman guard) Galen Robinson, I remember watching his dad in high school, a nd he’s quick as a cat. They’ve got (junior forward) Chicken Knowles (and) the kid that transferred from Purdue, (junior g uard) Ronnie Johnson. (Senior guard LeRon) Barnes comes in.
“They ’ve got good talent. The reason why they’ve beat good teams is because they’ve got good players.”