AAC releases Memphis’ ‘18-19 league opponents
The Memphis men’s basketball team will travel to Wichita State for the first time in more than 40 years and get home games against all but one of the American Athletic Conference’s top 10 teams from a year ago as part of its 2018-19 schedule.
The AAC announced conference opponents for each of its men’s basketball programs Thursday morning and it provided a glimpse into the expectations league officials have for new coach Penny Hardaway’s first campaign.
Memphis will have home-andhome matchups against defending AAC champion Cincinnati, trendy 2018-19 preseason favorite USC and Wichita State, which has qualified for the NCAA tournament in seven-consecutive seasons.
This will mark the Tigers’ first road game at Wichita State since Jan. 8, 1976. Memphis only played the Shockers at FedExForum last season, which was Wichita State’s first year in the AAC.
Memphis will also have homeand-home league games against Temple, Tulsa, ECU and Tulane. As part of the AAC’s unbalanced schedule, the Tigers will play Houston and USF only on the road. They will only take on UConn and SMU at FedExForum.
It’s the first time since the AAC was formed ahead of the 2013-14 season that Memphis and UConn will play one another just once.
Dates and times for the conference schedule will be announced in the future. Like last year, Memphis will play 18 league games against AAC teams.
All but two of the Tigers’ non conference games are also known at this point.
Memphis will travel to LSU on Nov. 13 for the second game of a home-andhome series that began last season. The Tigers are also scheduled to face Texas Tech in Miami on Dec. 1. Their marquee home non conference game will be against Tennessee at FedExForum on Dec. 15.
In addition, Memphis will participate in the Advocare Invitational in Orlando over the Thanksgiving holiday. Defending national champion Villanova, Florida State, LSU, Oklahoma State, UAB, Charleston and Canisius are also in the field.
Other home non conference games include UAB, South Dakota State, Yale, Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State.
Memphis is coming off a 21-13 season in 2017-18 in which it finished in fifth place in the AAC regular season standings. The Tigers then advanced to the AAC tournament semifinals.
They return their top four leading scorers from that team with seniors Jeremiah Martin, Kyvon Davenport, Mike Parks Jr. and Kareem Brewton Jr. all back in the fold. The hiring of Hardaway in March also led to a late recruiting surge for the program. Memphis’ 2018 recruiting class is ranked No. 19 in the country by Rivals.