We’re in Year 3 of Hardaway and it’s not better
The comment was either depressingly accurate or incredibly revealing.
But either way, it wasn't good to hear after Memphis basketball's first loss of 2021 felt like an homage to their last loss of 2020.
“We're not ready to win those types of games yet,” coach Penny Hardaway said after the Tigers' 58-57 setback at Tulsa on Sunday afternoon.
Well, why the heck can't Memphis beat a decent-but-not-great Tulsa team at this point? And when will it be able to again?
We're in Year Three of the Hardaway era, and it's not getting better. Even worse: Hardaway is right.
They aren't ready to beat Tulsa, and the coach might not know how to fix it.
How else to explain what's unfolding on the court this season?
That's what should concern fans more than another loss. This loss to Tulsa was scary because it looked and felt the same as so many other losses.
The anemic offense, the terrible turnovers, the stout defense, the confusing coaching decisions and the inexplicable mistakes down the stretch, it all carried over during those 19 days Memphis went between games because of COVID-19 issues at Temple, UCF and SMU.
It all seemed right out of the playbook the Tigers perfected over the past couple years. It's about the closest thing they have to an identity 11 games into this season that increasingly appears headed nowhere fast.
Wasn't that the whole point of hiring Hardaway? To rescue a program that lost its way during the end of Josh Pastner's tenure and the two years Tubby Smith patrolled the Fedexforum sideline.
Hardaway injected life back into stands and in the community his first two years. But he sounded just like his predecessors Sunday trying to explain an offense that only looks coherent and cohesive in brief spurts, a trend that certainly didn't change at Tulsa.
“Our shooters just need to make shots,” Hardaway said. “The pressure is on these guys to make shots.”
Here's the first problem: Shooters who don't make shots aren't actually shooters. And the pressure is on Hardaway because he's the one who recruited these players. He's the one who must figure out how to get them shots they can make.
Here's the second problem: As poorly as Memphis shot the ball Sunday, that wasn't really the problem.
Given how well the Tigers play defense, they could win some of these rock fights. But to play this style, to win games playing in the mud like the Grit and Grind Grizzlies did last decade,
Memphis can't be so careless.
The Tigers can't be the second-worst free throw shooting team in the conference. They can't turn the ball over on 35% of their possessions, en route to a season-high 21 giveaways, like they did at Tulsa.
This sort of sloppiness has been a theme throughout this season and last year, and the final 12 minutes Sunday was this maddening Memphis team in a nutshell.
The Tigers showed glimpses of hope against Tulsa's matchup zone for about 30 minutes, with their veteran transfers Landers Nolley II and Deandre Williams providing a scoring boost. Their defense was treating Tulsa like a boa constrictor treats a mouse.
Williams, however, picked up his fourth foul with 11:59 to go and Memphis responded by falling completely off the rails.
It went more than nine minutes without a field goal, and Tulsa's 9-0 run to grab a lead it never relinquished was reminiscent of the way it closed out a win at Fedexforum last month.
The timing of Sunday's surge provided Memphis with four minutes to mount a comeback. It seemed possible when Lester Quinones hit a 3-pointer to cut Tulsa's lead to 58-56 with 1:11 to go. What ensued was a textbook example of a team that still lacks situational awareness.
Alex Lomax committed a foul while trapping a Tulsa ball-handler 40 feet from the basket when Memphis was in the bonus. Quinones compounded the error by throwing the ball away when the Tigers got it back.
They still had a chance to tie the score on their final possession as the clock ticked under 15 seconds. But Lomax drove the ball toward the corner, picked up his dribble, threw an awkward pass to Nolley, who then missed an awkward 3-pointer. Williams grabbed the rebound, but shot a layup with three seconds left instead of finding a teammate for another game-tying 3-point attempt.
All the while during this chaotic 11second sequence, Hardaway elected not to use either of his two remaining timeouts. After the game, Hardaway said he considered it but initially saw Quinones pop open on the other side of the floor from Lomax, and then Nolley seemed to get enough of an opening to shoot.
“We had what we wanted and we didn't choose the right option,” Hardaway said.
But this isn't what anyone wanted. Not Hardaway.
Not the players. Not the fans. Not the university.
This is a team stuck in place – good enough on defense to be competitive against anyone on its schedule and bad enough at everything else to leave you disappointed.
Memphis isn't ready to beat Tulsa yet. It's sad but true.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto