Tigers get why coach was upset
Josh Minott's reaction told the story.
Memphis basketball's freshman wing was seated next to junior Lester Quinones in front of a group of media members less than 15 minutes after their team escaped Fedexforum with a 67-64 win over Tulsa. One of their teammates, Earl Timberlake, was already back on the court, shooting free throws as some fans were still making their way toward the exit.
Their coach, Penny Hardaway, had already fulfilled his press obligations and left – a hurried departure from his usual postgame routine, which almost always consists of at least 15 minutes (sometimes 30 or more) of addressing the team and collecting his thoughts before fielding questions from reporters. The latter, most often, lasts anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes.
Not on this night. Hardaway, who fielded and answered 17 questions in under four minutes and hardly said anything to his team before that, was in no mood to drag things out. So, one of the questions posed to Quinones was whether the team could sense their coach was upset. Minott's response – raised eyebrows followed by a head nod – was all the confirmation anyone needed.
But Quinones answered the question anyway.
“Uh, yeah, of course,” Quinones began. “Because it's like, we kind of took this game personal going into it. So, it's like, coming into this game, he kind of wanted to make more of a statement, as far as score-wise."
After all, the third-year guard was in Tulsa two years ago when the Golden Hurricane embarrassed the Tigers with an 80-40 win. He was there last season when Frank Haith's team, which finished the season 11-12, upset Memphis twice. Quinones and most everyone else who played in Tuesday's game have some history with what's been Memphis' kryptonite the past couple of seasons. Which is part of what made Hardaway's demeanor so easy for them to understand.
Even Minott, who wasn't around for those three losses (or Tulsa's 16point win over Hardaway and Co. in 2019), knew why Tuesday's game meant so much to Hardaway. And why he was in such a hurry to put some distance between himself and what he'd just witnessed: the 10-0 hole the Tigers dug over the first five
minutes and the near squandering of an 18-point lead with less than 16 minutes left to play (and a nine-point lead with under three minutes remaining).
“I'm a freshman, so I haven't really been here for the rivalry with Tulsa, but I do kind of comprehend the history we have with them,” he said. “This wasn't the statement he wanted to make. A game like that, you're supposed to blow them out by 40 and be like, ‘Yo, we can do it, too.' When you're up 18 with 15 minutes left in the game, you're supposed to blow them out by 30 and be like, ‘Yo, this is what we got now.' You know, ‘Bump that past stuff, we're here now and we can do it, too.'”
But that's not what happened. Instead, Tulsa's Jeriah Horne, Sam Griffin and Rey Idowu combined to score the Golden Hurricane's final 30 points, which was largely made up of five 3-pointers and nine made free throws over the final 10:06. Instead, the 12,000-plus on hand were kept on the edges of their proverbial seats until Darien Jackson's lastsecond, half court-ish heave to send the game into overtime clanged off the rim.
Instead, Memphis – which finished the game with exactly three scholarship players because two Tigers (Minott and Malcolm Dandridge) fouled out, another one (Deandre Williams) left the game with an injury and four others (Jalen Duren, Emoni Bates, Alex Lomax and Chandler Lawson) did not dress out due to injury – wasn't exactly celebrating. Hardaway, as you might imagine, did not provide any clarity or updates on any of the injured Tigers.
Instead, Memphis (8-5, 2-1 AAC) was still reflecting on the lessons it still hasn't quite mastered.
“I feel like our problem is, once we build a lead, we kind of struggle keeping that lead,” Quinones said. “Or, if we're up 15, we're supposed to go up 20, then 25, then 30. It's like, we get up 15, then they push back a little bit. We've got to learn.
“I feel like once we learn to get up in the game and just kind of finish it, that's when we're going to be great.”
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.