Memphis won ugly in Orlando
Hardaway found it ‘beautiful’ as Tigers go 2-1 in Florida
You could hear the satisfaction in Penny Hardaway’s voice by the time Memphis basketball was about to leave Disney World.
This is what he wanted, ever since he made clear in the middle of last season that the roster had to get older.
This is what he hoped for when he put together a nonconference schedule unlike any in the country, with five games away from home in the first six contests and no cupcakes to be found.
This is what he needed to find out once Memphis opened up the ESPN Invitational with a heartbreaker of a loss to Seton Hall on Thanksgiving night.
This is what it sounds like when a coach really likes his team, however flawed that team may seem compared to previous years.
“It’s a lot of fun because we’ve gone through it with the talent that we’ve had because the talent hasn’t wanted to play together,” Hardaway said. “To see these guys connected so early in the season is a beautiful thing. That’s how we’re winning the games we’re winning. We’re playing together.”
The Tigers (4-2) certainly don’t have the overall star power they’ve come to be known for under Hardaway, but they already seem to know who they are.
That much was proven with how they responded once they fumbled away a chance to close out Seton Hall and watched that prayer of a buzzer beater somehow bank off the backboard and through the net. That much can carry you a long way in the upset-laden landscape of college basketball.
Memphis’ wins over Nebraska and Stanford to finish with a 2-1 record in Orlando may not have been against worldbeaters. Indeed, Nebraska was picked to finish last in the Big Ten preseason poll. But it did beat back any notion that this team is about to crumble in the face of adversity.
The Tigers are going to play ugly basketball at times because, beyond point
guard Kendric Davis, they are limited offensively. It’s the decision Hardaway made this offseason, seemingly choosing better chemistry over some of last year’s key contributors.
But that can also be winning basketball. If fans haven’t embraced that identity yet, they should do so quick with the teeth of this nonconference schedule on the horizon in December. Celebrate Memphis holding two of its last four opponents under 30% shooting as much as the few 3-pointers it makes.
Don’t lose sight of what happened last year, when Memphis started 9-8 only to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. History under Hardaway suggests his teams get better as the season wears on.
The formula for this group has been obvious since the first exhibition games. Memphis will have to lean heavily on Davis and 26-year-old Deandre Williams and play elite defense to return to the NCAA tournament.
When Williams gets in foul trouble, like he did in the Seton Hall loss, it’s going to be tough to win.
So perhaps the most encouraging part of this tournament the Tigers completed is that Davis didn’t shoot the ball well against Stanford, and Memphis still made all the big plays down the stretch.
Three times Stanford cut the Memphis lead to four points late.
The first time, with less than eight minutes to go, Williams found senior Alex Lomax open for a 3-pointer and the Memphis native knocked down a coldblooded shot.
The second time, with about three minutes to go, Davis stepped up and sank a 3-pointer.
The third time, about a minute later, Davis threw a dangerous pick-and-roll pass to Williams, and Williams just snatched it away from Stanford and scored a layup.
That this happened in the wake of Thursday’s collapse made it all the more impressive.
“We’re still growing as a team even though people come from different places,” Lomax said. “We know the pecking order of things and everybody has to star in their role.”
Lomax, despite an unnecessary amount of criticism thrown his way during a slow offensive start to the season, had a huge two-way impact on the two wins in Orlando. UTEP transfer Keonte Kennedy looks more comfortable with each game, and his poster dunk sparked Memphis against Stanford. Chandler Lawson is emerging as a versatile glue guy inside. Malcolm Dandridge might be poised to have a career year, even if his lulls in production are still cropping up.
The hope is UIC transfer Damaria Franklin can soon join them because Hardaway again reiterated after the Stanford win that he’s the Tigers’ secondbest perimeter defender behind Lomax, and a legitimate scoring threat to help ease some of the burden off Davis.
None of this is fool-proof, of course. Memphis is probably one serious injury to Davis or Williams away from being a nonfactor this season. The margins are smaller than they have been in terms of personnel, although the challenging schedule leaves more room for losses than previous seasons.
“This is working out exactly how I wanted it to,” Hardaway said.
He couldn’t have said that the past couple years at this point.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto.