Welcome to this week’s Tigers Basketball Insider. Below you’ll find the latest news and analysis from The Daily Memphian’s Steven Johnson, John Martin and Geoff Calkins.

As it stands right now, the Memphis Tigers are looking at another year finishing sub-.500 on the road.

Their 1-5 record on the road, which could get worse with more daunting road trips, is among the primary reasons the Tigers once again find themselves on the bubble as the regular season approaches its climax.

It might be tempting to chalk the three AAC road losses as the result of injuries. And they surely played a part, but Memphis was at full strength when it lost at a bad Georgia team and a mediocre Ole Miss squad.

Aside from injuries what has gone wrong for Memphis whenever it’s away from FedExForum? Let’s take a quick look at some numbers.

In eight games at the Forum, the Tigers are 7-1 and averaging more than 82 points per game. That number plummets to 73.8 on the road.

There’s also a stark contrast in efficiency as Memphis shot at least 46% from the field overall in every game and better than 50% in five games.

Memphis has hit that number just three times on the road and was held under 40% against Ole Miss and Central Florida.

It’s understandable to be more comfortable shooting at home and Memphis has most of its players for each of its home games for added context.

What about defensively?

Memphis is allowing 68.5 points at the Forum, which isn’t elite defensively, but still better than their road stats.

On the road teams are scoring almost 75 points a night with the Tigers twice allowing a team to top 80 points compared to just once in eight games at FedExForum.

In four of the six games on the road, Memphis allowed at least one scorer to produce 20 points as well. Opponents have hit that number four times at FedExForum as well, but Saint Louis’ Terrence Hargrove Jr. got most of his 20 with the game already decided.

It’s one thing for your shooting to take a step back on the road, but your defense must level up and make up for it. Memphis hasn’t done that yet at a consistent level.

Life on the road won’t get easier as the Tigers still have to go to Houston, SMU, Cincinnati and their nemesis Tulsa. There’s still a glimmer of hope for Memphis to secure an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.

But the Tigers will surely need to win at least two, if not three of these contests to still have a chance. If they can’t, Hardaway can point directly to their road woes as why they’re on the outside looking in, again.

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Calkins: The Penny Hardaway era isn’t over. But this is sad.

When Memphis lost to East Carolina in 2016, it was the beginning of the end for Josh Pastner. This loss is different. What will it mean for Penny Hardaway?

What we learned about the Tigers after another heartbreaking loss

After dropping the game to ECU, it’s basically win the AAC tournament or bust for the Tigers.

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