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Welcome to this week’s Tigers Basketball Insider. Below you’ll find the latest news and analysis from The Daily Memphian’s Parth Upadhyaya, John Martin and Tim Buckley.
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Jeff Goodman has a hot take about Memphis basketball. Again.
Goodman, a national college basketball analyst for Stadium who has been known to often be critical of coach Penny Hardaway, said Monday night on The Field of 68: After Dark podcast that he predicts the No. 19 Tigers (15-4, 4-2 AAC) will miss the NCAA Tournament this season for the first time since 2021 under Hardaway.
Hardaway’s team is on a two-game losing streak after falling to South Florida 74-73 at home Thursday and being defeated by Tulane 81-79 on the road Sunday.
“Memphis was off to an unbelievable start, and now they’ve lost two in a row — an embarrassing one that they lost at home to South Florida, in which they were up by 20, and then, they come back and they lose at Tulane,” Goodman said. “Their wins aren’t very impressive right now. Not a lot of substance to their resume. I mean, Michigan and Arkansas on a neutral court — that looked good a month-and-a-half ago. That Texas A&M win looked great at the time — now it looks, eh, OK. And Virginia at home.
“I mean, honestly, you’re talking three of those teams probably aren’t NCAA Tournament teams as of today.”
Memphis is a No. 6 seed in ESPN’s latest bracketology projection, released Tuesday, and was a No. 7 seed in CBS Sports’ latest bracketology projection that came out Monday. Of its 13 non-conference opponents, only Clemson, Texas A&M, Jackson State, Villanova and Ole Miss appear in both predicted brackets. The Tigers lost to Villanova and Ole Miss early in the season.
Goodman believes Memphis’ recent string of subpar performances — which started with a late-December contest against Vanderbilt — are due to Tigers players not being overly enthusiastic about playing mediocre AAC teams after just having taken on more notable programs when facing the Aggies, Cavaliers and Razorbacks.
Hardaway has alluded to this being one of his team’s problems, too.
“I think they get bored,” Goodman said. “I think that’s the problem with (the AAC). These Memphis guys are playing teams like Michigan, Arkansas, Villanova, even Clemson and Virginia — teams that they know who they are. Then they go and they play Tulsa and UTSA, and they struggle against those guys. And South Florida. They’re the type of team that just gets a little bit bored.”
Goodman also made note of the several distractions Memphis has had to deal with this season, from Mikey Williams’ legal saga to the mid-December addition of Kansas State transfer Nae’Qwan Tomlin to the Jordan Brown departure and recent return.
Hardaway hasn’t directly cited any of these examples, but he has said multiple times over the past week that the Tigers have had a lot going on behind the scenes. This includes the chemistry problems he first noted after Thursday’s loss to USF.
“There’s a lot going on around that program. ... There’s just not a lot of stability,” Goodman said. “It feels like an NBA-type of atmosphere and team, and it kinda is with Penny and (assistant coach) Rick Stansbury. They’re bringing in as much talent as they can, but I feel like that can catch up with you when you start doing it late in the summer and during the season.”
Goodman’s Field of 68 co-hosts, North Carolina legend Tyler Hansbrough and former Clemson standout Terrance Oglesby, chimed in on Memphis’ NCAA Tournament chances.
Hansbrough said he believes the Tigers have some work to do in order to earn an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, despite the group being projected in the field by ESPN, CBS Sports and several other outlets.
“Memphis can’t afford in-conference losses, if they want to get a good bid — or actually, an at-large bid (at all),” Hansbrough said.
“You’re just not gonna have a good enough strength of schedule in their conference to be able to handle back-to-back losses and expect to have a good seed or put yourself in good position to make a tournament run.
“So they’re gonna have to likely win out and win their conference tournament.”
Oglesby cut Memphis a little more slack than Goodman and Hansbrough.
“Hey, look, at Tulane is a hard place to play,” Oglesby said. “They’re funky, and what (coach) Ron Hunter does is tough to prepare for. I’m almost willing to let that one slide. South Florida was close. (Memphis is) not completely out of it. The last two games they’ve lost by a combined three points.
“Memphis is more talented (in the AAC) than everybody not named Florida Atlantic. So they should be able to make the tournament. I think they’re making the tournament. I’m not gonna be naive and say, ‘No, they’re done. NIT-bound.’ They’re gonna make the tournament.”
The Tigers will take on UAB on Sunday (4 p.m., ESPN, 98.9 FM) in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Brown averaged just 6.1 points and 3.9 rebounds to go with three total blocks and three total steals through the seven games he appeared in for the Tigers before his 11-game leave.
Greg Gaston, Tim Buckley and Parth Upadhyaya discuss all that went wrong for Memphis in its loss to South Florida and what comes next on the latest episode of The Daily Memphian Tigers Podcast.
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