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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.
As if missing the Big Dance wasn’t tough enough, Memphis had salt poured onto its still fresh wound last week.
The University of Memphis hosted eight NCAA Tournament teams — four from the South Region and four from the West Region — at FedExForum for first-round games Friday and second-round games Sunday.
Sunday’s Round of 64 games, in particular, were thrilling. They featured four high-level college basketball teams — all who were more than capable of making it to the Sweet 16, evidenced by the down-to-the-wire matchup between No. 3 seed Baylor and No. 6 seed Clemson and the one between No. 1 seed Houston and No. 9 seed Texas A&M.
While basketball fans in Memphis couldn’t help but enjoy a game that wasn’t decided until the final two minutes between the ACC’s Tigers and Bears and one that wasn’t decided until overtime between the Cougars and Aggies, it had to be bittersweet. To see those teams dancing on the home court of coach Penny Hardaway and Co. had to be — to some degree — sickening.
Though there were several factors that led to Memphis missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021, there was one thing those four teams had in common that Hardaway’s Tigers didn’t: Roster continuity.
Clemson, which pulled off an upset over Baylor to make only its second Sweet 16 since 1997, has 10 players on its current roster who were members of the team in 2022-23.
Houston, which beat Texas A&M to advance to its fifth straight Sweet 16 and has been one of the top three teams in the country for most of the season, has seven such players.
Baylor, which was a top-four team in the Big 12 this season and a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year, had six.
And Texas A&M, which pushed top-seeded Houston to the brink in a way few teams have this season, had 10.
Even No. 8 seed Nebraska (seven returning players), No. 11 seed New Mexico (five), No. 14 seed Colgate (nine) and No. 16 seed Longwood (five) — all eliminated in the first round — each had at least five returnees on their rosters.
Memphis, on the other hand, only returned two players — Malcolm Dandridge and Jayden Hardaway — this past season from its 2022-23 team. Though there are a variety of reasons for this, it can’t be a trend moving forward for Penny Hardaway to build a program at his alma mater that is consistently successful.
Now, with seven players from this past season’s team having exhausted their eligibility and Jonathan Pierre and Jayhlon Young already having entered the transfer portal, the Tigers only have six players they can bring back.
That’s scholarship players David Jones, Nicholas Jourdain, Ashton Hardaway and Carl Cherenfant, along with walk-ons Joe Cooper and Noah Stansbury.
Jourdain told reporters earlier this month — before the season ended — that he intended to return.
As for the others, though? Some of them could return, sure. But it’s highly unlikely that they all do.
And it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Memphis could retain just one or two players from this past season heading into 2023-24.
That doesn’t make it impossible for Hardaway to have a successful campaign — one that ends with the Tigers back in the NCAA Tournament — of course.
But, as those in Memphis just witnessed firsthand, it does eliminate a clear advantage that other NCAA Tournament teams have used to propel their programs forward.
More from your Insider:
Parth Upadhyaya, Tim Buckley and host Greg Gaston dissect both the disaster that the 2023-24 basketball season was and the football stadium renovation that will be on The Daily Memphian Tigers Podcast with Greg Gaston.
After having covered every part of the Hardaway era, John Martin offers three suggestions to help Penny Hardaway get the Tigers back to the NCAA Tournament.
Trying times at home and an early exit from the AAC Tournament leaves Memphis Tigers coach Penny Hardaway hurting.
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