What to watch in Memphis’ game against Ole Miss
Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway signals to his team as they played against Florida Atlantic in the first half of a first-round college basketball game in the men's NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio, Friday, March 17, 2023. (Michael Conroy/AP Photo file)
Memphis will close out its non-conference schedule with its most crucial matchup of the season.
The Tigers (9-3) will face a regional rival for the second straight outing when they play host to No. 16 Ole Miss on Saturday, Dec. 28, (1 p.m., ESPN2) at FedExForum in their final game before the start of American Athletic Conference play next month.
Coach Penny Hardaway’s team, ranked No. 42 in KenPom and No. 46 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, is coming off a 79-66 home loss to Mississippi State on Dec. 21.
With Memphis also having lost to Arkansas State 85-72 at home Dec. 8, the program is looking to avoid its first three-game home losing streak since the 2017-18 season. (Former coach Tubby Smith’s Tigers dropped back-to-back-to-back home games to Cincinnati, Wichita State and UCF then.)
The Rebels (11-1), No. 30 in KenPom and No. 31 in the NET, are riding a five-game winning streak since losing by 2 points on Nov. 29 to then-No. 12 Purdue at the Rady Children’s Invitational Championship in San Diego. But coach Chris Beard’s team has only faced three opponents so far this season that are in the top 100 of the NET, picking up wins over BYU (No. 44) and Louisville (53) to go with its loss to the Boilermakers (36).
Memphis has played nine top-100 NET teams.
This matchup represents a Quadrant 2 opportunity for Memphis and likely is its final chance of the season to put itself in contention for a top-four NCAA Tournament seed, which Hardaway has stated openly is his goal. The Tigers, who were projected as a No. 5 seed in ESPN’s latest Bracketology update and are a combined 7-2 in Quads 1 and 2, have zero Quad 1 opportunities and just five Quad 2 chances through their 18-game AAC schedule.
Memphis and Ole Miss most recently met last season, when the Tigers fell to the Rebels 80-77 on Dec. 2, 2023, in Oxford, Mississippi. The Tigers own a 22-10 all-time series lead.
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Memphis Tigers Basketball Ole Miss Rebels Penny Hardaway PJ Haggerty Subscriber OnlyThank you for supporting local journalism.
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Parth Upadhyaya
Parth Upadhyaya covers the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team. A Raleigh, N.C., native and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Media and Journalism, Upadhyaya is a longtime college hoops junkie. Prior to joining The Daily Memphian in 2022, he covered high school sports in western Pennsylvania for the Beaver County Times and Penn State football for the Centre Daily Times.
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