Tigers beat writer Parth Upadhyaya’s latest AP Top 25 ballot
Memphis Tigers Head Coach Penny Hardaway reacts against the Ole Miss Rebels during the second half at FedExForum on Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (Wes Hale/Special to The Daily Memphian file)
If you watched the closing minutes of Memphis’ 74-70 win over East Carolina at FedExForum on Saturday and said to yourself, “Oh no, not again,” don’t worry — you weren’t alone.
Tigers coach Penny Hardaway had the same thought.
“It flashed through my mind when it was a tied game, (like), ‘Here we go again,’” Hardaway admitted after his Tigers (13-3, 3-0 AAC) escaped with the win. “But we’ve got guys that can finish the game.”
Memphis (No. 37 in the NCAA’s NET rankings) led ECU (No. 194) by as many as 18 points before the Pirates tied the game at 68 apiece with 1:11 left in front of a smaller-than-usual home crowd due to the 7.5 inches of snow that had hit the city the day prior. It was a scene similar to the one that unfolded last season on Jan. 18, 2024, when the then-No. 10 Tigers blew a 20-point lead at home to South Florida with a crowd of only a few hundred in attendance because of ice and snow on the roads. Those Tigers went on to lose to the Bulls 74-73.
However, this season’s Tigers demonstrated yet again that they are different by using a handful of clutch plays in the final 61 seconds to avoid what would’ve been their first Quadrant 4 loss.
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Memphis Tigers Memphis Tigers Basketball AP Top 25 poll College Basketball Subscriber OnlyAre you enjoying your subscription?
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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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