Tigers baseball coach on the hunt for players ‘fiending to win’
“Trying to be intentional about guys who are coming from winning programs or who are fiending to win. Winning means a lot to them,” said University of Memphis head baseball coach Matt Riser. (Benjamin Naylor/The Daily Memphian file)
Once the 2024 baseball season ended for first-year Memphis coach Matt Riser, he told his staff the next 18 to 24 months were going to be the busiest time of his life in recruiting.
He wasn’t exaggerating.
By the time he talked with The Daily Memphian last month, the Tigers had already signed 21 players to go with the 15 returning from last season.
Memphis missed the American Athletic Conference tournament with a 23-32 record in 2024, and Riser has been working to build a roster that will have the Tigers competing for a possible conference championship this upcoming season.
“Trying to be intentional about guys who are coming from winning programs or who are fiending to win. Winning means a lot to them,” Riser said. “And, to be honest, it felt like we had a roster last year that half of that roster it hurt to lose, and the other half was pretty complacent.”
The Tigers lost five seniors in the infield, and two outfielders hit the NCAA transfer portal. Riser said he expects to have about 27 or 28 new players on the upcoming roster by the time he’s done recruiting. Memphis just picked up two high school commitments from Collierville’s AJ Greene and Trevor Heishman, out of California, last week.
“You don’t get into the numbers game of trying to bring in 55-60 guys and just throw stuff that sticks against the wall,” Riser said. “You’re very precise in what you want. Go for it, attack it (and) get those guys.
“We have a lot to replace offensively. … In totality, you’ve probably got three returners who have some kind of experience coming back on the offensive side of things.”
College coaches could build the bulk of their roster through the NCAA transfer portal if they wanted. The last time Riser looked before talking with The Daily Memphian in late June, there were 4,502 athletes in the transfer portal.
“You can get overwhelmed with it,” Riser said. “For us, I think we’ve done a really good job because we’re very precise in what we want and what we need.”
Riser’s goal to build a competitive team for the immediate future has caused him to shift much of his recruiting toward an older player who can find success as soon as they join the program.
NIL opportunities help make some programs more enticing than others for potential transfers.
Topics
Memphis Tigers baseball Matt Riser Subscriber OnlyThank you for supporting local journalism.
Subscribers to The Daily Memphian help fund our not-for-profit newsroom of nearly 40 local journalists plus more than 20 freelancers, all of whom work around the clock to cover the issues impacting our community. Subscriptions - and donations - also help fund our community access programs which provide free access to K-12 schools, community organizations, and more. Thank you for making our work possible.
Frank Bonner II
Frank Bonner is the Memphis Tigers football beat writer. He is originally from Indiana but arrived in Memphis after spending two years in Tulsa, covering Oklahoma State football and basketball. He covered high school sports in Columbus, Indiana for two years before getting his Master’s degree in Sports Journalism at IUPUI. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University.
Want to comment on our stories or respond to others? Join the conversation by subscribing now. Only paid subscribers can add their thoughts or upvote/downvote comments. Our commenting policy can be viewed here.