With 45 seconds left in the season, Alex Lomax stripped off his warmups, reported to the scorer’s table and checked into the basketball game.

He had not played in more than a month after twisting his ankle in practice. But he wasn’t about to miss out on a championship.

Alex Lomax relishes Tigers’ NIT championship with an eye on next season

So Lomax walked onto the court and raised his right fist high while his teammates hugged and danced. 

It was the perfect ending to an imperfect season. It was a fitting symbol of what the 2020-2021 Memphis Tigers team wrought.

They transformed themselves from a dysfunctional mess to a destructive basketball force, from a team that was openly mocked by television commentators early in the season to a champion at the end.

“This means everything, from where we started,” Memphis Tigers coach Penny Hardaway said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

The Tigers won their second NIT championship by throttling Mississippi State on Sunday, 77-64. The game — like their three NIT games that preceded it — was a testament to what they have become.

Tigers triumphant after demolishing Mississippi State in NIT championship

Mississippi State didn’t score a point — not a point! — for the first 7:17 of the game. The Tigers were playing so hard, and so well, ESPN commentator Fran Fraschilla had to offer a sort of apology for his unrelenting praise.

“I know if you’re listening at home you think it’s a Memphis commercial,” he said. “But this has been overwhelming at the start.”

Then, sure, Memphis took some bad shots and Mississippi State got back into it. Which only served to set up more brilliance by the Tigers in the second half.

Boogie Ellis (23 points) started throwing in 3-pointers. Lester Quinones seemed intent on coming down with every last rebound (he finished with 16 of them). D.J. Jeffries played a lethal combination of point guard and center, finishing with 15 points and (this is not a misprint) five blocks.

NIT championship box score: Memphis 77, Mississippi St. 64

The Tigers shot 66.7 percent from the field in the second half. They shot 75 percent from deep. They took charges on defense, whipped the ball around on offense and turned the broadcast into a commercial for Memphis once again.

“This is an NCAA Sweet 16-level team we are watching,” Fraschilla gushed. “They could still be playing in the NCAA Tournament.”

Which is true, of course, and the only wistful thing about all of this. In the months of February and March, Memphis hasn’t lost to anybody other than Houston, and it lost those two by a total of five points.

So is it easy to imagine that Memphis could be wreaking havoc in the NCAA Tournament just like Houston is right now?

Yes, of course.

But that didn’t detract from Sunday’s celebration, nor should it have. Indeed, what the Tigers did in the past four months may be even more worthy of celebration than an NCAA Tournament bid.

They grew.

They learned.

They started as one thing and became something dramatically different and better over the course of the season.

Calkins: ‘Fire and heart’ lift Memphis Tigers into NIT championship game

Remember how disconnected the Tigers were in South Dakota? Remember how painful they were to watch?

Not just because they played bad basketball. Because they played selfish basketball, because the players seemed to care for nothing but themselves.

Somewhere along the way, they changed. Which is not the easiest thing to do. It’s easier to give up, or to blame the coaching staff, or to head for the transfer portal.

“These kids started to figure out it’s not all about me, it’s about my brothers and me,” Hardaway said. “You could see the shift. They were still like family where they kind of went at each other, but you could tell that they wanted the same thing instead of different things.”

What they wanted most was a place in the NCAA Tournament. When they didn’t get that, they wanted a championship.

Every NIT team says they want to win the tournament, of course. But not many play with the joyous fury of this Tigers team.

That’s the right phrase, too: Joyous fury. You could see it in every minute of every game. The Tigers took pleasure in the havoc they caused together, in the unstoppable t-e-a-m they have become.

Calkins: Alex Lomax deserves to lead Memphis back to the NCAA Tournament

So when Lomax checked into the game, when it was finally clear the players had clinched their championship, the emotions spilled over in exactly the way you might expect. 

“This feeling isn’t real,” said Landers Nolley II.

“It means everything,” said Hardaway.

“It was just an amazing feeling, it almost brought all of us to tears,” said Quinones. “It’s fuel to the fire for us to just get back to work and turn this one into an NCAA national championship.”

Which are the kind of things fans want to hear, of course. That an NIT title is just the start. That the players — having seen what they can accomplish together — will return next season to wreck the basketball world.

“These guys have to commit to do it for 40 minutes and we will be scary,” Hardaway said. “Like our assistant coach, Jermaine Johnson, said: ‘Even the sky wouldn’t be in the way.’ ” 

Alas, there’s no telling if that will happen. Here’s what Nolley said when he was asked about next year: “We’re going to go home and enjoy this win. And later, maybe in a week or so, we’re going to talk about it as a team, without the coaches, making a family decision, like as brothers, to see what we’re going to do.”

Maybe the players will decide to go their separate ways. Maybe they’ll decide to come back en masse. The decisions will be made when the decisions are made. Such is the nature of the game.

But at least the players know what they can do together. At least they know the thrill that sacrificing for a common goal can bring. 

“These guys are champions now and I’m happy for that,” Hardaway said. “They’ll never forget this day.”