Hardaway knows Memphis’ narrow win over ECU isn’t good enough. Here’s why.
University of Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway coaches from the sidelines of a Jan. 11, 2025 game against East Carolina University. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
The Tigers’ win Saturday over East Carolina is the second game in a row in American Athletic Conference play that the Tigers — who still have more Quad 1 and 2 wins combined (10) than anyone else in the country — had to eke a win out against a relatively inferior opponent.
A victory in which Memphis simply scraped by — and got outscored by 10 points in the second half — versus an ECU squad ranked No. 203 in the NCAA’s NET rankings and No. 165 in KenPom won’t move the needle when it comes to advanced analytics or human polls. And it certainly won’t help the Tigers make progress toward their openly stated goal of securing a top-four NCAA Tournament seed come March.
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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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