Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He's covered sports for the Flyer for two decades. "From My Seat" debuted on the Flyer site in 2002 and "Tiger Blue" in 2009.
Few players have risen through the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor-league system with the star power of Jordan Walker. Twice the franchise’s Minor League Player of the Year, Walker entered the 2023 season as the fourth-ranked prospect throughout the minor leagues according to Baseball America. And Walker had yet to turn 21. He made the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster having never played a game at the Triple A level and proceeded to start his big-league career with a 12-game hitting streak. Not the stuff of typical rookies.
Cut to the present and Walker finds himself midway through a 2024 season that hasn’t gone precisely to plan. He again started in right field for St. Louis on Opening Day, but struggled in April with a .155 batting average and no home runs through 20 games. (In 117 games as a rookie with the Cardinals, Walker batted .276 with a .445 slugging percentage and 16 home runs.) On April 24th, the Cardinals sent Walker to Memphis to fine-tune his swing and recharge for his sophomore campaign. Over 43 games with the Redbirds, Jordan has batted .264, slugged .402, and hit three home runs.
“I’m trying to relax,” says Walker. “I’ve shortened my stance a bit. So I’m not as rigid when I start my swing. I feel like I’m seeing the ball better.” How relaxed? Last Thursday, Walker took a nap during an optional team batting practice and proceeded to pick up three hits, including a homer, in a win over the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. He also threw out a runner at the plate from right field.
Walker says he hasn’t had a conversation with Cardinals’ brass specifically about their expectations for his next promotion to the big club. But he knows it’s about the magic word for hitters at all levels: consistency. “If my swing is where it needs to be,” notes Walker, “if I’m driving the ball the way I’ve been recently, I should be fine. As long as I hit the ball hard, everything should work out.”
Had Walker played four years of college baseball, he’d just now be starting his pro career. Instead, he has a season in the big leagues on his resume, and the weight of expectations for the kind of career that takes a franchise closer to the World Series. Does that weight get heavy? “Maybe a little bit,” he says. “But I don’t think I’ve changed anything, approach-wise or mindset-wise. I just wasn’t as consistent with what got me success in the minor leagues, and what got me success last year. That’s the key. These pitchers are tough. Your swing can feel good, but if you get tough pitches, it’s always tough to hit. But I’m comfortable with my swing, I’m making good swing decisions, and I feel like I can drive the ball. With a simple approach, I’ll catch fire again. It’s an up-and-down game.”
Ben Johnson recently became only the third manager in Redbirds history to win 300 games, but he’s still getting to know Walker, who has now played a half-season, total, at the Triple A level. “With Jordan, it’s a matter of getting comfortable playing every day,” says Johnson. “He’s about to catch fire, any day now. And we’ll get him [back to St. Louis] soon.”
After a slow start, the Cardinals have played themselves into contention for a wild-card playoff spot. In addition to Walker’s absence, the team has suffered lengthy stays on the injured list for Tommy Edman, Lars Nootbaar, and Willson Contreras. That’s virtually half a batting order the club can infuse for the second half of the 2024 season. And it can be safely said, among the four, no one has a higher ceiling of potential than Jordan Walker. Greatness awaits.
Something is rotten in the state of St. Louis Cardinals baseball. The Memphis Redbirds’ parent club finished in last place in 2023, the first time in 33 years the proud franchise took on the scent of a cellar. Following some significant changes to the club’s starting pitching rotation, hopes were elevated for a better 2024, only to see the team open the season as though its collective wings had been clipped. There were injuries (three outfielders opened the season on the injured list), scoring droughts (the Cards endured a 12-game stretch in which they scored more than three runs exactly once), and generally dreadful play from both veterans (Paul Goldschmidt) and rising “stars” (Nolan Gorman). As Memorial Day nears, is there hope for fun summer days at the ballpark?
Memphis is playing a role, as it has since 1998 when the Redbirds arrived, in efforts to cure the Cardinals’ ills. Last year’s star rookie — right fielder Jordan Walker — opened the season with St. Louis but returned for some Triple-A development when his batting average plummeted to .155 after 20 games. Likewise, the franchise’s third-ranked prospect — center fielder Victor Scott II — started the season in the Cardinals’ batting order, but only because of those injuries to outfielders Tommy Edman, Dylan Carlson, and Lars Nootbaar. Scott batted .085 in 20 games before getting his ticket to Memphis for a first taste of Triple-A pitching.
Scott stole an eye-popping 94 bases last year, a season he split between Class-A Peoria and Double-A Springfield. He knows speed will be his meal ticket, as evidenced by the frequent bunts you’ll see from the 23-year-old Georgia native. Through 23 games with Memphis, Scott has stolen eight bases (and only been caught once). But his on-base percentage of .271 is about 80 points shy of what he’ll need to crack the Cardinals’ everyday lineup. While Scott will likely spend the summer with Memphis, look for Walker — batting .318 in 17 games for the Redbirds — to soon reclaim his place in right field for the Cardinals.
• The Cardinals acquired infielder Cesar Prieto at last year’s trade deadline in a deal that sent pitcher Jack Flaherty to Baltimore. Through Sunday, Prieto was batting .340 for the Redbirds with 27 RBIs and 27 runs scored. With five (!) St. Louis regulars batting under .240 and the club near the bottom of the National League in scoring, you gotta figure Prieto might have a place with the big club in the near future. (Veteran infielder Brandon Crawford is hitting .097 in a reserve role for St. Louis.)
• The hottest pitching prospect in the Cardinals’ system is 21-year-old righty Tink Hence, currently occupying a spot in the rotation at Double-A Springfield. In his latest start last Saturday, Hence struck out nine in six innings in a win over Midland. Should Hence show signs of growth in the coming weeks, he could make his Triple-A debut with Memphis shortly after his 22nd birthday (August 6th). With four of their starters in their mid-30s, St. Louis desperately needs a young arm (or three) to emerge, ready to retire big-league batters.
• Keep an eye on Luken Baker’s home run total. The Redbirds’ first-baseman has slammed 11 dingers through Sunday, giving him 65 for his career with Memphis. Baker needs 10 more to surpass Nick Stavinoha’s record of 74 (a standard established in 2011).
• How quickly can a former Redbird impact the big club? If you like the modern WAR metric (a measure of a player’s overall impact, relative to an average player), the answer is less than two months. Rookie shortstop Masyn Winn — last year’s everyday shortstop with Memphis — is leading the Cardinals with 1.8 WAR. He also leads the club in stolen bases (7) and is near the top of the National League in defensive metrics for his position.
It has been a trying basketball season in the Bluff City. The Memphis Tigers suffered a midseason collapse unlike any in memory and missed out on the NCAA tournament for the first time in three years. As for our NBA favorites, the Grizzlies have made a mockery of the “MASH unit” cliche with injured stars — Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Marcus Smart — shaping the team’s lousy record more than their healthy, lesser-known replacements. The Griz have lost 50 games for only the second time in 15 seasons, an unwanted marker fans knew the team would hit as early as December.
But then came last Saturday night at FedExForum. In town to see his jersey number (33) retired was “Big Spain” himself, Marc Gasol. The younger brother of Hall of Famer Pau, Marc received the banner treatment from the franchise before the man he was traded for in a franchise-shifting (and Gasol-family-shifting) deal way back in 2008. Whether or not Pau ever receives this salute from the Grizzlies, the honor was a no-doubter for Marc, the first Memphis player to earn first-team All-NBA honors (2015), the 2013 Defensive Player of the Year, the franchise’s career leader in rebounds, blocks, and minutes played. He may have won an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors (in 2019), but Gasol had “Grit” and “Grind” engraved on his championship ring. When or if the Grizzlies consider unveiling a statue in front of FedExForum, the case could be made it should look a lot like Marc Gasol.
We attend sporting events for the possibility of what might happen next, but we tend to go back because of what we’ve seen, the history a franchise and its players make over the course of several years. This makes the retiring of Marc Gasol’s jersey — and Zach Randolph’s in 2021 — so essential to the bond still being formed between an NBA team and the city it’s called home now for 23 years. Why cheer a club that won’t sniff the playoffs this spring? You might look back at Marc Gasol’s first winter in Memphis, when the Grizzlies went 24-58, for your answer. Memphis went 40-42 in 2009-10, then reached the playoffs the next seven years, including the Western Conference finals in 2013. Darkest before the dawn, as they say.
On the subject of reflective salutes, it might be time for the Grizzlies to consider a banner that mentions the team’s Southwest Division titles in 2022 and ’23. If you’re the Boston Celtics or Los Angeles Lakers, the rafters have no room for “championships” that don’t come with a parade. But if your franchise has yet to reach the NBA Finals? Let’s acknowledge teams that stand out for posterity, even without a parade (yet) down Beale Street.
• How severely has the injury bug infected the 2023-24 Memphis Grizzlies? Through Sunday, no fewer than 22 players have started a game for Memphis, but only two — Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane — have started as many as 41 (half the regular season), and only Jackson will finish the season with more than 50 starts. Ten years from now, how will Trey Jemison, Jordan Goodwin, and Jaylen Nowell be remembered in these parts? Each started at least one game for this Grizzlies club. They won’t be getting a banner from the franchise, but if you, a devoted fan, recall their names in 2034, you should.
• With Vince Carter’s election to the Basketball Hall of Fame, it marks consecutive years that a former Grizzly has received the sport’s highest honor. (Pau Gasol was inducted in 2023.) Carter was part of three playoff teams (2015-17) with Memphis over the course of his 22-year career.
The Memphis Redbirds opened their 26th season Friday at AutoZone Park with a 6-5 comeback victory over the Charlotte Knights (Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox). The 3 p.m. first pitch allowed the entire game to be played under immaculate sunshine and in front of a larger-than-typical crowd for a Redbirds lid-lifter. The Memphis lineup was notable both for a player absent and another present, perhaps a hint that as timeless as baseball may feel to those who love the sport, it’s rarely predictable.
Let’s start with the missing player. Victor Scott II is an outfielder with the kind of electricity — speed and glovework — that calls to mind the hallowed St. Louis Cardinals teams of the 1980s. Last season, Scott stole a jaw-dropping 94 bases (50 at Class-A Peoria and 44 at Double-A Springfield) and earned a minor-league Gold Glove for his skills in center field. Scheduled to make his Triple-A debut this year with the Redbirds, Scott instead opened the season in center for the parent Cardinals after no fewer than three St. Louis outfielders (Tommy Edman, Lars Nootbaar, and Dylan Carlson) were sidelined with injuries. The fourth-ranked prospect in the Cardinals’ system, Scott is only 23 years old and will likely see some action in Memphis. Unless, like Vince Coleman four decades ago, he plays too well with the Cards to be demoted. (Scott had two hits in 14 at-bats in the Cardinals’ opening series in Los Angeles. He also stole his first big-league base.)
While Scott’s absence feels significant, Luken Baker’s return to AutoZone Park feels somewhat astounding. The big first baseman mastered Triple-A pitching in 2023, slamming 33 home runs and driving in 98 runs in only 84 games. Baker posted a slash line of .334/.439/.720 and an OPS of 1.159, enough to earn him International League MVP honors despite playing just over half the season with Memphis.
So how is the 27-year-old Baker not slugging in big-league stadiums now? That’s a question for John Mozeliak, the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations. It’s hard to imagine Baker’s trade value being higher than it was over the winter, even with his struggles (.209/.313/.314) in 33 games (99 at-bats) with St. Louis last season. He homered Friday to spark the Redbirds’ comeback and is now merely 19 shy of Nick Stavinoha’s franchise record of 74. If the long ball sells tickets, Memphis has a 285-pound cash register at first base. And as long as Paul Goldschmidt still occupies the same position for St. Louis, Baker will be selling Triple-A tickets.
• Germantown native Ben Johnson is starting his fifth season as Redbirds manager, the longest tenure for a Memphis skipper since Chris Maloney held the job from 2007 to 2011. The Redbirds have yet to have a winning season under Johnson, but they’ve yet to be dreadful on his watch, either. (Best record under Johnson: 73-77 in 2022. Worst: 71-78 in 2023.) The pre-pandemic Pacific Coast League championships of 2017 and 2018 seem longer than six or seven years ago. Does winning at the Triple-A level matter? Perhaps not to the fortunes of the big-league club, but for casual fans considering entertainment options for their evening? It can’t hurt.
• How about some perspective on the Redbirds’ affiliation with the St. Louis Cardinals, a bond that dates back to 1998 when the Triple-A franchise moved from Louisville to Memphis? Only four Triple-A franchises (among 30) have longer affiliations with their parent club: Iowa (Chicago Cubs), Omaha (Kansas City Royals), Toledo (Detroit Tigers), and Tacoma (Seattle Mariners). As for professional baseball in Memphis, no previous affiliation comes close to the 27-year marriage with the Cardinals. The second-longest is 11 years, from 1984 to 1994 when the Double-A Memphis Chicks fielded prospects for the Royals.
I’m appreciative of the people who have stood by us through these hard times. You can pinpoint a lot of things, but the one thing I do know: God doesn’t make mistakes. All of the negativity through this entire thing … these are still kids. They can have a bad day, a bad game, a bad week. That doesn’t mean there’s a disconnect between coach and players because you’re losing. Everything gets heightened here in Memphis. I was chosen to do this, not by the University of Memphis but by God, honestly. I took this job when it was at its lowest moment. I only want to do well for the city. I’m going to be hardest on myself. It guts me, because I want our city to be known for something other than what it’s known for. These are some tough times. Everybody has an opinion. But I know God has a plan, and there’s a plan for this team. I’m happy that I’m coaching this team. — University of Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway, after the Tigers ended a four-game losing streak with a win over Wichita State
On February 3rd at FedExForum, the Memphis Tigers found themselves down 14 points with less than 10 minutes to play against the supposedly inferior Wichita State Shockers. A loss would give a proud program not only its first five-game losing streak in six seasons under coach Penny Hardaway, but the program’s first five-game losing streak in 24 years.
Point guard Jahvon Quinerly — a senior transfer from Alabama — came to the rescue with a three-pointer to give Memphis its first lead of the game with 44 seconds on the clock. (It was the only field goal Quinerly made on an otherwise forgettable afternoon.) After the Shockers evened the score with a free throw, David Jones — a senior transfer from St. John’s — buried a short jumper from the left wing to snatch a Tiger win, as they say, from the jaws of ugly defeat. Losing streak over. A season that found the Tigers ranked 10th in the country merely three weeks earlier had been somewhat saved. At least until the next tip-off. The season has seen dreadfully ugly losses (at SMU) and the kinds of wins that seem to lift an entire region (the “get-back” over FAU in late February).
Like any decent Hollywood production, a college basketball season has a setup (nonconference play), a confrontation (league competition), and a resolution (postseason). This winter’s Tiger flick has, at times, made the popcorn tasty and, at others, forced fans to hurl the bucket in disgust. All with a resolution yet to come.
Point guard Jahvon Quinerly leads the Tigers in assists. (Photo: Wes Hale)
THE SETUP
In over a century of Tiger basketball, never had Memphis run a nonconference gauntlet like the one Hardaway scheduled for last fall. Seven teams from power conferences (ACC, SEC, and Big 10) plus a showdown with Villanova (national champions in 2016 and 2018) in the championship of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Making the challenge even greater, four of these teams took the floor against Memphis ranked among the country’s top 25. (For perspective, nonconference foes in 2017-18 — Tubby Smith’s final season as coach — included Northern Kentucky, Mercer, Samford, Bryant, and Albany.)
The Tigers beat 20th-ranked Arkansas in the Bahamas. They beat 21st-ranked Texas A & M. They beat 13th-ranked Clemson. They beat 22nd-ranked Virginia. They handled Michigan, Missouri, and Vanderbilt. Before the year turned, Hardaway and his team seemed to have grabbed a national microphone and collectively screamed, Look at us!
“I love winning close games,” said Hardaway after a two-point victory against Vanderbilt at FedExForum, the fifth in what would become a 10-game winning streak. “They make you tougher.” And the Tigers were masters of the nail-biter early this season: four points better than Michigan, five better than Arkansas, two better than Clemson, overtime escapes against VCU and UTSA. Quinerly drilled game-winning three-pointers near the buzzer in consecutive wins over Tulsa and SMU. Jones earned some national spotlight with 36 points against Arkansas, a performance that launched him onto the short list for the Julius Erving Award, given to the top small forward in the country.
“We never said it was going to be easy,” stressed Hardaway after the SMU win on January 7th. “The rest of the nation thinks it’s going to be easy in this conference. I have so much respect [for the American Athletic Conference]. These kids are capable. They read the clippings about us and [league favorite] FAU. It’s more than a two-bid league. Adversity is okay; you can learn from it.”
On January 15th, a day after the Tigers eviscerated Wichita State in Kansas for their tenth straight win, the Associated Press released its weekly poll and there was Memphis at number 10 in the entire country, the program’s highest ranking so late in a season since 2009, when one John Calipari stomped the sidelines. The nine programs above Memphis? If you pay attention to college hoops, they’re familiar: UConn, Purdue, Kansas, North Carolina, Houston, Tennessee, Duke, Kentucky, and Baylor. (Six of these programs have won at least one national title since 2012.) If the Memphis program was indeed screaming into that proverbial national microphone, the right folks were listening.
Nae’Qwan Tomlin has provided an energy boost at both ends of the floor. (Photo: Wes Hale)
THE CONFRONTATION(S)
Then came the freeze. The Tigers took the floor against USF on January 18th in a virtually empty FedExForum. That week’s winter storm had left Memphis streets so icy that the U of M actually released a statement advising fans to stay home (in which case ticket-holders could exchange for a later game). The Tigers raced out to a 20-point lead … before the team from South Florida made things that much colder, earning a 74-73 upset with a late-game comeback.
Three days later in New Orleans, another supposedly undermanned squad knocked off Memphis when Tulane won, 81-79. A week later in Birmingham, old rival UAB beat the Tigers, and rather easily (97-88). But the three losses that knocked the Tigers out of the Top 25 were merely prelude to January 28th, when the Rice Owls — 7-13 at tip-off, and 1-6 in the AAC — beat Memphis on its home floor.
For 17 games, the Tigers had played with a swagger, if not quite the flash, that reflected their coach’s All-NBA playing days with the Orlando Magic. They won 15 of those games. Then suddenly, shortly after the year turned, shoulders seemed to collectively slump, and Hardaway alluded to discontent between players. When asked about his team’s precipitous drop in confidence after the Rice loss, Hardaway had this to say: “That’s player-led. I’m trying my best, going to games, going to practice, talking about the pride we need to have, to have more fun playing defense, to communicate. It just seems like there’s a huge disconnect with this group right now. I can’t put my finger on it. You can tell in our play. When the game starts, the energy isn’t there.”
Following their second win over Wichita State (and the end to that four-game losing streak), Quinerly shared some perspective on what he hoped was a team-culture shift. “We didn’t have any player meetings,” he noted, “but you could tell the communication and the focus was different at our practices and film sessions. You could feel the tension in the air. Guys were super locked-in. It showed. We guarded the ball better [against the Shockers].”
Victories over Temple and Tulane followed, but then came a mid-February trip to the Lone Star State and double-digit losses to both North Texas and SMU (the latter a 106-79 mockery of the Tigers’ win over the Mustangs at FedExForum in early January). On February 24th, the university announced an inquiry involving fifth-year senior Malcolm Dandridge, sidelining an important member of the Tiger rotation entering the most important stage of the season. Memphis partially avenged its 2023 NCAA tournament loss to FAU the very next day. Ups and downs. Downs and ups.
How and why did a team mentioned as a Final Four contender in mid-January fall so precipitously, and so fast? You might start with a pair of hideous defensive measures. Through the end of the regular season, Memphis ranks 348th in three-pointers allowed: 9.1 per game. (This is according to College Basketball Reference, which tracks 362 teams in Division I.) And the Tigers rank 359th in offensive-rebounds allowed: 12.8 per game. These are effort stats. Bottom line: The Tigers haven’t guarded the perimeter and they haven’t hit the glass. In other words, they do a lot of standing and watching on defense. It’s murder on a team’s Final Four chances.
And there’s luck. Had Quinerly not hit those buzzer-beaters against Tulsa and SMU, there may not have been a 10-game winning streak or Top-10 ranking. Right player, right time, right moment … until the same player often looked like the wrong player, in the wrong time and moment. If you’re looking for a mercurial personification of a mercurial team, sadly, it’s Jahvon Quinerly.
Not to be discounted in the Tigers’ plight is the loss of Caleb Mills, yet another senior transfer (from Florida State and, before that, Houston) who suffered a catastrophic left-knee injury at Tulsa on January 4th. The team’s best perimeter defender and cultural “glue guy,” Mills embraced a role off the bench and contributed mightily in the Tigers’ four upsets of ranked teams. “I didn’t know Caleb’s magnitude until he went down,” said Hardaway in early February. The Tigers were 12-2 with Mills on the floor and have gone 10-7 without him.
If the loss of Mills exposed a susceptible Tiger rotation, the addition of Nae’Qwan Tomlin — a 6’10” midseason transfer from Kansas State — may have rescued that rotation’s integrity. (Mills and Tomlin only played three games together.) Tomlin’s ability to impose himself on both ends of the floor while providing visible, emotional energy has called to mind the play of former Tiger DeAndre Williams, the all-conference forward who completed his eligibility with the 2022-23 season. He earned Player of the Week honors from the AAC for his impact in wins over Charlotte and FAU in late February. Furthermore, Tomlin has a strong March track record, having helped the Wildcats to the Elite Eight of last year’s NCAA tournament. “He’s a big part of what we’re doing, moving forward,” emphasizes Hardaway. “We need his scoring ability, his rebounding ability, and his shot-blocking.”
However the Tigers’ postseason unfolds, Jones will leave a historic mark on the program. He’s the second consecutive Tiger (after Kendric Davis) to lead the AAC in scoring and earned first-team All-AAC recognition. He’s the only player in the country to average 21.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists and with 26 more points will become only the seventh Memphis player to score 700 in a single season. Jones is among five finalists for the Julius Erving Award, given to the nation’s top small forward.
THE RESOLUTION?
How does this four-month movie — to this point, a tragidrama — conclude before the credits roll? The happiest scenario has the Tigers banding together around their star trio (Jones, Quinerly, and Tomlin) and winning four games in four days at the AAC tournament this week in Fort Worth for an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Once in the field, a rocky regular season would be forgotten in exchange for hopes of a glass slipper that leads to the Sweet 16 (at least). Hardaway teams have done this before, both last year when the Tigers knocked off top-ranked Houston to win the AAC crown and in 2021 when Memphis won a scaled-down NIT in North Texas.
A more likely scenario is a win or two this weekend and a return to the NIT, college basketball’s sock hop for those without prom tickets. Not the kind of consolation anyone near the Memphis basketball program will embrace. “God has a plan for this team,” said Hardaway after the Tigers erased a 22-point deficit and beat UAB by 19 on March 3rd. “For all we’ve gone through, I never gave up. … We have a better resume than all these teams: first four out, next four out. I don’t understand why our name isn’t up there. We’ve won enough big games for us to be in the conversation. We have some great wins.”
Remain in your seats, Tiger fans. However this season ends, it’s become clear we don’t want to miss it.
David Jones (Photo: Wes Hale)
The 700 Club
David Jones hopes to become only the seventh Tiger to score 700 points in a single season.
Larry Kenon is a certifiable Memphis basketball legend. In his one season as a Tiger (1972-73), Kenon established a single-season rebound record (501) that will never be touched. He helped another Larry legend (Finch) lead Memphis State to the NCAA championship game, where the Tigers fell to mighty UCLA. Kenon’s number 35 is among ten retired numbers that now hang from the rafters at FedExForum on Tiger game days.
A detail you might now know about Larry Kenon: Among the conditions he insisted upon before committing to the Tiger program: He didn’t have to attend a class. (I was three years old in 1972, but I have this nugget from a reliable source who was near the program for that unforgettable season.)
The Tigers won their biggest conference game of the season Sunday afternoon at FedExForum, beating FAU, 78-74. But they did so without one of only two players still on the team from FAU’s upset of Memphis in last year’s NCAA tournament. Center Malcolm Dandridge sat out the game as the university investigates chatter of academic misdeeds involving the fifth-year senior. It’s a deflating cloud over a program that has reached the heights of a Top-10 ranking and the lows of a four-game losing streak this winter. But you know what? These cloud conditions are part of Memphis Tiger basketball, every bit as much as the blue and gray of their uniforms.
If you’re too young for memories of Larry Kenon, perhaps you recall Keith Lee, the record-shattering power forward from West Memphis who became a Tiger in 1981 upon receiving a shoebox — between a size seven-and-a-half and a nine, according to Lee himself — full of cash. You’ve likely forgotten the Tic Price tryst. Finch’s successor as Tiger coach resigned abruptly before the 1999-2000 season when he was discovered to have been playing some bedroom ball with a U of M student. It’s easy to forget this scandal, as all it cost Memphis was a mediocre coach.
Arguably the greatest team in Tiger history reached the championship game in 2008, but there’s no banner to celebrate the squad because star freshman Derrick Rose, the NCAA determined, had someone else take the standardized test that qualified him to play at Memphis. James Wiseman was the most heralded freshman to suit up for the Tigers since Rose, but played in only three games early in the 2019-20 season before the NCAA ruled he had taken improper payments from his future coach — Penny Hardaway — when his family moved to Memphis before his senior year at East High School. And just last November, Hardaway served a three-game suspension for what the NCAA deemed an improper recruiting visit.
It’s exhausting to read all together, isn’t it? One ugly “distraction” after another, almost as regular for the Memphis program as visits to the Sweet 16. Making the current Dandridge matter especially troubling: The player is as Memphis as Hardaway, no import (like Kenon, Rose, or even Lee, from West Memphis). Dandridge surely has a sense of those historic “clouds.” If not, the man who coached him at East and now for five years at the U of M could certainly draw a picture.
Maybe it’s all a misunderstanding. Maybe it was one or two bad decisions made by one young man, and the problem can be sliced cleanly from the larger basketball system this city celebrates and its favorite son, Hardaway, manages. Hardaway had little to say about the matter following Sunday’s win: “I’m gonna learn as [everyone else] learns.” And that’s a component to the problem: If Hardaway truly knows nothing about a fifth-year player breaking rules, the coach is part of that problem.
FedExForum splashed an awkward promotion on the scoreboard and concourse screens as fans departed Sunday’s game. “Senior Day” will be celebrated when the Tigers host UAB on March 3rd. The player staring from those screens, representative of this year’s Memphis senior class: Malcolm Dandridge. The guess here is that a Dandridge appearance for Senior Day is a 50/50 proposition, at best.
The Tigers have now won 20 games under Hardaway in each of the coach’s six seasons. Feels like something to celebrate, especially in an up-and-down campaign. But with the scent of scandal in the air? We pause the celebration. Yet again.
David Jones leads the AAC in scoring (photo by Wes Hale).
When the University of Memphis hired Penny Hardaway to coach its basketball program in 2018, his task was to make Tiger hoops meaningful again, to make Tiger seasons memorable. (What stands out in your memory from the four seasons prior to Hardaway taking over? See how this works?) Hardaway’s first five seasons went well by some measures and fell short of expectations by others. But each, in its own way, was memorable. Which begs the question as March nears: How will the Tigers’ 2023-24 season stand out for local hoop historians? For context, a brief review of the Coach Penny era, seasons 1 through 5.
2018-19: The Year of Jeremiah
Before this season, no Tiger had ever scored 40 points in two different games. Jeremiah Martin did so in the same month (February). A player who averaged 2.7 points per game as a freshman under coach Josh Pastner became the fifth to score 700 in a single season (19.7 average). The pride of Mitchell High School made a mediocre (22-14) season unforgettable.
2019-20: The Year of Our Precious
Many in these parts remember this season as The Year Without Wiseman. The mighty NCAA decided Hardaway had violated rules in his recruiting of James Wiseman, leading to a suspension of the player and eventually his departure from the program. But let’s accentuate the positive. The team’s “other” five-star recruit, Precious Achiuwa, averaged 15.8 points and 10.8 rebounds and became the first Tiger to earn Player of the Year honors in the American Athletic Conference. The season ended prematurely with the Covid shutdown, so we’ll never know if that team (21-10) may have rallied in the AAC tourney for a bid to the Big Dance. But again, one player made the season rather remarkable.
2020-21: A National Title (Sorta)
Empty arenas and a team that couldn’t seem to decide its star. Landers Nolley? Boogie Ellis? Lester Quinones? A six-game winning streak late in the season wasn’t enough to get the Tigers into the NCAA tournament, so they headed to a slimmed-down NIT in north Texas. And they won the darn thing, beating Mississippi State in the final for the program’s second NIT crown. Did it fill a void? Meet Hardaway’s expectations? No and no. Did it make for a memorable ending to a pandemic-heavy winter of Tiger basketball? Emphatically yes.
2021-22: Dancing Days Return
This team beat a pair of Top-10 squads (Alabama and Houston) on its way to the program’s first NCAA tournament since 2014. Freshman Jalen Duren (12.0 points, 8.0 rebounds) played his way into the first round of the NBA draft and the Tigers gave top-ranked Gonzaga all it could handle in the second round of the NCAAs. A season that felt like Hardaway and the Tigers were on the right path.
2022-23: The Year of KD
After transferring from SMU, point guard Kendric Davis led the AAC in both scoring (21.9) and assists (5.4), somehow falling short in the league’s Player of the Year voting. Better yet, Davis helped the Tigers knock off top-ranked Houston — the first such upset in program history — and win their first AAC tournament. An overlooked timeout near the end of their clash with FAU in the opening round of the NCAA tournament ended the season prematurely. Davis became the second player to put up 700 points in a season under Hardaway.
How will we remember the current season when all is said and done? As of now, it’s The Midseason Massacre, a four-game losing streak that, in rasslin’ terms, knocked a Top-10 team entirely out of the ring. David Jones leads the AAC in scoring and is the kind of player who could help Memphis make a run in the conference tournament next month. It’s a good time for Tiger fans to remember basketball memories aren’t born but made.
Are the Memphis Tigers a legitimate Top-10 team, Final Four contenders? Or are they the biggest teasers east of the Dallas Cowboys? Nineteen games into the 2023-24 season, it seems the answer to one of these questions will ultimately be in the affirmative.
Sunday’s loss at Tulane — the Green Wave’s first upset of a Top-25 team since the Clinton presidency — changed the Tigers’ season, and compounded last Thursday’s loss at home to USF. A team that started the week undefeated in a less-than-respected American Athletic Conference now has a two-game losing streak and, worse, merely 12 regular-season games left to improve its resume for those who hand out seeds for the NCAA tournament. Memphis, you might note, has never reached the Sweet 16 seeded lower than sixth.
Last Thursday night at FedExForum could have been an anomalous nadir. With the arena virtually empty — the university publicly urged fans to stay home and off the icy roads — Memphis looked all of its number-10 ranking in taking a 20-point lead into the second half. Then they seemed to hit black ice as a unit and allowed USF to storm back, tie the game with less than a minute to play, and win the contest on a Kasean Pryor free throw with five seconds to play. (There’s brutal irony in a team from South Florida knocking off the Tigers while fans were home dripping their faucets.) The Tigers’ late-game hero Jahvon Quinerly committed a turnover in the game’s closing seconds and missed a desperation three-point attempt at the buzzer. If empty seats could boo, they would have.
The loss was especially bizarre, as it came four days after Memphis looked like their predecessors from 2008 or 1985, both Final Four years. The Tigers scored 112 points in beating Wichita State, the most on the road for this program in 69 years. Against USF, they couldn’t crack 80. The Tigers drained 19 three-pointers in overwhelming the Shockers, a program record. Against the Bulls, they missed 22 of their 28 shots from long range. Memphis lost despite outscoring USF 42-18 in the paint and 21-2(!) on fast breaks. The numbers don’t make sense, but the loss is permanent and will cost Memphis its spot in that hallowed Top 10.
As long as Quinerly and David Jones remain healthy, the Tigers will enter March with an arsenal most teams — “power conference” or otherwise — would envy. Jones (21.7 points per game) is the leading candidate for AAC Player of the Year. Right behind him may well be Quinerly (14.0 points, 4.7 assists). Were it not for Quinerly’s game-winning treys against Tulsa and SMU, the Tigers might have a losing record in league play. Jones took a three-point shot that could have won Sunday’s game at Tulane. He missed, as stars sometimes do. How will the Tigers process two straight gut punches as they wait a week before returning to play (Sunday at UAB)?
Following the Tigers’ narrow escape against SMU on January 7th, Hardaway emphasized the joy he took in seeing his team improve while winning. Beats the “learn from our losses” track every day of the week. And the Tigers are certainly better for their recent 10-game winning streak. But Hardaway also suggested this group of veteran transfers may actually be too confident, that they feel like any obstacle or deficit can be overcome, and this can sometimes compromise group effort. A home loss to a team with a NET rating of 146, you gotta believe, might help reduce that overconfidence intangible.
Another intangible to track with these Tigers: team chemistry. Following the USF loss, Hardaway suggested internal strife was impacting who he could put on the floor and when. If this is the case (more than two months into the season), the likelihood of a full recovery — let alone a Final Four run — seems remote. The sixth-year coach may have the greatest challenge of his career on his hands: Getting the most out of a talented team before the players on that team sabotage the mission. That would be a cruel tease, indeed.
Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith is one of four 2024 recipients of the National Civil Rights Museum’s Sports Legacy Award. Along with Alex English, Calvin Hill, and Renee Montgomery, Smith will be saluted before and during the Memphis Grizzlies’ game against the Golden State Warriors on Martin Luther King Day.
Congratulations on the Sports Legacy Award. You’re only the second baseball legend (after Willie Mays) to receive this honor.
I guess I’m treading in tall cotton. Any honor you get from outside your sport or business . . . I feel blessed and honored. To be included with people who are doing something outside of what they’re known for.
You were born in Mobile, Alabama, and you were in Los Angeles as a child during the Watts Riots. What comes to mind when you think of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement?
Dr. King and so many others — Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy — had the courage to stand up and allow us as African Americans to achieve the things we were able to achieve. The fight continues today. It hasn’t ended. There’s a lot of whitewashing going on right now, as we speak. I think of the trials and tribulations: the water hoses, dogs, the pain. Everything the people who came before us had to suffer to get us to this point . . . I take my hat off to people who are willing to continue the fight. Though we’ve come a long way, we still have a long way to go.
Do you have distinct memories of April 4, 1968? You were 13 years old when we lost Dr. King.
When you have a leader like that, his impact was so powerful. Anytime you have a leader like Dr. King succumb to assassination, it has a profound effect on your life, from that point forward. You have visions of where it happened, how it happened. I’ll get the chance to walk in that space [this weekend]. I’m sure it’s very touching.
Memphis has been Cardinals country for generations, but officially since 1998 when the Triple-A Redbirds began play here. Do you get to the Bluff City at all? Have you visited the National Civil Rights Museum?
I’ve been to Memphis, but I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the museum. This will be my first time.
You’re currently president of the PGA REACH Gateway Foundation. What can you share about that program?
I retired in 1996, and for anyone who plays sports for 20 or 25 years, you’re looking for that next challenge. There’s a competitive void in your life, and I gravitated to golf. I fell in love with it so quickly. Growing up in Southern California, I never had the opportunity to pick up a golf club. It was always baseball, basketball, or football. When I was asked to be president of the St. Louis chapter [of PGA REACH], I didn’t know what that entailed.
Exposing kids not just to the game of golf, but the business of golf is a great way for them to learn discipline in life, honesty. It was through that prism that I could give kids opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have.
We’ve also taken on the challenge of giving veterans their lives back. As I look back on my career, the thing you miss the most is camaraderie, being with the guys. I think it’s the same thing with soldiers: you miss the people you’ve spent the majority of your time with. A lot of these guys have PTSD. PGA HOPE helps give them their lives back, and that’s just as important as giving young kids a new experience. We’re in the process of building a facility near the grounds of the old Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. I’m very proud to be a part of this.
There are much fewer Black players in Major League Baseball today than when you debuted in 1978. Are there steps baseball can take to better engage young Black athletes?
It will take the work of a lot of people. Most of the [development] focus these days is in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the islands. There’s not as much red tape. We have programs here, trying to get more [African-American] kids interested. But there has to be a lot more money to get it back to the level it was in the late Sixties or early Seventies. I don’t have all the answers, but there has to be a lot more interest to get it back to the level it should be. HBCUs may be the way. Get the numbers back up. There are talented African Americans, but they don’t have the guidance or vehicle to elevate [their skills].
The Cardinals finished in last place in 2023, the first time in over three decades. What must the club do to regain its footing and return to the World Series?
It’s a real challenge to get back to prominence. You gotta pitch, you gotta hit, you gotta throw and catch. I think analytics have had a lot to do with some teams forgetting what is the heartbeat of the organization. The minor-league system has always been a big part of success for the Cardinals, the Dodgers. We need to get back to refurbishing the minor-league system, so it becomes that lifeline, allowing young guys to learn the game, and be ready when they reach the big leagues.
You’re generally considered the greatest fielding shortstop in baseball history. If there’s one fielding tip you had to share for posterity, what would it be?
I actually learned this through golf: stagnation is a killer. A baseball player can’t get started until the pitcher releases the ball. That’s where the hitter finds his rhythm, as the pitcher goes into his wind-up. As a fielder, you don’t want to be in a stagnated position. You want some type of movement, be it left, right. Some type of swaying movement that allows you to get into the flow for a ground ball or fly ball.
Ozzie Smith won 13 Gold Gloves over his 19-year career with the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals. He played in three World Series for the Cardinals and won the 1982 championship. His uniform number 1 was retired by St. Louis in 1996 and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.He is one of nine former Cardinals honored with a statue outside Busch Stadium.
Seth Henigan, MVP of the 2023 AutoZone Liberty Bowl (photo by Wes Hale)
Under a sky as gray as the trim on their uniforms, the Memphis Tigers made some local football history at the 65th AutoZone Liberty Bowl. In beating Iowa State, 36-26, Friday afternoon at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, Memphis reached 10 wins in a season for only the fifth time in program history (and the fourth since 2014). The 2023 Tigers go into the record books as only the second to win 10 games and finish the season with a bowl victory, joining the 2014 squad.
The victory in its home stadium was the eighth postseason win in 16 games for Memphis, and crowned the Tigers champions of the oldest, most prestigious bowl game among those eight. The win serves as a measure of revenge for a loss the Tigers absorbed against the Cyclones in the 2017 AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
“108 years of Memphis football,” emphasized Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield after his third bowl victory in four years atop the program. “To be the fifth team ever to win 10 games . . . It’s been an absolute honor to coach this wonderful group of young men. They’ve gone through so many trials and tribulations, but they continue to persevere.”
Junior quarterback Seth Henigan earned MVP honors by tossing four touchdown passes and rushing for a fifth. His 70-yard strike to DeMeer Blankumsee on the third play of the game put the Tigers up in a contest they led for 58:41 out of 60 minutes of game action. Henigan’s 51-yard connection with Joe Scates made the score 19-0 before the end of the first quarter. The Cyclones closed within six points (19-13) late in the second quarter, but a Tanner Gillis field goal made it 22-13 at halftime. A pair of Henigan touchdown passes in the third quarter made the margin 36-13, enough to earn Memphis its first win over a “Power 5” program in 2023.
In passing for 364 yards, Henigan surpassed Brady White to establish a new career record for Memphis with 10,764 yards. He also became the first Tiger quarterback to complete 300 passes in a single season. Henigan intends to return for a fourth season in 2024.
“Our players expected to win the football game,” said Silverfield. “We knew who our opponent was. We cranked it up. Our players had full confidence in themselves.”
Both Henigan and the Tigers’ defensive player of the game — linebacker Chandler Martin — acknowledged aggravation at their team being a 10.5-point underdog against the Cyclones. “I took it personal,” said Henigan. Martin showed just how personal he took things by making five tackles behind the line of scrimmage, almost half his total (12) for the season entering the game. Martin’s heroics helped the Memphis defense hold Iowa State to zero rushing yards, a first for the Tiger program in 30 years. Memphis added another pair of zeroes to a remarkable postgame stat sheet: zero penalties and zero turnovers.
“Zero rushing yards [allowed] is a feat in any game,” noted Henigan, “but especially in a bowl game, against a good Big 12 opponent. The coaching staff preached the opportunity to have a 10-win season. That’s what we were playing for. Our guys knew that. This was a huge win, going into the offseason and recruiting.”
Silverfield likes to emphasize a word he put on the back of t-shirts way back in August, before temperatures cooled and the heat of a 12-game regular season rose: “finish.” Having finished the 2023 season as strongly as any team in the program’s history, the coach relished positive steps toward an “ultimate goal” he says the team still hasn’t achieved. “This season was unique,” he said, “as we found ways to win games that maybe in the past we hadn’t. We found ways to finish. College football has changed so much, but it’s still about building a program, and doing it the right way. My number-one job is to serve these young men. And that’s not going to change. This was a great way to put a ribbon on a fantastic season.”
