The Memphis Tigers raised the lid on the 2008-09 basketball
season Saturday night with a 90-63 victory over Fairfield (a team expected to
contend in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) at FedExForum. As with any
opening night, the game was packaged with first impressions. Some of these are
worth noting — and pocketing — for the four months ahead.
• Seniors Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozer are the
decorated leaders of this team, and freshman Tyreke Evans will steal many of the
headlines with his ability to score, but if you want to trace the arc of the
season ahead, you’d do well to follow the progress of juniors Willie Kemp and
Shawn Taggart.
Back in the starting lineup after a one-year apprenticeship
under Derrick Rose, Kemp played 20 minutes Saturday night (after averaging under
14 as a sophomore). He dished out five assists (with only one turnover) and
picked up four steals. As for Taggart, the Tigers’ starting center played 26
minutes (after averaging 17 a year ago), scoring 14 points and grabbing 12
rebounds.
Elevated play from Kemp and Taggart will raise the Memphis
ship in ways the more known variables can’t. Particularly on defense, Taggart
will combine with Pierre Henderson-Niles as a tandem replacement for Joey Dorsey
in the pivot. Henderson-Niles wasn’t as active on the boards against Fairfield
as he’ll need to be (only two rebounds), but he ran the floor better than he
ever has, at one point putting a charge into the crowd by sprinting back to
deflect a fullcourt pass that might have otherwise been an easy Stag layup.
“Shawn’s longer than I am,” noted Henderson-Niles. “He
blocks shots, but I’m stronger on the inside. We just have to work together,
doing what we do. I think we can hold it down.” weighing in at 300 pounds,
Henderson-Niles says he has three more to lose in an effort to reach the
preseason goal established by Tiger coach John Calipari.
“For Shawn and Pierre,” emphasized Calipari after the game,
“it’s about sustaining the effort for 40 minutes [between them].”
• The most anticipated debut of the evening was that of
Tiger swingman Evans, this year’s “freshman phenom.” Having missed 10 of 12
workouts (including the team’s only exhibition game) with an ankle injury and
stomach ailment, Evans rose from the bench three minutes into the game and was
welcomed to the floor by a roar from the 17,741 in attendance. For the record,
Evans’ first Tiger points came on a slashing layup a minute-and-a-half later,
following a fastbreak feed from Antonio Anderson.
Evans went on to lead Memphis with 19 points in 24 minutes
of action. But it was a quiet 19, with nary a dunk or three-pointer.
Particularly near the basket, Evans showed an acumen for finishing, converting
seven of 12 field-goal attempts (and five of seven from the free-throw stripe).
His endurance was compromised by the recent time away, with cramps forcing him
to the bench at one point in the second half. Calipari explained after the game
that he brought Evans off the bench because he was convinced he’d exhaust
himself if exposed to the quick pace of a game’s start.
Look for Evans to be in the starting lineup in the very
near future, with closer to 30 minutes on his postgame stat line. In size,
appearance, and scoring ability, Evans calls to mind Bernard King, the former
Tennessee All-America who had a long and successful career as a scorer in the
NBA.
• I asked Kemp and Henderson-Niles about the impact of the
new three-point line (a foot deeper than it was a year ago), and if the
extension might actually help the Tigers’ motion offense, as zone defenses —
like the one played by Fairfield — might have to stretch further to contest
Memphis shooters. While Kemp emphasized that this will be the case only if
shooters are on target, Henderson-Niles added some perspective from the
interior. “We have great shooters,” he said, “so if defenses pressure them, it
opens the middle. They can flash to the middle, or it could leave the lane wide
open and they can dump the ball off to a big man.”
Sophomore guard Roburt Sallie — a rookie in the Tiger
program – drained two three-pointers early in the second half. If he can
complement the long-distance shooting of Kemp, Anderson, Evans, and Doneal Mack
(three treys Saturday night), the Tigers may well embrace that extra foot for
the interior elbow room it ultimately provides.
