Tag: Boogie Ellis

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Tiger Truths

CREDIT: Memphis Athletics / Joe Murphy

You can learn a lot about a basketball team with four games in eight days. The Tigers finished January by winning three of those four games, and they displayed a few factors that will impact the remainder of the season.

Whither D.J. Jeffries? The sophomore forward from Olive Branch was a preseason second-team all-conference selection. It now seems he can’t crack the Tigers’ starting lineup. In the blowout wins over Wichita State and East Carolina, Jeffries scored a total of 13 points (and took 14 shots). He played well in the win over SMU at FedExForum (12 points off the bench; 5 of 7 from the field), but disappeared in the rematch at Dallas (a single point in 15 minutes on the floor), a game Memphis lost by two points. For now, Jeffries is this team’s enigma. He seems to have had some thunder stolen by transfers Landers Nolley and DeAndre Williams. For the Tigers to be their best in February, Jeffries must join the party.
Memphis Athletics / Joe Murphy

Penny Hardaway


Willpower is there, at least in bursts. Eight minutes into the first game against SMU, the Tigers were beaten. Down eight points, they looked to be facing a rarity: a more athletic group of basketball players. But a 17-2 run seized the lead at halftime and Memphis traded punches with the Mustangs over the final 20 minutes and earned the win. They utilized a run of precisely the same margin (17-2) to get back into the game at SMU two days later. They had a late lead. They had a chance to force overtime with free throws. It didn’t work out. But the fight was there. This is an important variable, especially with crowds still nonexistent for home games. The only way this team makes the NCAA tournament is by winning a few games in February that they shouldn’t. That will require teeth as much as talent.

The Tigers can shoot from distance. Memphis hit at least 10 three-pointers in the wins over Wichita State, East Carolina, and SMU. They hadn’t hit so many in any of their previous 11 games. Seven Tigers found the net from long range in the win over the Pirates. Not an especially strong opponent, but that kind of collective shooting is hard to beat. The beauty in this, of course, is that it’s hard for seven players to slump at the same time. Tiger coach Penny Hardaway needs to adjust his rotation to accommodate shooters who are on target, and this will surely change from one game to the next. The Tigers even hit nine treys in the loss to SMU. Add a 10th and that two-point loss is a fourth straight win. Follow this stat line the rest of the season.

This team’s “identity” is defense. It’s an overused descriptor for a group of athletes tasked with winning games and chasing championships: What’s their identity? Just as individual players have several layers to what they bring on game night, so does a team. Those layers are peeled back depending on the opponent, location, injuries, time of year. In other words, a team’s “identity” changes as a season unfolds. But these Memphis Tigers will go as far as their defense takes them. SMU guard Kendric Davis is a leading candidate for American Athletic Conference Player of the Year. In two games against the Tigers last week, Davis missed 21 of his 27 shots and committed nine turnovers. The Tigers rank 26th in the country in points allowed (62.9 through the second SMU game). They rank 13th in field-goal percentage defense (39 percent). They beat teams by stopping teams, an asset Hardaway has sought since taking the job.

Boogie is better than he’s been. It was hard seeing Boogie Ellis miss that second free throw in the final seconds of the loss at SMU. Because Ellis is the one Tiger most in need of finding his role for this team. Remember his 24 points in the season-opening win over St. Mary’s? He hasn’t put up as many as 15 in a game since. This is a scorer, one originally committed to, ahem, Duke. Ellis needs a confidence-booster, to be sure. Hardaway must find the right place and time to bring Boogie back.

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Tigers 85, Central Arkansas 68

The Tigers have their first winning streak of the season. Utilizing a 14-0 run to erase a two-point (42-40) halftime deficit, Memphis improved to 3-2 with a win over Central Arkansas Friday night at FedExForum. For the second game in a row — both home wins for the Tigers — Landers Nolley came off the bench to lead his team in scoring, this time with 23 points. The sophomore transfer from Virginia Tech has topped 20 points in three of the Tigers’ five games.

Landers Nolley

The Tigers played a sloppy first half, committing 12 fouls and 13 turnovers, enough to keep the Bears in contention in the visitors’ first game of the season. But a combination of frenetic defense and efficient offense over the first 10 minutes of the second half put the Tigers comfortably ahead in the first meeting between these programs since early in the 2009-10 season.

“This game was a lot tougher than we wanted, but it’s the type of game you can use film from to show the good and the bad to the guys and grow from it,” said Tiger coach Penny Hardaway. “Every game isn’t going to be perfect or pretty. I’ll take the win for sure.”

Three Memphis starters hit double figures in the scoring column: D.J. Jeffries (15 despite fouling out), Lester Quinones (14), and Boogie Ellis (10). As a team, the Tigers shot well from the field (42 percent) and foul line (80 percent). They forced 30 Bear turnovers.

Rylan Bergersen hit four three-pointers and led UCA with 22 points.

The Tigers will play their third straight home game next Tuesday when Mississippi Valley State visits FedExForum. They only have two nonconference games remaining before American Athletic Conference play gets underway with a trip to Tulane on December 16th.

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VCU 70, Tigers 59

CREDIT: Richard Carlson/Inertia

Playing their third game in three days at the Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, the Tigers fell to VCU Friday night in the third-place game. (West Virginia beat Western Kentucky earlier Friday for the tournament championship.) Vince Williams led the Rams with 15 points off the bench, supporting starters KeShawn Curry (14 points) and Nah’Shon Hyland (12 points) in a win that improves VCU to 2-1 to start the season while Memphis drops to 1-2.
Richard Carlson/Inertia

Damion Baugh

The Rams shot 44 percent from the field while holding the Tigers to 35 percent. D.J. Jeffries led Memphis with 17 points and Lester Quinones had 11, despite missing eight of his 11 shots from the field. Boogie Ellis scored 10 points off the Tiger bench. A day after putting up 25 points against Western Kentucky, Landers Nolley scored only five in 29 minutes of playing time.

The Tigers had six more turnovers (19) than assists (13) in their worst showing of the trip to the South Dakota.

“We are not there yet, but we’re going to get there,” said Memphis coach Penny Hardaway, staring at a losing record for only the second time in three seasons at the helm. “We have been working so hard. Everyone is buying in. We have no selfish players on the offensive end, and we should be one of the better defensive teams in the country. We get in this tournament and things go south, but now you have to learn from it.”

Memphis will host its first game of the new season Wednesday night when Arkansas State visits FedExForum. Their current schedule includes only three other games (December 4th, 8th, and 12th, all at home) before American Athletic Conference play begins (December 16th, at Tulane).

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Tigers 73, Saint Mary’s 56

CREDIT: Dave Eggen/Inertia

Boogie Ellis hit all six of his three-point attempts — including a buzzer-beating bank shot from just inside the half-court line to end the first half — to lead the Tigers to a season-opening win over Saint Mary’s in the quarterfinals of the Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls. The sophomore guard came off the bench and scored a career-high 24 points to help Memphis advance to the semifinals of the tournament, where they’ll play the winner of today’s Northern Iowa-Western Kentucky game on Thanksgiving.
Dave Eggen/Inertia

Boogie Ellis

The Tigers fell behind 8-0, but took the lead on a putback layup by freshman center Moussa Cisse midway through the first half. They would not trail again. Ellis’s circus shot gave the U of M a 42-26 lead at the break and the margin grew beyond 20 points (49-28) three minutes into the second half.

Cisse scored  10 points and pulled down seven rebounds in his Tiger debut. Transfer Landers Nolley also started in his first game for Memphis, scoring 11 points. Sophomore guard Damion Baugh added 10 points off the bench.

After leading the country in field-goal-percentage defense last season, the Tigers put the clamps on the Gaels, forcing 17 misses among 18 three-point attempts. Overall, Saint Mary’s shot 34 percent from the field while Memphis converted 43 percent of its shots.

Matthias Tass led the Gaels with 15 points.

“We are trying to be the number-one team in the country in opponent field goal percentage,” said Tiger coach Penny Hardaway, having started his third straight season with a victory. “That is something that we want to be at the very top in every year. For the most part, I am proud of the defense in holding that team to 56 points. With the way they like to play, that says a lot. We want to be the best defensive team in the country for sure.”

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2020-21 Tiger Hoops Preview

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

If the Almighty pays any attention to college basketball, He must have lost His breath by the end of the Memphis Tigers’ 2019-20 season. Penny Hardaway’s second winter as head coach was to be the revival of a once-proud program, and then some. The country’s most heralded recruiting class arrived. Surely a deep NCAA-tournament run awaited come March.

HA! The country’s top freshman — James Wiseman — departed the program after three games, neck deep in NCAA investigative eyes after a financial exchange between Hardaway (then East High School’s coach) and Wiseman’s family in 2017. The team’s second-leading scorer, D.J. Jeffries, went down with a knee injury the first week in February. Then just as the Tigers completed a second straight season in fifth place among American Athletic Conference teams . . . a pandemic eliminated March Madness. Pin that among your Memphis basketball seasons to remember.

Landers Nolley II

But Tiger basketball is back, pandemic be damned. Gone, of course, is Wiseman, along with Precious Achiuwa, the electric forward who became the first Tiger freshman to earn conference Player of the Year honors. (Wiseman and Achiuwa were the 2nd and 20th selections, respectively, in last week’s NBA draft, the first former Tigers chosen since 2012.) The U of M’s top three-point shooter over the last two seasons — Tyler Harris — transferred to Iowa State, two seasons of Hardaway’s tutelage enough for his ambitions. When the Tigers open play Wednesday in the Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, they’ll do so against the Saint Mary’s Gaels and not the Ohio State Buckeyes, the latter having pulled out of the event over, you guessed it, coronavirus concerns. (Duke also pulled out of the tournament. Positivity rates in South Dakota have recently topped 50 percent.)

Last year’s acclaimed freshmen — at least the five who remain — are now sophomores: guards Boogie Ellis, Lester Quinones, and Damion Baugh, and forwards Jeffries and Malcolm Dandridge. Hardaway expects, with a season behind them, these young veterans will make a larger impact than they did as college rookies. Add to this group a pair of significant transfers: sophomore Landers Nolley II (from Virginia Tech) and DeAndre Williams (from Evansville, pending NCAA approval to play this season). Nolley averaged 15.5 points per game for the Hokies last season and will be asked to fill the sharp-shooting role vacated by Harris. He hit 68 three-pointers as a freshman, but shot an underwhelming 32 percent from long distance. Williams started 15 games for the Purple Aces and averaged 15.2 points.

A pair of juniors — guard Alex Lomax and forward Lance Thomas — bring more experience to the floor for Memphis, though neither has found the consistency Hardaway would like to see. Having played for Hardaway since middle school, Lomax has adopted the “glue guy” role and will be expected to blanket opposing ball-handlers and shooters. Thomas teases with his height (6’9″) but averaged only 2.5 rebounds in 15 minutes per game last season. (He made 13 starts.)

Moussa Cisse

The star of Hardaway’s third recruiting class is center Moussa Cisse. A native of Guinea, the 6’10” Cisse averaged 18.4 points, 15.3 rebounds, and 9.2 blocks in leading Lausanne Collegiate School to a 2020 state championship. He was the top-ranked prospect in Tennessee after reclassifying last summer to the 2020 class. He’s the kind of interior defensive presence the Tiger program has lacked, for the most part, over the last decade. And nothing starts a fast break better than a blocked shot.

The Tigers are projected to finish second (behind Houston) in the preseason AAC coaches poll. They did not place a player on the first-team preseason all-conference squad (Jeffries and Nolley made the second team), and they are outside the Top 25 looking in. Cisse is picked to win the league’s Rookie of the Year honor, but Hardaway, needless to say, is aiming for loftier achievements.

“It’s refreshing to have [last year’s] freshmen understand their roles now,” says Hardaway. “They put a lot of pressure on themselves last season. And to see how good Landers and DeAndre are . . . they’re great additions. We feel like we have the talent, but we haven’t proven anything yet. We’re going to have to earn everything.”

After three games in Sioux Falls, the Tigers will open their home schedule December 2nd when Arkansas State visits FedExForum. (Attendance will be limited to between 3,000 and 3,500 fans, at least at the season’s outset.) There will be only two other nonconference foes (Mississippi Valley State and Auburn) before the Tigers embark, fingers firmly crossed, on a 20-game league gauntlet.

“The two years I’ve coached [at this level] have taught me a lot,” says Hardaway. “I don’t think anything we’ll surprise me. We’re ready for every situation, any scenario. After two years, I’ve seen what I need to do as a coach. In the beginning, I was fast-tracking everything. But I’m caught up, and looking at things better on and off the court.”

The University Memphis has somehow played six seasons without reaching the Big Dance, and the program hasn’t gone seven years without proper Madness since the days when the tournament invited fewer than 30 teams (1963-72). Will there be a 2021 NCAA tournament? Will it be played in a single-city “bubble” for pandemic protection? A bigger question for a long-frustrated Tiger fan base: Would a return to the tournament bring jubilation, or merely a sigh of relief? Take a few deep breaths and grab your face coverings, because we’re about to find out.

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#14 Tigers 97, South Carolina State 64

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

“James Wiseman makes the game a lot easier for everybody.” — Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway

The 99th season of Memphis Tiger basketball opened Tuesday night at FedExForum with the number one on the mind of every fan in attendance. Coach Penny Hardaway’s top-ranked recruiting class — and the debut of James Wiseman, the country’s top-ranked freshman — headlined the Tigers’ thorough beating of South Carolina State. For the first time in program history, five freshmen started the season-opener and six true freshmen played 65 percent of the total minutes. Wiseman delivered 28 points and 11 rebounds in just 22 minutes of playing time after sitting out the team’s two exhibition games with what’s been described as a minor ankle injury.

Larry Kuzniewski

James Wiseman

“[James] was going to erase a lot of the woes we were having,” noted Hardaway after the game, the only mention of “woes” connected with his team in quite some time. “I’m really proud of our team. We’re young, maybe the youngest in the country. We were a little stagnant at first, but it became a beautiful night for lots of reasons. Our game-plan discipline, the way we shared the basketball. We boxed out, only gave up seven offensive rebounds.”

The Bulldogs made their first five field-goal attempts — three of them from long range — and took an early 13-8 lead. But the Tigers discovered their first rhythm of the season offensively and took command well before halftime. Memphis converted six dunks — three of them by Wiseman — in the game’s first six minutes. After six misses from three-point range, D.J. Jeffries drained the Tigers’ first three-pointer of the season from the right corner to help build an 18-point (50-32) halftime lead. Wiseman had 20 points and eight rebounds at the break.

“I just took it possession by possession,” said Wiseman, who said there was no discomfort in his ankles. “I trusted my teammates, and ran the floor. When I do that, the floor opens tremendously. The atmosphere was crazy. Playing the game we love, it was a lot of fun.”

“We’re young, and we have to play against ourselves,” said Hardaway. “You have to build on sharing the basketball. Don’t let any outside noise come in. They might say, ‘You didn’t get enough shots tonight.’ Or ‘You didn’t get enough minutes.’ The games are gonna get tougher as we go. But overall, we have to protect our young guys from outside noise, any negativity.”

Sophomore guard Alex Lomax saw nothing negative in the arrival of Wiseman, his former teammate at East High School (where they won a 2018 state championship under Hardaway). “James Wiseman makes a team go from a one to a ten. He led the way, made a lot of easy baskets and was an intimidator on defense. It’s been a long time since I threw a lob to James . . . the easiest assist in the world.”

Larry Kuzniewski

Lester Quinones

Lomax scored eight points off the bench to support Wiseman, a total matched by three freshman teammates (Boogie Ellis, Damion Baugh, and Lester Quinones). Freshman forward Precious Achiuwa picked up a pair of early fouls but scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds in just 18 minutes of action. Baugh led the Tigers with eight assists and Jayden Hardaway (the coach’s son) scored nine points in 11 minutes off the bench.

Ian Kinard led the Bulldogs with 13 points.

Thirty regular-season games remain to be played before the 14th-ranked Tigers know if the preseason hype can be translated into significant hardware. But Hardaway sounded like a coach excited to see the plot unfold, particularly with his new leading man back on center stage. “It’s amazing, just seeing [Wiseman] run the floor,” said Hardaway. “Them throwing the ball toward the rim, and him finishing. That’s such a huge luxury. I had that in the NBA with [Shaquille O’Neal]. Just put it anywhere near the rim, and you get an assist from that. And him getting offensive rebounds.”

The Tigers host UIC (Illinois-Chicago) Friday night at FedExForum, with tip-off scheduled for 6 p.m.