Tag: Jeremiah Martin

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Sports Tiger Blue

AAC Semifinals: #11 Houston 61, Tigers 58

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

An already uncomfortable drought for University of Memphis basketball fans grew by a year Saturday afternoon at FedExForum. In falling to the 11th-ranked Houston Cougars in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament, the Tigers fell short of an NCAA tournament berth for a fifth straight season. Having climbed into the program’s top 10 for both career points and assists, senior Jeremiah Martin must now wait for the possibility of an NIT appearance, his name now in the discussion of the greatest Tiger to never appear in the Big Dance.
Larry Kuzniewski

Jeremiah Martin

“We understood what they were gonna do,” said Memphis coach Penny Hardaway after the loss. “They come out hard, and play for 40 minutes. We just didn’t meet the challenge. We fought hard, and I’m proud of the guys for staying in the game. We just made too many mistakes in the game plan.”

Houston had a nine-point lead midway through the first half and led by 10 (36-26) at halftime. After a Tiger spurt to open the second half closed the margin to five points (36-31), the Cougars quickly regained command with five points in 40 seconds. Houston led by double digits for most of the second half until Memphis began a 10-1 run at the five-minute mark. Both Martin and freshman guard Tyler Harris had open looks at three-pointers to tie the game in the final thirty seconds but were unable to connect. Despite not scoring a point over the game’s final 3:47, Houston secured the win to advance to Sunday’s championship game. The Cougars are now 31-2 while the Tigers fell to 21-13.

Hardaway hopes for that NIT bid, primarily for the chance to extend Martin’s career. “[Jeremiah] has been our savior, honestly,” he said. “He put us on his back. We played him a ton of minutes, this last month and a half. He’s been here four years and will go down as one of the better guards we’ve had. I hope his season isn’t over.”

Martin managed to score 23 points despite shooting 5-for-24 from the field. (He hit 12 of 14 free throws.) “He’s a veteran,” acknowledged Houston coach Kelvin Sampson. “Lot of moxie.” Overall, the Tigers hit only 16 of 68 shots (24 percent) from the field. They stayed in the contest at the foul line, where they connected on 22 of 26 attempts and Houston missed 13 of 27. After contributing mightily to the Tigers’ quarterfinal upset of UCF Friday, the Tiger bench contributed only 13 points Saturday, with both Isaiah Maurice and Harris held scoreless.
Larry Kuzniewski

Penny Hardaway

Senior forward Kyvon Davenport was limited by soreness in one of his legs, an injury Hardaway only learned about prior to tip-off. Davenport scored eight points in 26 minutes, but was not on the floor for the decisive final minute of play.

All-conference guard Corey Davis led the Cougars with 17 points, the only other player besides Martin in double figures.

“I haven’t shot well this whole tournament,” acknowledged Martin. “Houston is gonna come with physicality. I thought I had the [tying] shot; it just didn’t go in.”

“I didn’t expect to have Rome built in a day,” said Hardaway. “I wanted to gradually get better. To be as good as we could be around this time, to be gelling. That’s what’s happened. The guys have grown a lot. We’re more defensive-minded.”

“Everything happens for a reason,” said Martin when asked about the disappointment of again coming up short of an NCAA tournament big. “I don’t question God; He knows my path. If we get into the NIT, I’m gonna go out and play hard, try to win it.”

“We had an opportunity,” said Hardaway. “We didn’t seize the moment, but we put ourselves in position, beating a good UCF team. I want to take the energy I felt going into this game to next season.”

The 32-team NIT field will be announced Sunday evening, shortly after the 68-team NCAA tournament field is complete.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Jeremiah’s Time

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Four Tiger basketball players who transferred to Memphis in 2017 will be saluted this Saturday at FedExForum, and rightfully so. But with due respect to Kareem Brewton Jr., Kyvon Davenport, Mike Parks Jr., and Raynere Thornton, let’s call this year’s Senior Day what it should be called: Jeremiah Martin Day in Memphis. A Tiger who averaged 2.7 points (and 13.8 minutes) per game as a freshman will likely finish his career among the top ten scorers in Memphis history and 10th in assists. There are precisely two other players over a century of Tiger basketball who rank as highly in both categories: Elliot Perry and Joe Jackson. Last month, the pride of Mitchell High School became the first Tiger to score 40 points in two games in a career (and he came three points shy of doing it a third time). A player who seemed misplaced upon his arrival will leave the program among the most memorable of all time. “It’s been a journey,” emphasizes Martin, “but it’s been great, no regrets. No looking back.”
Larry Kuzniewski

Martin’s journey has included time with three different head coaches: Josh Pastner his freshman season, two years with Tubby Smith, and this season under Penny Hardaway. His first practice was at the Larry Finch Center. His last will be at the extravagant Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center. “It’s a different program,” says Martin. “Every coach has different philosophies. My first year was a struggle, the transition from high school. Coach Pastner was always on me about playing hard, making myself fit in. I was turned into a full-time point guard; that was one of the hardest parts. Coach Smith was about doing everything the right way. And Coach Hardaway shows us how to be a pro. He and the entire staff emphasize how to be a professional.”

Few players in Memphis history personify the concept of development at the college level like Martin. After stumbling as a freshman, Martin took command of the Tiger offense as a sophomore, handing out more than twice as many assists (142) as turnovers (63), then earned second-team all-conference honors in 2018 when he finished second in the American Athletic Conference in scoring (18.9 points per game). He recovered from a foot injury that ended his junior season and today represents his team’s only real chance to win the AAC tournament and capture a prize that’s eluded him to this point: an NCAA tournament berth.

“The one thing I didn’t know he could do is score in volume,” says Hardaway. “He averaged 19 points last year, but to score 40 in a half [as Martin did at USF]? To catch fire and catch rhythm like that? That’s amazing; he’s amazed me this year.”

Martin’s not at ease discussing his skill set, but acknowledges an improved jump shot magnified his threat on the offensive end. And then there’s confidence, the intangible that tends to grow exponentially when a player spends four years in college. “I can play at my own pace,” says Martin. “I can get players — on offense or defense — to play at my pace. I can speed them up, or change speeds. I didn’t envision myself being the same player I was last year. It comes with putting in the work.”

Martin counts Faragi Phillips, his coach at Mitchell (and currently the coach at Whitehaven High School), among those who’ve made the greatest impact on his rise as a player and person. He remains Memphis to the deepest part of his core, a connection he’s relished this winter as the city has come to appreciate and celebrate his remarkable play. “I could’ve left,” says Martin, “but I was loyal to the city, even more than the coaches. I love this city. I get to be with my family.”

With a one-year-old daughter, Martin has all the more reason to play near home, but he’s prepared for what’s next, wherever “next” may be. “I want to play in the NBA,” he says. “That’s my dream, what drives me. That should be everybody’s ultimate goal at this level. I want to be there, long term.” Whether or not his name gets called in June’s draft, Martin intends to play professionally, if not in the NBA, perhaps the G League or overseas. But for now, there are a few more games in blue and gray. Jeremiah Martin will finish his Tiger career as living proof that some stars shine brightest when not born, but made.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 88, Wichita State 85

Jeremiah Martin‘s latest scoring surge helped the Tigers erase a four-point halftime deficit Saturday night at Wichita State and earn their fourth victory of the season away from FedExForum. Martin came up three points shy of his third 40-point outing of the month, drilling nine of 19 shots from the field (including five of eight three-point attempts) and connecting on all 14 of his free throws. The 37 points vaulted Martin past Andre Turner and into 13th on the Memphis alltime scoring chart.

The Tigers earned their third two-game sweep in American Athletic Conference play by beating the Shockers. (They also swept East Carolina and Tulane.) Memphis improves to 9-6 in the AAC and 17-11 overall. The Tigers trail UCF (9-4) by two games in the loss column for fourth place in the conference, a position that would earn them a bye in the opening round of next month’s AAC tournament in Memphis.

Raynere Thornton added 16 points and Kareem Brewton 14 for the Tigers. Memphis shot 46 percent from the field.

Dexter Dennis and Jaime Echenique scored 17 points to the lead the Shockers who fell to 13-13 on the season (6-8 in the AAC).

The win — the Tigers’ fourth in five games — clinches a .500 record for Memphis in the AAC. They have three regular-season games remaining on the schedule, the next a home matchup with Temple on Tuesday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m.

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From My Seat Sports

Futures Trading

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

When my daughters were younger, I had some uncomfortable conversations with them, trying to explain why one of their favorite players was traded by one of their favorite teams. It’s the kind of transaction we adults come to expect, accept, even tolerate. But for kids, those “future fans” who are actually a team’s lifeblood for longterm success? It can be a hard conversation.

Larry Kuzniewski

Marc Gasol

“David Freese was MVP in the World Series. Just two years ago. Why would the Cardinals trade him?” The question — from my then 14-year-old — was perfectly reasonable. My attempt at an answer: “Well, Sofia, St. Louis feels like Matt Carpenter is a better hitter, a better long-term fit in the lineup, and fits better at third base than second base.” She looked at me, expressionless. Shook her head and left the room. (She’s a David Freese fan to this day.)

Now, find a Memphis Grizzlies fan younger than 15. And I challenge you to explain last week’s trade-deadline deals, most significantly the one that sent franchise icon Marc Gasol to the Toronto Raptors. “Is Jonas Valanciunas better than Marc Gasol?” No. “Do the Grizzlies have a better fit at center, long-term?” No. “Did Gasol not like playing in Memphis?” No.

Trades have become budget deals and little more. They’ve become stock plays for future returns, rarely immediate. (The last significant midseason trade that helped a team win a championship at season’s end? Houston’s acquisition of Clyde Drexler on Valentine’s Day in 1995.) They are an accountant’s fantasy league, the addition of not-yet-spent dollars here, the subtraction of contracted dollars there.

I don’t mean to pick on Bobby Parks, ESPN’s “front office insider,” but this was an actual tweet he posted shortly after one of the Grizzlies’ other trades last week: “Avery Bradley has a $12M cap hit this season and $12.96M for 2019-20. Bradley has $2M guaranteed for next season. Memphis has until July 3 to guarantee his full salary. The Grizzlies will create a $7.6M trade exception.” Explain that to your 12-year-old Grizzlies fan, the one wiping tears away after the Gasol trade, hoping that Avery Bradley is somehow a step in the right direction toward more happy nights at FedExForum. “What’s a $7.6M trade exception?”

Gasol and the Grizzlies needed to part ways, I suppose. Big Spain is 34 years old and would love to be part of a championship team, something the Grizzlies won’t be able to provide in the next three or four years. And maybe that’s your explanation for a young fan: Even our sports heroes are mortal. Father Time remains undefeated. If you love someone, let him go. Something like that.

I’m choosing to leave the bean-counting forecasts to Parks and his ilk. Maybe the numbers — some added, some subtracted — will one day yield a sharpshooting wing who can complement the rising star Memphis has in Jaren Jackson Jr. Maybe the empty pieces acquired last week — What is a Tyler Dorsey? — will be flipped into meaningful salaries for legitimate rotation players, the kind of players who sell jerseys in the FedExForum team store. You know, like Marc Gasol. But for now, any attempt at interpreting what shook down last week between the Grizzlies and their trade partners is  a fool’s errand. If you can’t explain it to a pack of middle-school Griz fans, perhaps it needs no explaining.

• With seven more points, senior guard Jeremiah Martin will pass Penny Hardaway for 17th on the Memphis Tigers’ career scoring chart. (Let’s remember the current Tiger coach only played two seasons.) Perhaps more significantly, with 15 more assists, Martin will become only the fifth Tiger to rank in the program’s top-20 for scoring and top-10 for assists. He’ll join Alvin Wright, Andre Turner, Elliot Perry, and Joe Jackson.

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Sports Tiger Blue

41 in 20

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

I spent the better part of last weekend trying to process what I saw early Saturday when Memphis point guard Jeremiah Martin scored 41 points in one half of a basketball game at USF. It’s the rare athletic performance one knows will not be witnessed again. A player with a career average of less than 15 points per game, with a career-high — for an entire game — of 33 points does not score 41 points in 20 minutes. But that’s precisely what the pride of Mitchell High School did on Saturday in Tampa, Florida.
Larry Kuzniewski

Jeremiah Martin

How does Martin’s Groundhog Day measure historically in these parts? Consider that only five Tigers have scored more than 41 points in an entire game. (The program record is 48 points by Larry Finch  against St. Joseph’s on January 20, 1973.) No Memphis player had scored as many as 40 since December 13, 1997 (Marcus Moody). Martin almost won the American Athletic Conference scoring title as a junior last season . . . but with an average of 18.9 points per game. He had scored as many as 30 — in a game — only twice before. For him to score more than two points per minute for an entire half of basketball? I was looking for that Blood Wolf Moon days after the celestial phenomenon had passed.

But here’s the uncomfortable sidebar to Martin’s extraordinary scoring surge: Where was Martin in the first half? In falling behind 27-1 over the game’s first 10 minutes, the Tigers played 30 minutes of catch-up basketball that required something Herculean — from somebody, anybody — just to make the game interesting. And against a team projected to finish dead last in the AAC. (USF, now 15-6, is making a nice statement on the credibility of preseason coaches’ polls.) Martin is as guilty as all his teammates (particularly his fellow starters) and the entire Tiger coaching staff for serial somnolence at tip-off this season, particularly when Memphis is playing on the road. Providing an opponent a 10-point cushion before the first media timeout is a prescription for stressful play. There are Tiger fans who missed Martin’s outburst because they turned the game off before halftime. 27-1? It was a warm, sunny Saturday in the Mid-South. Game off.

I kept watching the game. Started counting the three-pointers Martin made: three … five … eventually seven. Watched a player who averaged 2.7 points and 13.8 minutes as a freshman heat up like no Tiger ever has before. Not Finch, not Keith Lee, not Martin’s acclaimed and decorated head coach. It was unforeseen and unnatural. Sadly, it was part of a Memphis loss, so it will be swept away in the cliche we know and love best: “Individual performances mean nothing if the team doesn’t win.”

For those of us who saw Jeremiah Martin score 41 points in 20 minutes, it does, in fact, mean something. A legitimate lightning strike on the hardwood, and generated by one of the most likable Tigers to suit up this century. Here’s hoping “Peso” can spread his impact a bit more evenly over the season’s final month. But for that one game — that one half — on Groundhog Day in Tampa? Thank you.

• The Cincinnati Bearcats are not the Louisville Cardinals, but there’s no greater Memphis rival in the American Athletic Conference. Thursday night at FedExForum, Penny Hardaway will coach for the first time against the program that beat his Tigers three times in the 1991-92 season, including a 31-point beatdown in the NCAA tournament’s Midwest Regional final. These teams have played 77 times since 1968 (Memphis has won 44). Long before the AAC formed in 2013, they competed as members of the Missouri Valley Conference, then later the Metro, Great Midwest, and Conference USA. Cincinnati has brought villains to the Bluff City (Nick Van Exel, Danny Fortson, and Steve Logan to name just three) and Bearcats have been on the floor for historic Tiger wins (Larry Finch’s last as Memphis coach in 1997).  The Bearcats (19-3 and 8-1 in the AAC) are playing at a level Hardaway and his team have yet to reach. As Thursday opens a new chapter in this 50-year rivalry, the Tigers hope their revitalized home-court advantage might close the gap, at least for one night.

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Cover Feature News

Penny’s Worth

Anfernee Hardaway is home again. As if he ever left.

On a rainy March afternoon, inside the brand-new Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center on the University of Memphis’ south campus, Tiger athletic director Tom Bowen introduced the greatest living Tiger of them all as the program’s new basketball coach.

First gaining legend status at Treadwell High School, then later as a Tiger and an All-NBA guard with the Orlando Magic, Penny Hardaway approached the podium, and a region-wide family reunion ensued. “It’s great to see so many familiar faces from when I played, the people who have been so supportive,” said Hardaway who, at 47, is older today than his own college coach, Larry Finch, was when he coached his last Tiger game. “I want to see the Memphis flags waving from cars, see the T-shirts and hats.”

Those shirts and hats had grown scarce at FedExForum, where attendance hit a half-century low in 2017-18, despite Tubby Smith’s second team putting up a 21-13 record and junior point guard Jeremiah Martin nearly winning the American Athletic Conference scoring title. For the better part of those two years — since Josh Pastner left for Georgia Tech — community support for Hardaway taking over at his alma mater had grown — at first gentle rumbling, then later, outright public appeals. Hardaway’s ultimate hiring became the worst-kept secret in the Mid-South, with reports leaking before Smith had the chance to coach the Tigers in the AAC tournament (where they would lose in the semifinals).

Within 30 days of his hiring, Hardaway managed to convince the top two local recruits — Alex Lomax (who helped Hardaway win three state titles at East High School) and Tyler Harris (Cordova High) — to sign with Memphis. Hardaway announced Tennessee had been added to the schedule (the Tigers will host the Vols on December 15th) with the likes of Kentucky and Arkansas on the new coach’s radar. The reaction of ticket-buyers and sponsors has, in basketball terms, lit up the Memphis scoreboard ever since. Having sunk to a 48-year low in attendance last winter, the Tiger program may well set new highs in 2018-19, the program’s 15th season at FedExForum.

Guard Tyler Harris

Sharpshooter David Wingett (who scored more than 2,000 points as a prep player in Nebraska) joined the recruiting class to help fill an outside-scoring void the program has suffered for four seasons. The rookies will join Martin and four other holdovers — guard Kareem Brewton and forwards Kyvon Davenport, Raynere Thornton, and Mike Parks — to write the first chapter in a new volume of Hardaway history.

“Losing is not an option in my mind,” said Hardaway at that opening press conference. “I want to hit the ground running. People are telling me to be patient, do this or that first. But I’m not built that way. I’ll go for it all or none at all.”

Tigers Coach Penny Hardaway leads from the sidelines.

Even with a recruiting class that jumped into the nation’s top 30 when Lomax and Harris signed, the Tigers have been picked to finish as low as eighth in the 12-team American Athletic Conference. (AAC coaches picked Memphis to finish fourth — behind UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston — in their preseason poll.) This doesn’t sit well with the rookie coach, who needs extra motivation like he needed extra vertical leap as a player, which is to say — not! “It’s realistic that we will not finish eighth,” he says. “They were thinking the freshmen can’t carry us, and they’re really not respecting the staff or the guys coming back from last year, when they finished fifth.”

What — beyond himself — can Penny sell a Tiger fan-base that all but disappeared last winter? Hardaway suggests we’ll see a different brand of basketball from the season’s opening tip-off. “I think I’m a little more up-tempo than Coach [Smith],” he says. “We really want to run, fast break. There won’t be a lot of half-court [offense]. We want to get it out. Defensively, we might press more. We’ll be a high-energy team on defense, as well. I like to speed teams up, keep them off-balance. I want it to be a blur. By the first timeout, I want teams playing us to be gassed.”

For any team to accelerate pace as Hardaway envisions, guard play — and guard depth — will be critical. The new coach sees as many as five players who can handle point-guard duty, though in this era of “positionless” basketball (see the Golden State Warriors and count their trophies), the primary value a guard brings the Tigers will be his versatility.

Forward Kyvon Davenport

“You only go as far as your guards,” says Martin, a preseason all-conference selection who will be playing for his third coach in four years. The Mitchell High School alum averaged 18.9 points and 3.8 assists last season, though he missed the Tigers’ final six games with a fracture in his right foot. Martin had hernia surgery in August, but appears to be in game shape for a season of leadership. “I was never in bad spirits about my injury,” he says. “Everything happens for a reason. The team’s not just about me. It’s a process, but I sat out so long, now that I’m back, I’ve got to get back right. I’m gonna keep working hard to get there.”

Martin is prepared to attack with the ball in his hands or from the wing when the likes of Brewton (a fellow senior), Lomax, or Harris is handling the ball. If Hardaway’s vision is realized, the ball won’t be in anyone’s hands very long. “My whole life, I’ve been on the ball some, and off the ball,” stresses Martin. “I’m just a basketball player, to be honest.”

Lomax and Harris grew up as friendly rivals, Lomax playing for Hardaway with Team Penny on the AAU circuit while Harris developed with Team Thad. (Hardaway acknowledges that he tried to persuade Harris to join his team, but to no avail. Until now.) Harris is small (5’9″ and 150 pounds), but can light up a scoreboard. He averaged 30.3 points as a senior and was named Class AAA Mr. Basketball after becoming just the 12th Memphis high school player to score 2,500 career points. Lomax took home the Mr. Basketball award after both his sophomore and junior seasons at East. In his four years as a Mustang, the team went 122-18. Having played for Hardaway since he was in 5th grade, Lomax is more than comfortable in his role as a freshman, and he’s ready to join forces with Harris.

Guard Jeremiah Martin

“Coach teaches an NBA style, so it’s not all that different,” says Lomax. “He knows what it takes; he’s been through it. He relays the message, and it’s our job to go out and put it on the court. Playing with Tyler may be one of the best things that ever happened to me. We offset each other well. He does a lot of things I don’t do. If he’s open 10 times, I’ll find him 10 times. It’s a new friendship; we talk every day now.” If you doubt Hardaway’s influence on Lomax, ask him what he’d like to contribute as a freshman: “I hope I can make an impact defensively, and I just want to win games.”

Not to be lost in the guard shuffle are Brewton and another freshman, Antwann Jones. Brewton averaged 9.1 points as a junior and part-time starter last season. He was second only to Martin in assists and steals. “Everybody wants to play and get buckets,” notes Brewton, “but how are you gonna get buckets? You gotta play defense.” Already preaching the Hardaway philosophy, Brewton has embraced the program’s new culture. “There’s a lot of energy,” he stresses. “It’s a family atmosphere.”

Brewton and Hardaway each see something of themselves in Jones, the 6’6″ guard from Orlando and a third top-100 recruit Hardaway was able to capture. For Brewton, it’s Jones’ ability to score, his aggressiveness with the ball, even as a rookie. As for the comparisons with Hardaway the player, consider those a means of motivation for a player aiming to seize minutes on the floor.

A slimmed-down Mike Parks (he lost 20 pounds over the offseason) and Raynere Thornton will be counted on for muscle this season. The two combined for 8.4 rebounds per game last year, a number that needs to grow if the Tigers are to minimize opponent possessions. Junior transfer Isaiah Maurice brings additional size (he’s 6’10”) and athleticism to the Tigers’ frontcourt. With Parks sidelined by a back ailment, Maurice started the exhibition game against LeMoyne-Owen and contributed 18 points and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes.

Among Tiger big men, though, track the progress of Davenport. The Georgia native averaged 13.3 points and led the Tigers with 6.1 rebounds per game last season. He’ll be a focal point this winter, according to Hardaway. “We expect a lot from Kyvon,” says Hardaway. “There are going to be some wrinkles where we get shots specifically for him. Last year, he did it off the glass, didn’t get a lot of plays run for him. We’re going to have to get him the ball; we need him to score.”

Davenport’s length and ability to run the floor are ingredients for a difference-making finisher, one who can follow a break, receive and deliver lobs, or clean up missed shots. “[Coach Hardaway] lets everyone play their own game,” emphasizes Davenport. “It’s better for everybody. You’re gonna play your role, but you’re free. No restrictions.”

And Davenport loves the pace. “We’ve been killing ourselves in practice,” he says. “When we get to a game, it’s going to be easier for us, with the timeouts.” Davenport recognizes a sense of immediacy this season, his last as a Tiger. And he wants to make the kind of impression that lasts beyond his days in Memphis. “I want to be remembered as a great teammate,” he says, “one who helped develop the freshmen and led this team somewhere special.”

And what are we to expect from a rookie coach more famous than most of the seasoned counterparts he’ll confront? “For the most part,” says Hardaway, “coaching is understanding who you have on your team, understanding yourself, understanding situations.” As aggressively as he attacked defenders during his playing days, it shouldn’t surprise that Hardaway isn’t timid when it comes to the new gig. “My biggest strength is in-game adjustments,” he says. “We’ll have our team prepared. But every game doesn’t go as planned, and you may have to adjust. That’s where my strength comes into play. The culture we’re trying to build around here is multiple efforts, toughness, playing hard when you’re on the floor.”

If anything, Hardaway will have to resist the urge to don a game uniform when the lights are turned on and 17,000 fans pack FedExForum for a show we haven’t seen in these parts in some time. “I’m ready to get into the arena,” says the coach a fan base will continue to call by his famous nickname. “I’ve always prepared well, so practice is great. But to get into the arena . . . I want to feel the jitters. I’m anxious to get there.”

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From My Seat Sports

Hey NCAA, Vacate This!

History can be revised, to some degree, by intelligent and thorough historians. But history cannot be erased, no matter how much the NCAA believes it can. Last week, the national governing body for American college sports decided Louisville must vacate its national basketball championship — won right before our eyes in 2013 — as part of its punishment for a slew of violations under former coach Rick Pitino. The history books, according to the NCAA, will now read “vacated” between Kentucky’s title in 2012 and Connecticut’s in 2014.

This is absurd, of course. No more or less absurd than USC’s vacated football championship in 2004, but just as absurd. Games played on a field (or court) can be erased only when that device made famous in the Men In Black movies is actually invented for the elimination of memories on a mass human scale. If you find it hard to forget Louisville’s Kevin Ware shattering his lower leg during that 2013 NCAA tournament, imagine the NCAA now trying to tell us it didn’t happen, that the Cardinals’ tournament run that season is now . . . vacated.

This kind of penalty is salt to the wound for followers of the Memphis basketball program, whose 2008 Final Four banner is currently in an undisclosed closet. The Tigers were forced to take that banner down when the Derrick Rose test-taking scandal came to light (in 2009), though the 1985 Final Four banner — for a run also vacated by the NCAA — hangs proudly from the rafters at FedExForum.

Cheaters must be punished and yes, there is cheating in college sports. But the sad and unfair truth is that athletes must often pay for misdeeds that occurred before they arrived on campus. Erasing history just can’t be done. Would the NCAA return any proceeds from games Louisville played five years ago? Would it reimburse Memphis fans who paid hard-earned money to watch the scandalous Rose in the winter of 2007-08? The answers are no and hell no.

Punish programs clearly in violation of NCAA rules and regs. But leave history — and its banners — alone. We saw what happened.

• I find the strategy of tanking in professional sports repugnant. By now you know the concept: compile losses now with the hope of acquiring high draft picks — and actually competing — later. Baseball’s two most recent champions perfected this craft. The Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros fielded historically poor teams for multiple seasons before building rosters around draft jewels like Kris Bryant (Cubs) and Carlos Correa (Astros) and winning the World Series.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver was right to fine Mavericks owner Mark Cuban last week for publicly acknowledging that losing is in his team’s best interests this season. If a franchise is going to openly concede games — in an industry built on a foundation of competition — it had better slash the cost of tickets and sponsorships. And no child should have to pay for a ticket to see his or her home team suit up a roster shy of its best.

As long as the NBA has a lottery system for its draft — no matter how it’s weighted — there will be incentives to accumulate losses. So here’s a novel idea: order the draft by the number of tickets sold by teams that miss the playoffs. Reward struggling franchises that retain the support of their fan base. The more home tickets sold in a down year, the higher that team will pick in the next draft. Fans are smart, and their money is as honest as Mark Cuban. Losing on purpose can’t be sold.

• The only silver lining to Tiger point guard Jeremiah Martin’s season-ending injury is that it may secure a league scoring title for the Memphis junior. How special would a conference scoring title be for Martin? Larry Finch never led his league (the Missouri Valley Conference) in scoring. Neither did Lorenzen Wright, Rodney Carney, Chris Douglas-Roberts, or Joe Jackson. Over the last 50 years, only four Tigers have led their league in scoring: Keith Lee (Metro, 1984-85), Elliot Perry (Metro, 1990-91), Penny Hardaway (Great Midwest, 1992-93), and Will Barton (Conference USA, 2011-12). Martin finished his season with an average of 18.9 points per game. Second among American Athletic Conference players is SMU’s Shake Milton (also injured) at 18.0.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Memphis Tigers Midseason Report

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The 2017-18 Tigers passed their season’s midpoint in Saturday’s win over Tulsa. Sixteen regular-season games in the books with 15 to play. Is that proverbial glass half-empty (it’s much emptier if you’re counting fans at FedExForum on game nights) or half-full (if five or six Tigers played their best on the same night . . .)? A few quick observations — and lingering questions — from year two of the Tubby Smith era in Memphis.

• What is this team’s strength? The Tigers rank ninth in the American Athletic Conference in scoring (68.7 points per game), seventh in scoring defense (70.1), ninth in field-goal percentage (43 percent), and 11th in field-goal percentage defense (43 percent). Memphis is 11th in rebounding and sixth in assists among the 12 AAC teams.

Coach Tubby Smith likes his team’s adaptability, its resilience. The Tigers have, indeed, shown character in coming from behind at halftime in six of their 10 wins to date. After a dreadful showing in their league opener at Cincinnati, the Tigers looked better at UCF, then like a different team (thank you, Jeremiah Martin) in beating Tulsa last weekend. This may become a team remembered less for its numbers than for its comportment and backbone. Let’s hope so.
Larry Kuzniewski

• The near-empty arena has become a vicious circle of gloom for the Tiger program. I’ve developed a theory about modern Tiger fandom, one I’ll elaborate about later this month. But however Tiger fans are classified — or classify themselves — they are a contributing factor in this once-proud program’s downward spiral. Smith and his staff may have their shortcomings as recruiters — they’ve yet to land what would be called a prize by those contending for NCAA tournament berths — but it’s hard to convince a blue-chipper to commit to playing in an arena where he sees more than 10,000 empty seats, however well the Tigers might play that night. Do fans return when the Tigers start winning? Will the Tigers start winning when fans return? Will Tyler Harris bring fans to the FedExForum upper deck? Or do fans need to be in the upper deck for Tyler Harris to become a Tiger? These are the kind of riddles Tiger basketball has become. It’s a disjointed, identity-shy enterprise right now.

• Jeremiah Martin is a good college point guard, but can he be this team’s Alpha? The pride of Mitchell High School has continued to improve over the course of his third college season. Martin has made more three-pointers in 16 games this season (27) than he made in 32 games as a sophomore (24). But to ask Martin to be The Guy may be unfair. Remember how heavy Joe Jackson’s mood felt for four years? And Jackson’s teams were winning regularly, reaching the NCAA tournament. Point guard — particularly one required to score — is the hardest position in college basketball, and few have the  internal strength to handle such responsibility while also serving as the face of the program (among players). Martin looked tired against Cincinnati and UCF. Then he looked like an AAC Player of the Year candidate (28 points and eight assists) in the win over Tulsa. You get the feeling the 2017-18 Tigers will go as far as Martin goes. I just wonder if Martin likes that fact.
Larry Kuzniewski

Kyvon Davenport

• Smith has said he’s done more teaching this season than in any other of his career. And the man’s been doing this 27 years. The Tigers have seven first-year players in his regular rotation (players averaging at least 10 minutes per game). The players are teaching Smith, too. What can he expect on game night, and can he expect it consistently? The Tigers’ rookie of the year, hands down, is Kyvon Davenport. The junior transfer has averaged 12.6 points (second on the team to Martin) and 5.8 rebounds (tops on the squad). Only two other AAC players have averaged as many points and rebounds: Tulane’s Cameron Reynolds and Tulsa’s Junior Etou. Davenport has scored at least 10 points in 14 of the Tigers’ 16 games. It’s hard to imagine what the team’s 10-6 record would be without this prize from Gainesville, Georgia. It will be fun to see how Davenport holds up in league play.

• In 26 full seasons as a head coach, Smith has had only two losing seasons. His 2013-14 Texas Tech squad went 14-18 and then 13-19 the next year. Then, of course, in 2015-16, Smith led the Red Raiders to the NCAA tournament with a record of 19-13 and was named national coach of the year by The Sporting News. The 66-year-old coach has seen adversity. But Memphis ain’t Lubbock.

In looking at the remainder of the Tigers’ schedule, there aren’t six automatic wins, the number necessary to avoid a losing campaign, which would be the first for Memphis since 1999-2000. As of Monday, the Tigers’ RPI ranking is 148 (out of 351 Division I teams). The only AAC teams you’ll find ranked lower are South Florida (320) and East Carolina (324). The good news for Memphis is that the Bulls and Pirates will be on the opposing bench twice each before the end of the regular season. Beyond those meetings, every opponent will be a test. If the Tigers are to capture any national attention before tournament play, it would be with an upset at FedExForum of 14th-ranked Cincinnati (January 27th) or 5th-ranked Wichita State (February 6th).

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 90, Bryant 72

A Memphis Tiger team desperate for a consistent shooter inserted Jamal Johnson into the starting lineup Saturday afternoon and the freshman from Birmingham made the case for regular membership in that quintet. Johnson hit six of 11 attempts from three-point range, including a buzzer-beater as he fell out of bounds at the end of the first half to help the Tigers improve to 6-2 and stay undefeated (6-0) at FedExForum. The game was the first of four Memphis will play in the cross-regional Gotham Classic. (The only game to actually be played in New York City will be next Saturday’s tilt with Louisville.)

Johnson played a game-high 33 minutes and was supported by junior point guard Jeremiah Martin, who also hit six three-pointers (in seven attempts) and led the Tigers with 24 points (two shy of his career high) and seven assists (with only one turnover). Martin wasn’t so much impressed with Johnson’s point total (18) as he was with out easy he made the transition from bench to starter. “We didn’t know [Johnson] was going to be in the lineup,” said Martin after the game. “He was excited. I was messing with him during pregame, to see if he was nervous. I was glad to see him look so comfortable.”

The Tigers, for a change, started the game with a strong push, taking a 15-6 lead before the Bulldogs closed the margin and tied the score at 20 midway through the first half. The lead exchanged hands a few times before the Tigers began a 22-0 run with less than five minutes to play before halftime. Johnson keyed the run with three treys, including the buzzer-beater and the Tigers’ first two field goals after the break. The lead grew to 21 points in the first two minutes of the second half and Bryant never again closed within 10.

“We shot the ball well today,” noted Tiger coach Tubby Smith. “That’s something we haven’t been doing. We changed the lineup, and Jamal was a big boost for us. We had a lot more assists [26] than turnovers [16] and that was huge. We found Mike Parks in transition some, and we need our big guys to play better inside for us.”

Junior forward Kyvon Davenport scored 15 points, giving the juco transfer eight straight games in double figures (matched only by Martin among his teammates). Senior forward Jimario Rivers added 11 points and a team-high six rebounds.

The loss drops Bryant to 1-9 for the season.

With five more games before the start of conference play, Smith suggested a significant step may have been taken toward stabilizing the Tigers’ rotation of players. “[Jamal] is a guy who can make shots when he’s open,” said Smith. “But he got into the lineup not just because of his shooting. His defense is solid; he doesn’t take a lot of chances. Fundamentally sound. He’s getting stronger. Going forward, I think this is something that will inspire him.”

The Tigers will next host Albany on Tuesday night (tip-off at 8 p.m.). The Great Danes beat  Bryant, 84-68, on December 6th.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Memphis Tigers Midseason Report

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

With their win Sunday at Tulane, the Tigers passed the midpoint of their 2016-17 campaign. At 12-4, Memphis is one game better than it was after 16 games a year ago. The aim, of course, is to avoid the 4-9 stretch that destroyed Josh Pastner’s last season as head coach. You remember that six-week free-fall, don’t you? Losses to East Carolina (at home), Tulane, and South Florida, hardly American Athletic Conference title contenders.

Is this year’s team equipped to win more than 19 games? To contend for the AAC championship and an NCAA tournament bid?

Here’s what we’ve learned over the season’s first two months.

• Four horses. “Horsemen” would be too apocalyptic, so we’ll stick with the four-legged metaphor. The Tigers — like thoroughbreds in spring – will go as far as Dedric Lawson, K.J. Lawson, Markel Crawford, and Jeremiah Martin take them. Due respect to the rest of Tubby Smith’s roster, and the practice duty of players like Christian Kessee, Keon Clergeot, and Jake McDowell. Supporting casts are important when the cameras are off and the arena’s empty. But come game night, this basketball team may as well be the Beatles. Each of the four horses is averaging at least 30 minutes a game. (Last season, only Dedric Lawson averaged that many and six players averaged at least 20.) In eight games this season (half their schedule), at least three of these four players played 35 minutes. In the overtime win at Oklahoma on December 17th, they all played at least 40. In the four-point loss to SMU on December 27th, all four played all 40 minutes.

This is a dramatically different approach from last season, when Pastner would make as many as 15 substitutions before halftime. There’s risk, of course. A significant injury to any of the four horses would compromise not just the look of the team, but its very playing style. But if they can stay heathy — two games a week, that’s all — the kinship the four feel on the hardwood may go beyond anything the two actual brothers have known as teammates.
Larry Kuzniewski

Tubby Smith

• Tubby Smith can “develop” players. I’ll explain the quotation marks. The standard definition of “development” at the college level — in measuring a coach’s impact — is the improvement of a player under a coach’s guidance from one season to the next. Smith was not here last season, so can the astounding improvement of both Crawford and Martin be considered “development” under the first-year coach? If not, Smith should at least be credited with uncovering whatever these two guards had buried within themselves twelve months ago.

After averaging 2.7 points and barely an assist per game as a freshman (in 13.8 minutes per game), Martin is averaging 9.2 points and 4.8 assists. Better yet, he’s protected the ball, committing only 29 turnovers while averaging 33.9 minutes on the floor. And Crawford has been the team’s second-best player, improving his scoring average from 5.3 points per game as a sophomore to 15.4 this season. He’s averaging a healthy (for a guard) 4.9 rebounds per game, while applying the same defensive pressure that kept him on the floor his first two seasons. And call this an intangible, but Crawford seems to be enjoying basketball this season. He’s been healthy and productive, vocal and energetic. Reminds me of Antonio Anderson, the popular “glue guy” during the four-year, 30-wins-a-season period under John Calipari. Whether or not Smith deserves credit for developing Martin and Crawford, there’s  a coach in Atlanta, Georgia, wondering where these two were a year ago.

• Number one. Joe Jackson wore this number proudly not that long ago, but sophomore Dedric Lawson is taking it places few Tigers have gone before. In averaging 20.4 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, Lawson has reeled off 13 double-doubles in 16 games and become only the ninth Tiger with 30 such games in his career. (Five Tigers had 40, the last being Kelly Wise.) If he maintains his scoring average, Lawson will join a Tiger Rushmore with 1,100 points in his first two college seasons (Penny Hardaway, Win Wilfong, Larry Finch, and Keith Lee).
Larry Kuzniewski

Dedric Lawson

Draft Express does not have Lawson being selected (first or second round) in its latest mock draft. NBADraft.net has him going in the second round (49th). He’ll have to get stronger to make an impact as a professional that approximates what he’s done as a teenager in college. (Lawson turned 19 last October.) But he is a college star of the first order, worthy of larger crowds than he’s seen at FedExForum to this point. (Fewer than 11,000 fans attended last week’s victory over once-mighty UConn.) The hope must be that Lawson stays healthy and leads this team to postseason play, where more of the country will enjoy his talents, and a few scouts might adjust their mock drafts.

• Steady as she goes. I’ve attended countless postgame press conferences over the last decade. Calipari liked to entertain or play the role of grouch. Pastner became predictable, deferring to his players and coaches in good times, leaning on his positive-energy crutch when times got rocky. I’ve been struck this season by Smith’s quite-casual fielding of questions, and honest responses, sometimes to a fault. (“We probably should have used our bench more in the second half,” he said after the UConn game. Imagine Calipari offering genuine self-criticism . . . after a win.) Smith brought a quarter-century of head-coaching experience with him, but has engaged himself with the talents — yes, they’re limited — of this specific team.

“We’ve got some self-motivated kids, who love to play the game,” said Smith after a blowout win over McNeese State in November. “Today, it was about sharing the basketball. There wasn’t a whole lot of strategy we had to change at halftime. Don’t look at the scoreboard. Concentrate on getting better. Sometimes that’s hard to do. I’ve had players try to get outside their comfort zone. When that happens, I recognize it, and the team recognizes it. So play the right way. It’s a team sport. Like anything else, you can accomplish a whole lot if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

This is a down year for the AAC. It’s hard to imagine a team reaching the NCAA tournament without winning 13 or 14 league games (out of 18). Eleven wins in their final 15 games would get the Tigers to 13-5 in the AAC and 23-8 entering the conference tournament in Hartford. That’s a lot to ask from a team with no measurable depth and little size. But with a wise, grounded coach at the helm and a certifiable star on the floor 35 minutes a game, these Memphis Tigers could surprise come March. Just play the right way.