Tag: Josh Pastner

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Connecticut 77, Tigers 57

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The fans hit the exits with six minutes to go,
Their favorite team’s season having hit a new low.

A day after Memphis lost one of its favorite Tigers — broadcaster and poet, Jack Eaton — the current group of basketball players continued its downward spiral with the worst 20 minutes seen at FedExForum this winter. The U of M took the floor after halftime with a one-point lead (37-36) and proceeded to make a total of four field goals the rest of the game. Over the first 10 minutes of the second period, the UConn Huskies took 22 shots (and made 10), while the Tigers committed seven turnovers and took all of five shots. That one-point advantage turned into a 13-point deficit (59-46), and the gap only grew as the arena emptied and the clock — slowly — wound to zero.

“They really stepped on the gas,” said senior forward Shaq Goodwin. “And we couldn’t catch up to them. Effort plays and execution.” Tonight the Tigers had neither after halftime.
Larry Kuzniewski

Avery Woodson

Huskies forward Daniel Hamilton scored 16 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and handed out eight assists in helping his team sweep the season series from Memphis. UConn improves to 16-6 (6-3 in the American Athletic Conference), while the Tigers fall to 13-9 (4-5). The Huskies took a total of 71 shots for the game (making 32), while Memphis was merely 16 for 41 from the field (4 for 16 after halftime). The Tigers committed a season-high 20 turnovers and were outscored 54-24 in the paint.

Tiger coach Josh Pastner described his team’s second-half play as “lethargic” and emphasized that his team will not win games without the trio of Goodwin, Dedric Lawson, and Ricky Tarrant Jr. playing well. Goodwin was held to eight points and six rebounds in 33 minutes; Lawson scored six points and committed the same number of turnovers; and Tarrant committed five turnovers and missed eight of 18 free-throw attempts after entering the game shooting 86 percent from the line. Overall, the Tigers were 21 for 36 from the charity stripe.

“We just didn’t start well [in the second half],” said Pastner. “It’s one of those things. We couldn’t get our big three guys going. I thought we were a little slow offensively, plus the turnovers really, really hurt us.”

Senior forward Trahson Burrell dressed for the game and sat on the Tiger bench but did not play for disciplinary reasons. Pastner said Burrell will be reinstated Friday.

When asked if he heard the booing from the crowd that remained at the end of the game, Pastner said, “This is high-major college basketball. It’s not intramurals. That’s part of it.”

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The Ides of February

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The games must be played. However uncomfortable the next six weeks may become for the Memphis Tigers and their beleaguered head coach, at least 11 games remain on the schedule (counting at least one in the American Athletic Conference tournament). As of this writing, the Tigers are 13-8 with a 4-4 mark that has them tied for seventh place in the 11-team AAC. If the empty seats at FedExForum and calls for Josh Pastner’s job have been unsettling to this point, just wait for the reaction to a nosedive — if a nosedive occurs — while 68 other programs book tickets for next month’s Big Dance.

Last Saturday’s loss at SMU can be viewed one of two ways. Glass half full: The Mustangs are a tier above every other team in the AAC (as the standings indicate), making a loss — even a blowout — on the team’s home floor nothing worthy of teeth-grinding. Glass half empty: The dramatic gap in talent between the SMU roster and the one at Pasner’s disposal accentuates how far this program has fallen, and how large the gap has become between reality as a Memphis Tiger and the dreams of a Sweet 16 (let alone Final Four) appearance.

Larry Kuzniewski

Shaq Goodwin: ‘We’ll man up.’

Forget the Tigers’ horrid record against ranked teams under Pastner. For now, the U of M program needs to find ways to merely beat its own league’s elite: SMU, Connecticut, and Cincinnati. Since moving to the AAC from Conference USA in 2013, the Tigers are now 4-12 against this trio of league exemplars. You can’t compete for national championships unless you can compete for your conference title. Which makes this week at FedExForum maybe the biggest two-game home stand of the 38-year-old Pastner’s career. Sweep Connecticut (here Thursday) and Cincinnati (Saturday) and the Tigers will find themselves at worst tied in the loss column with the Huskies and Bearcats this time next week. Split these games or (teeth-grinding time) lose both, and we can consider the nosedive underway. This is the collateral effect of the home loss to East Carolina on January 24th. Memphis must knock off a team it’s not expected to beat. One, at the very least.

Can the Tigers sweep this week’s contests? So much must happen to counter what we’ve seen of late. Freshman star Dedric Lawson is averaging 14.4 points and 9.0 rebounds this season, but averaged 8.5 points and 6.0 boards in the Tigers’ two narrow losses at UConn and Cincinnati last month. Lawson must make a difference against an AAC power before we can consider him truly among the best freshmen in Tiger history. Trahson Burrell must be the player who came an assist shy of a triple-double in the loss to ECU, and not the one who disappeared (eight points, two rebounds, no assists) at SMU. And the Tigers simply must find offensive support for their “Big Three” of Lawson, Shaq Goodwin, and Ricky Tarrant Jr. Two starters against the Mustangs — Sam Craft and Markel Crawford — failed to score. “Organizing” the team (Craft’s specialty) and marking the opponent’s top gun (Crawford’s) are important, but Tiger opponents have taken to sagging on Lawson and Goodwin. Points must be generated elsewhere.

Surely the Tigers welcome turning a page on the calendar, having finished a 4-5 January highlighted only by the narrow win over Temple at home and a road beatdown of UCF. Pastner and his staff would be wise to erase (or hide) any indication of the January stumble-fest. Make February a season within a season. Take the two big games this week, then focus on winning four — if not five — of the remaining six. (SMU comes to town February 25th). Six wins this month would put the team on the cusp of 20 when we next turn the calendar to March where college basketball’s elite are separated from the hoi polloi.

This team knows what’s being said about its performances to date. “I’ve been here a while,” said Goodwin after the Temple win, “and I know how they do Coach Pastner. My sophomore year, I asked him why, and he said, ‘You gotta win. You gotta win big games.’ We’ll accept that. We’ll man up on that. But we pay attention to it, and we’ll get it right once we get on a winning streak.”

If a winning streak is to happen for the 2015-16 Memphis Tigers it will start this month. Would it be enough to erase January, to lower the temperature on Josh Pastner’s hot seat? Come Thursday night, we’ll have some answers. 

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#13 SMU 80, Tigers 68

No contest. The SMU Mustangs may be ineligible for postseason play this season, but they made clear the disparity between their talented roster and that of the Memphis Tigers Saturday night at Moody Coliseum in Dallas. Led by point guard Nic Moore (the favorite for American Athletic Conference Player of the Year scored 22 points), the Mustangs led by 11 points just nine minutes into the game and Memphis never closed within single digits.

The loss is a damaging opener to the hardest four-game stretch of the Tigers’ season. Now 13-8 and 4-4 in the AAC, the U of M will face Connecticut (Thursday) and Cincinnati (Saturday) at home in what amounts to must-win games for any chance at a favorable seeding in the AAC tournament come March. The team’s chances for an at-large NCAA tournament bid likely died last Sunday when East Carolina won its first league game at FedExForum.

The Tigers were held to 34-percent shooting (22 for 65) and missed 15 of 20 attempts from three-point range. SMU controlled the glass with 47 rebounds to the Tigers’ 32.

Senior Shaq Goodwin led the Tigers with 18 points before fouling out late in the second half. Two Memphis starters — guards Sam Craft and Markel Crawford — failed to score, freshman forward Dedric Lawson missed seven of eight shots from the field (seven points, 12 rebounds), and Ricky Tarrant Jr. was held to 10 points before also fouling out. Freshman guard Jeremiah Martin contributed 11 points off the bench, his highest point total of the season.

Shake Milton scored 13 points for SMU with Sterling Brown and Ben Moore each adding 12. The Mustangs are now 19-1 for the season and in control atop the AAC standings with an 8-1 mark. SMU will visit FedExForum for a rematch on February 25th, by which time both teams may be playing solely for pride.

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East Carolina 84, Tigers 83

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

“I didn’t see this coming. I thought we were ready to go.” Josh Pastner can only hope that Sunday afternoon represents the nadir in his seventh season as coach of the Memphis Tigers. In front of a typically sparse FedExForum crowd, Memphis fell to an East Carolina team that entered the contest 0-6 in American Athletic Conference competition and 0-7 in road games. Prince Williams hit two free throws with four seconds left on the clock, erasing the one-point lead Tiger forward Trahson Burrell had given Memphis five seconds earlier. (Burrell missed the first of his two free throws.) With the win the Pirates improve to 9-11 overall while Memphis falls to 12-7 (3-3 in the AAC). The loss is a damaging blow both to the Tigers’ chances for a regular-season AAC championship and thoughts of an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament.

“I’m not going to say we took them lightly,” said Burrell after the game. “But we weren’t as up as if we were playing [top-ranked] Oklahoma again. It’s natural to play to the level of your competition, but I wouldn’t say we took them for granted. We came out in the first half very sluggish.”
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“They shot 75 percent [six for eight] on threes in the first half,” emphasized senior Shaq Goodwin, who finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds despite playing most of the second half in foul trouble. “You can say it came down to this play or that play, but really it comes down to us holding our principles as a team. You’ve got to forget the good and the bad. I’m gonna talk to the team and tell them to forget about what just happened; we can’t go back. All we can do is prepare for UCF and get better.”

The Tigers were indeed dreadful in the first half, allowing ECU to shoot 61 percent overall and take a 45-36 lead after 20 minutes. The team’s top scorer and rebounder, freshman Dedric Lawson, had only four points at the break and not a single rebound. He hit nine of ten shots from the field in the second half and was central to the Tigers’ comeback, finishing with a game-high 27 points (one more than the Pirates’ B.J. Tyson). Lawson scored six points on consecutive possessions — a layup, free throw, and three-pointer — to give Memphis a 74-73 lead with six minutes left to play. Memphis would surrender the lead and take it back three times before the final sequence at the free-throw stripe won the game for ECU.

Burrell had his second consecutive strong game off the Tiger bench, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard Ricky Tarrant Jr. committed his fourth foul with 12:27 left and never re-entered the game. Pastner said he felt both Tarrant and Sam Craft fell short of expectations as floor leaders in the loss. Tarrant missed five of his six shots from the field while Craft scored 10 points in 24 minutes.

The Tigers committed 16 turnovers, their most in 10 games, leading to 25 points for the Pirates.

“A bad loss,” stressed Pastner. “We were in quicksand the first 20 minutes of the game. They hit a bunch of threes. Markel Crawford cut a screen [early], and they hit a three for some confidence. They were on fire. I’m disappointed, but there’s no time for self-pity or pointing fingers. We need to find a way to get a win Tuesday [at UCF]. The last two games, our perimeter defense has not been good. It’s kicked our butt.”

The Tigers’ next two games will be on the road, Tuesday at UCF then next Saturday at SMU. (The Mustangs lost their first game of the season today at Temple.) They’ll return to FedExForum to host Connecticut on February 4th.

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Memphis Tiger Basketball: Midseason Musing

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Four thoughts on the Tigers’ season as conference play heats up.

• When Ricky Tarrant Jr. stepped to the foul line last Wednesday against Temple, I thought of Darius Washington Jr. and the very same foul line, not quite 11 years ago. Washington, you may recall, went to the line with his team trailing Louisville by two points in the 2005 Conference USA championship game, time having expired. Having been fouled attempting a three-point shot, Washington had the chance to earn an unlikely NCAA tournament berth for Memphis. With the no players on either side of the lane for the shots, Washington made the first but missed the next two, falling to the FedExForum floor in a heap of misery. If you were there and had a heart, it was painful to witness.

Tarrant made his two shots. And with a mouth full of blood and three loose teeth. The shots beat a tough Temple bunch, many of whom remembered winning a nail-biter in the same building last season. And there really seemed to be little doubt the shots would hit their mark, Tarrant being this team’s best free-throw shooter (86 percent) and, more and more it seems, its metaphorical backbone. A team — and a season — often has moments that flip the script. These Tigers have not beaten many talented teams. But they did last Wednesday, and with a late-game comeback that included their leader’s ability to literally swallow blood and answer the bell. The challenge now, of course, is to make that moment the start of something big.

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Sam Craft and Josh Pastner

• The Sam Craft story is developing momentum. Less than three weeks after playing in the Birmingham Bowl for the Memphis football team, Craft started his first game at point guard for the Tigers (in the win over Temple). Now with two starts and a total of 54 minutes (over four games) under his belt, Craft has exactly zero turnovers. Pastner insists he believes in freshman point guard Jeremiah Martin, who started five games before Craft took over against Temple. But the coach described Craft’s skill at “organizing our team” in making the decision to start the former (and presumably future) tailback. 

And there’s this. “Bigs are hard to get,” said Pastner after last Saturday’s win over USF, “but for perimeter players, I believe in guys who have been around winning. I’ve really shifted toward that. And Sam’s a winner. He won in high school [a 2011 state championship at Craigmont, where he was the state-tournament MVP], and he’s won in football. That matters. He’s a flat-out winner.” In playing terms, Craft is a basketball freshman. In winning terms, he’s a veteran. Consider this an intangible worth watching the remainder of the season.

• How will these Tigers handle the road? It’s really impossible to tell, the team having played 14 of 17 games to date at FedExForum. (What other sport includes this kind of home-cooking in drawing up a schedule? In seven years under coach Josh Pastner, the Tigers have played 66 road games, 30 on neutral courts, and a whopping 127 at home.) The Tigers have 14 more regular-season games, eight of them away from home, starting Thursday night in Cincinnati. Pastner’s winning percentage at home is .842. His winning percentage in those 66 games with hostile fans: .576. The U of M went 5-5 on the road in each of its first two seasons in the American Athletic Conference. The Tigers lost their only two true road games this season, but played well at both South Carolina and Connecticut. Starting Thursday night in Ohio, we’ll see if this group is worthy of NCAA tournament consideration. Another 5-5 season away from home won’t do it.

• With seven double-doubles already, Dedric Lawson is well on his way to becoming just the third Tiger freshman to have ten such games. Keith Lee had 17 in 1981-82, a season that saw Memphis [State] go 24-5 and reach the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 a year after missing out on the Big Dance. Lorenzen Wright had 15 in 1994-95, a season that saw Memphis go 24-10 and reach the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 a year after missing out on the Big Dance. 

Can Lawson be the swing variable for another Memphis team trying to return to the only college basketball tournament that matters? He’s currently averaging 14.5 points and 8.9 rebounds, not quite the numbers posted by Lee (18.3 and 11.0) and Wright (14.8 and 10.2) as rookies. But with Shaq Goodwin playing like a senior with McDonald’s All-American on his resume (13.8 and 8.3), Tarrant in command of the offense, and role players like Avery Woodson and Trahson Burrell making a difference, Lawson can continue to quietly climb the Tiger freshman-record book. But he needs to register a few double-doubles against the AAC’s best. Against UConn two weeks ago, Lawson had but 10 points and four rebounds in 36 minutes. This week’s tilt in Cincinnati is the kind of game that measures a player’s impact, freshman or otherwise.

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Tigers 71, USF 56

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Josh Pastner knows his team won’t break any shooting records. Since well before the current season opened two months ago, the Tiger coach has preached defense and ball protection. To win consistently, the 2015-16 Tigers must keep opponents from lighting up the scoreboard, and they must value every possession. Saturday at FedExForum may become the 40-minute prototype for the balance of the campaign.

The U of M held USF to 32 percent shooting and committed only three turnovers in beating the Bulls to improve to 12-5 (3-1 in American Athletic Conference play). Freshman forward Dedric Lawson earned his seventh double-double of the season (18 points and 12 rebounds) and the Tigers pulled away with a second-half sequence that featured two dunks each by Trahson Burrell and Shaq Goodwin. But if you’re looking for a sign this team may be turning a corner, look at that turnover total. (The team’s previous low was seven against Southern Miss in the season-opener.)

Larry Kuzniewski

Sam Craft

“You gotta give a lot of credit to Sam [Craft], the starting point guard,” said Pastner. “And Ricky [Tarrant] played 34 minutes: three assists, no turnovers. He’s had a total of 25 turnovers all year, and he’s played a lot of minutes. But Shaq Goodwin and Dedric Lawson had no turnovers. Our biggest problem has been our bigs turning it over. We’ve got to take care of the ball Thursday [at Cincinnati].”

Craft started his second game less than a month after playing in the Birmingham Bowl for the Tigers’ football team. The junior hit four of six shots from the field for nine points. And Tarrant played every second of the first half, three days after getting three teeth loosened in a late-game collision with a Temple opponent. He scored nine points and picked up a pair of steals.

Goodwin struggled against a big USF frontcourt in the first half, but rallied late in the game to finish with 13 points and six rebounds. Sophomore guard Markel Crawford twisted an ankle early in the second half and had to be helped to the Tigers’ locker room, but he returned to the court not long after.

Angel Nunez led USF with 16 points and Jaleel Cousins grabbed 16 rebounds. The Bulls are now 3-16 and 0-6 in the AAC.

“We were knocking on the door,” said Pastner, reflecting on the season to date. “I think we were actually able to get through the door against Temple. We needed that, a confidence boost. But we’ve got to keep it going. The one thing we haven’t done well this season — in addition to shooting — is finish. Today, and this week, we finished strong.”

Craft is becoming the season’s most distinctive story line, having replaced Jeremiah Martin in the starting lineup without so much as practicing — basketball, that is — until January. “I feel myself getting better every day,” said Craft. “I’m just listening to Coach Pastner, soaking in what he has to say. Like everything else, it takes time. I’ll keep pushing forward.”

The Tigers will next push forward against longtime rival Cincinnati (now 13-6, losers to Temple Saturday). The Tigers and Bearcats meet Thursday night in Ohio.

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#23 Connecticut 81, Tigers 78

For the second straight Saturday, the Tigers battled a Top-25 team to the final minutes on the road. And for the second straight Saturday, they came up short. Tonight in Storrs, Connecticut, Avery Woodson gave Memphis a 75-74 lead with a three-pointer from the left corner with 51 seconds to play. But the Huskies drew fouls on their next two possessions and made all four free throws (two by Sterling Gibbs and two by Daniel Hamilton). Trahson Burrell missed a jumper and Woodson missed a three-point attempt that would have tied the score at 78. A desperation heave by Dedric Lawson missed its mark as time expired.

The loss drops Memphis to 10-5 for the season (1-1 in American Athletic Conference play), while UConn improves to 11-4 (2-1).

Senior forward Shaq Goodwin picked up two fouls in the game’s first four minutes and watched the rest of the first half from the Tiger bench. (This after serving a suspension and missing the Tigers’ win over Nicholls State four days ago.) He dominated much of the second half and finished with 23 points before fouling out with just over a minute to play. Lawson also battled foul trouble, finishing with 10 points but making only four of 13 attempts from the field.

Gibbs led the way for UConn with 26 points, draining five of seven shots from long range. Rodney Purvis added 13 and Hamilton 12. As a team, the Huskies hit nine of 19 three-pointers (47 percent) and shot 43 percent overall.

Ricky Tarrant Jr. scored 15 points for the Tigers and Burrell added 17 off the bench. The Tigers kept in the game by hitting 84 percent of their free throws (26 for 31) and winning the rebound battle, 32-26. The case could be made the Tigers’ three most impressive outings this season have been losses, against Oklahoma, South Carolina, and now the Huskies.

The Tigers return to FedExForum Wednesday night to host Temple and will host USF next Saturday.

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Tigers 77, Tulane 65

Memphis won its American Athletic Conference opener Tuesday afternoon at FedExForum to improve to 9-3 on the season. Starting for the first time this season, senior Trahson Burrell led the Tigers with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Coming off the bench for the first time this season, senior forward Shaq Goodwin added 17 points and eight rebounds.

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Three Tigers who started the team’s first 11 games were not on the floor at tipoff against the Green Wave. Freshman forward Dedric Lawson sat out the game with an abdominal strain, while Goodwin and guard Markel Crawford were held out of the starting lineup presumably for disciplinary reasons. (Crawford scored four points off the bench.) Freshman K.J. Lawson got his first college start and contributed 15 points and seven rebounds. Senior point guard Ricky Tarrant Jr. scored 16 points and led Memphis with six assists.

Malik Morgan led Tulane with 18 points. The Green Wave shot 35 percent in falling to 7-7 for the season.

The Tigers have won seven of eight games and will now hit the road for a big test Saturday at South Carolina. The 24th-ranked Gamecocks will likely be 12-0 entering the game (they face Francis Marion Wednesday).

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Ole Miss 85, Tigers 79

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

We learned Friday night that it takes longer to ignite the Tiger offense than most of downtown Memphis. After a delay of just over an hour — due to a massive power outage — the Tigers missed 19 of their first 24 shots in falling behind by 17 against Ole Miss. They managed to close the margin to five (76-71), but not with enough time on the clock (1:53) to earn a sixth straight win. Led by Stefan Moody’s 21 points (16 of them in the first half), the Rebels improved to 9-2 and are now riding a six-game winning streak. Native Memphian Martavious Newby added 12 points and 12 rebounds. Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy described Newby as “like a damn tiger, pardon the pun” during the lengthy pregame delay.

“They punched us right in the mouth in the first half,” said Memphis coach Josh Pastner. “We didn’t match their physicality. In the second half, we competed, we played hard. I thought we punched them in the mouth. The issue — a recurring theme — is our start. It’s on me to make a change. We’re going to have to change things up. We’ve started the same way since [the opening game]. Our starts have not been good.”

Larry Kuzniewski

Ricky Tarrant Jr.

The Tigers shot a miserable 26 percent over the game’s first 20 minutes and were down 12 at halftime only because a desperation three-pointer by Dedric Lawson — off a lengthy inbounds pass from Shaq Goodwin — found the net as time expired. The U of M outscored Ole Miss (48-42) in the second half and shot considerably better (42 percent), but finished the contest with more turnovers (15) than assists (13). The loss drops the Tigers to 7-3 with one game to play (next Tuesday against IUPUI) before their American Athletic Conference opener against Tulane (December 29).

“We’ll learn from [this game],” said Goodwin. “We’ll watch film Sunday and figure out what we need to do to get better.” Goodwin battled his way to 15 rebounds but was held to seven points (1 of 4 from the field).

“We didn’t come out with any energy,” said senior guard Ricky Tarrant Jr., who finished with a game-high 29 points and hit five of seven three-pointers, including the shot that brought Memphis within five points late in the game. “Their physicality surprised us. Double-teaming Moody in the second half isn’t what brought us back. It was our energy.”

Lawson logged his fifth double-double of the season (21 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocks) but the Tigers got only nine points off the bench, eight of them by Trahson Burrell. K.J. Lawson missed all six of his shots from the field and committed four fouls in 19 minutes on the floor. The Tigers’ nine three pointers were one shy of the team’s season high, but the 85 points Ole Miss scored are the most by a Memphis opponent this season.

“They hit some big shots,” acknowledged Pastner, “some tough shots. Especially in the first half. But our starts . . . . We’ve tried every motivational tactic. We’re going to have to  do something different.”

The game was the first regular-season meeting between these regional rivals since December 2006 and one of two against SEC competition for the Tigers this season. Memphis travels to South Carolina to face the Gamecocks on January 2nd.

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Tigers 72, Southern 67

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The Tigers finished Tuesday night’s game on a 16-8 run, erasing a three-point deficit with just under seven minutes to play to earn their fifth straight win, matching the team’s season high from the 2014-15 season. Southern center Jared Sam missed a free throw with 26 seconds left that would have tied the game at 68 and K.J. Lawson converted a driving layup from the left side with 17 seconds left to clinch the victory.

The older of the Tigers’ two Lawson brothers scored a game-high 16 points off the bench and Trahson Burrell added 15 points and eight rebounds (also off the bench) to lead the way on a night senior Shaq Goodwin fouled out in only 14 minutes of playing time. Freshman forward Dedric Lawson earned his fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Memphis improved to 7-2 on the season despite committing a season-high 19 turnovers.

Larry Kuzniewski

Dedric Lawson

Senior point guard Ricky Tarrant Jr. struggled from the field (3 for 10) but managed to score 11 points, grab six rebounds, dish out four assists, and earn four steals. He knew it was the Tiger bench, though, that decided this one. “It’s something we expect [the reserves] to do,” said Tarrant. “It’s their mentality, to bring energy. They did a great job, picking up the pace of the game. Not just by scoring, but with defense and rebounding.”

Led by Sam (26 points and 12 rebounds) and guard Adrian Rodgers (18 points), the Jaguars battled the Tigers to a tie at halftime (29-29) and led for more than 14 minutes of the game (there were 10 lead changes). But in addition to dominating bench play (Memphis outscored the Jaguar bench, 32-6), the Tigers got to the free-throw line 42 times and made 28, compared with a total of 16 free-throw attempts (12 made) by Southern.

“In the first half, we weren’t taking our time,” said K.J. Lawson. “We had some jitters. But in the second half, we took it to the goal; they couldn’t stop it.”

“Overall, it was a good win,” said Tarrant. “They’re a hard-nosed team. There are things we have to get better at on both the offensive and defensive end.”

Asked about the Tigers’ next opponent, Ole Miss (Friday night), K.J. Lawson all but shrugged his shoulders. “At the end of the day, it’s just another game,” he said. “We’re gonna prepare for them just like we prepare for everybody else. We played Oklahoma . . . top 10. How did we prepare for them? We know the crowd will be there, and we’ll be prepared to play. We just hope they’re ready to play.”