Tag: Landers Nolley

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New Season for the Memphis Tigers

Landers Nolley II (photo by Larry Kuzniewski)

Rarely does a single game change a college basketball season, much less one played in mid-February. But this may well have happened last Saturday, when the Memphis Tigers upset the 6th-ranked Houston Cougars in Texas. In ending Houston’s 37-game(!) winning streak at the Fertitta Center, Memphis earned its first road win over a top-10 team in 17 years and its second over the country’s 6th-ranked team this season. (Alabama occupied that ranking when the Tigers beat them at FedExForum in December.) For a program that hadn’t beaten a top-10 team since 2014, the 2021-22 campaign has gained a measure of significance, but a return to the NCAA tournament remains the goal. Getting there would end an eight-year drought and change the trajectory of Penny Hardaway’s still-young college coaching career. The Tigers took a significant stride toward a Big Dance ticket by beating Houston.

Three truths we discovered in Saturday’s win:

• The Tigers have a “Big Three.” NBA championships tend to be won by teams with headline trios. Think recently of the Miami Heat (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh) or the Golden State Warriors (Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson). The Tigers’ victory at Houston established the team’s prime players, once and for all, as Landers Nolley, DeAndre Williams, and Jalen Duren. After missing four recent games with a knee injury, Nolley returned to the starting lineup for the first time since late December and led Memphis with 20 points, hitting four of five three-point attempts. (It’s a good time to remember Nolley was a first-team all-conference selection after the 2020-21 season.) After missing six recent games with a back injury, Williams looked healthy against Houston, scoring 13 points with four assists and three steals. Then there’s Duren, the team’s star freshman and the American Athletic Conference’s top rebounder and shot-blocker. Duren had 14 points and 11 rebounds against the Cougars, his third consecutive double-double.

• For the Tigers’ rotation, tight makes right. Hardaway sent 11 players to the floor in the first half against Houston. (The Cougars led by three points at halftime.) But over the game’s final 20 minutes, he stuck with his starting unit: the big three, plus Alex Lomax and Lester Quinones. Among reserves, only senior Tyler Harris played as many as 11 minutes. Depth is overrated in college basketball. There are four media timeouts every half. Players get “breathers” every time someone takes a free throw. Hardaway has finally landed on the starting five that appears capable of winning big games in March. It’s the players’ responsibility to avoid foul trouble and the coach’s responsibility to play them every minute he can.

• Free throws win games. Memphis fans didn’t need Saturday’s win to learn this lesson. It was delivered like a kick in the crotch near the end of the 2008 NCAA championship. Memphis teams have not been known for hitting free throws consistently, or in big moments. This year’s squad entered the Houston game shooting 66 percent from the foul line . . . 321st in the country. (Houston was 320th.) When Williams was fouled on a heave as the shot-clock expired with 1:35 left in Saturday’s game, the Tigers led by only three points (56-53). Williams made his three free throws, and the Tigers, as a team, connected on 10 more — without a miss — over the game’s final 90 seconds to make the final score (69-59) look like an easy victory. They’re called “free” for a reason. 

Much remains to be gained in a season suddenly captivating for longtime Tiger fans. A pair of road games this week — at Cincinnati Tuesday and at SMU Sunday — could go either way, and a pair of losses would toss Memphis back on the infamous “bubble” when it comes to NCAA tournament consideration. But a pair of wins, then strong showings at home to end the regular season could make the AAC tournament not so critical for the Tigers’ chances at an at-large berth. A mercurial team has won five games in a row. And on a special Saturday afternoon in Houston, that team raised its ceiling for achievement considerably.

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Tigers 75, UCF 61

CREDIT: Memphis Athletics / Joe Murphy

The Tigers and UCF Knights played Wednesday night at FedExForum like they’d seen enough of each other. After combining for 165 points Monday night (in a game rescheduled from January), the teams put up merely 136 in what became the Tigers’ fifth win in six games. Memphis improves to 11-6 for the season (7-3 in the American Athletic Conference), while UCF leaves town with a 4-9 record (2-8).
Memphis Athletics / Joe Murphy

Penny Hardaway

With 18 points, Landers Nolley led the Tigers in scoring for the third straight game. The sophomore transfer from Virginia Tech hit six of his 12 field-goal attempts and pulled down 10 rebounds. D.J. Jeffries was the only other Tiger in double figures with 11 points off the bench. Alex Lomax scored eight points and handed out six assists off the Tiger bench.

After a stretch of accurate shooting from long distance, the Tigers hit only three of 13 three-point attempts against the Knights. But the outcome was never really in doubt, the Tigers leading by 14 (24-10) midway through the first half. When the Knights closed within four points (37-33) early in the second half, Tiger forward DeAndre Williams hit a three-pointer to spark a 13-2 run for the home team.

UCF missed 19 of its 23 three-point attempts and shot 42 percent overall. C.J. Walker led his team with 15 points and seven rebounds.

The Tigers next take the floor — again at FedExForum — Saturday afternoon, when East Carolina comes to town. Memphis beat the Pirates by 27 points on January 24th. ECU upset the 5th-ranked Houston Cougars Wednesday night.

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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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Tigers 83, Arkansas State 54

CREDIT: Joe Murphy

The Tigers made easy work of the Arkansas State Red Wolves Wednesday night in their latest home opener in 28 years. Playing in a virtually empty FedExForum — coronavirus restrictions firmly in place — the Tigers utilized an early 14-0 run to take control of the teams’ first meeting in ten years. Sophomore transfer Landers Nolley came off the bench for the first time this season and led Memphis with 23 points. He hit three of the Tigers’ six three-pointers to help the U of M improve to 2-2 for the season. Arkansas State falls to 0-3 with the loss.
Joe Murphy

Landers Nolley

The last time the Tigers opened their home schedule in December was in 1992, Penny Hardaway’s junior (and final college) season as a Tiger player.

Memphis held the Red Wolves to 33 percent shooting from the field and managed an efficient offense, compiling 21 assists and only 12 turnovers. The Tigers hit 77 percent of their shots from the foul line (17 for 22). The Tigers were up by 13 points just eight minutes into the game and led by 22 (48-26) at halftime.

Joining Nolley in double figures in the scoring column for the Tigers were Lester Quinones (15 points and 10 rebounds) and freshman center Moussa Cisse (14 points, along with 10 rebounds).

The Tigers are right back at it Friday night, when Central Arkansas visits FedExForum.

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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.