Tag: University of Memphis basketball

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Signature Season Nears for Memphis Tigers

Penny Hardaway (photo by Larry Kuzniewski)

If you track the last half-century of University of Memphis basketball, you’ll find a lot of success on the hardwood. You’ll also find what amounts to a signature season in virtually every decade. In 1973, Larry Finch, Ronnie Robinson, and Larry Kenon took an unforgettable Tiger team all the way to the championship game before falling to mighty UCLA. The 1985 Tigers returned to the Final Four in Keith Lee’s final season. In 1992, a sophomore sensation by the name of Penny Hardaway led an overlooked Tiger squad to the Elite Eight. Then in 2008, freshman Derrick Rose and a group of veteran stars went 38-2, losing an overtime heartbreaker to Kansas for the national championship. Four decades . . . four signature seasons.

Then, we had the 2010s. Nary a losing season, but also nary a signature season. The Tigers reached the NCAA tournament four straight years (2011-14), but never advanced to the second weekend (Sweet 16). Tubby Smith’s two years as coach (2016-18) were as awkward as Josh Pastner’s final two. Penny Hardaway — the greatest living Tiger legend — took over the program in 2018, but needed four seasons to lead a team to the Big Dance.

And what a dance it appeared to be for the 2021-22 Tigers. After beating Boise State in the opening round, Memphis led Gonzaga — the top-ranked team in the country — by 10 points at halftime before falling, 82-78, last Saturday in Portland. A lengthy tournament drought is over, but it’s now been 13 years without a Sweet 16 appearance for Memphis. And 14 years, really, since something we could call a signature season in these parts.

That special season is coming. If the Tigers’ battle with the Zags isn’t enough to convince you, consider their two beatings of the Houston Cougars, one by 10 points at Houston in February, the other by 14 points at FedExForum in March. The Cougars, you might be aware, play Villanova Saturday for a chance at a second-straight Final Four appearance. The Memphis Tigers are “there” without quite being there. Back, but not entirely.

After the Tigers handled Houston in their regular-season finale on March 6th, Hardaway noted the culture change that took place around his team as they reeled off 10 wins in their final 11 games. “We understood what the mission was. The way we could lock in, we weren’t looking ahead. Every game: 1 and 0. Staying in the moment, putting ourselves in a position to compete. We locked down, and relied on one another.”

We relied on one another. Are there any five words that more honestly capture the meaning of a team? The meaning of a team’s mission? The Tigers came up short of the program’s goal — certainly Penny Hardaway’s goal — this winter, but there seems to be a template now in place, one the coach and his returning players can utilize in seasons to come.

Not every player will return, of course. Jalen Duren — the American Athletic Conference’s Freshman of the Year — will be playing in the NBA a year from now, a sure lottery pick in June’s draft. Another freshman, Josh Minott, is departing for the professional ranks. The NCAA transfer portal is open for any and all other Tigers to move on should they feel greener pastures lie elsewhere. That portal is just as open for Hardaway to add an impact player or two for the 2022-23 campaign.

As for adjustments, Hardaway would be wise to emphasize the value of November and December to a college basketball team. A four-game losing streak after the Tigers opened last season with five victories made the rest of the schedule a climb to respectability and seriously compromised chances Memphis might land a seed higher than ninth for the NCAA tournament. Secure those non-conference games, then flex muscle in AAC play and you have the makings of, yes, a signature season.

We now know what a decade without a signature season in Memphis feels like. When will we enjoy the next one? You can be sure of this: We’ll recognize it when it happens.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Rightly Seasoned!

CREDIT: Pierre Ducharme | Reuters

On March 19, 1992, my teacher brought her own television to school.

She had promised us earlier in the week that we would get to watch the Tigers as a treat if we had good conduct or learned our times tables or whatever else elementary school kids do to earn treats. Being relatively new to the area, I had no idea what “watching the tigers” would entail. A nature documentary maybe? A surprise field trip to the zoo seemed unlikely. But my classmates were excited, so I played along.

We took a break from practicing cursive to watch basketball on a Thursday afternoon. I learned about an extraordinary player called Penny, who was from Memphis. I learned Memphis State was more than the place where I went to day camp in the summer. Crowded around a tiny set in the back of a portable classroom, I learned basketball was a Big Deal here. Watching some basketball players from our city — the same school where my dad took business classes at night! — on national television blew my 9-year-old mind. And they were winning! I was fully on board.

I recall proudly announcing to the crossing guard that “THE TIGERS BEAT PEPPERDINE!” as I skipped to my neighbor’s car at the end of the day. I am confident I had no idea what or where was a Pepperdine, because all I can tell you to this day is that it is in California.

That Tigers team made it to the Elite Eight. It didn’t happen again until I was a senior in college, three coaches and two arenas later. A lot of things have changed, right down to the name of the university.

But the ’90s are back in a big way. Twin Peaks and Roseanne are on TV again. Slipdresses and round eyeglasses are cool for some reason, and Bruno Mars’ tour dates are sponsored by Cross Colours. They’re making another Lion King, for crying out loud. The albums I grew up listening to are being reissued as 20th and 25th anniversary editions, and they’re in heavy rotation on the “classic” stations. Well, they’re in “classic” playlists on Spotify, which I suppose is the closest equivalent. The cultural cycle is coming back around to my generation’s “good old days” and I’m okay with it. Flannel and tearaway pants are extremely comfortable. Just not together.

Pierre Ducharme | Reuters

Penny Hardaway

So yeah, I am 1000 percent here for the ultimate ’90s throwback: a return to the days of Li’l Penny, those black and blue Orlando Magic Starter jackets, and the squeaky-clean foamposite Nikes the boys in my class showed off the first day back at school after Christmas break. I’m here for King Cotton meats (they’re Rightly Seasoned!) and Being Smart, Staying Clean, and Keeping the Dream.

I’ll be honest, Grind City has felt more like Groan City lately. So I am ready to recapture a piece of the excitement. It’s been a few Marches since I’ve felt this optimistic about Tiger basketball.

Long-ago times and long-gone people associate Tiger basketball with happy memories for a lot of us. The moments may have happened in the Mid-South Coliseum in a cloud of Grandpa’s cigar smoke, on the steps of the Tomb of Doom, in a bar off campus, or on a spur-of-the-moment drive to San Antonio, but they have one thing in common: community. I’ve heard so many stories, and they never get old. They start with friends, parents, aunts and uncles, and siblings, and they don’t always end with a win. We remember where we were, who we were with, even what we were wearing in case a particular outfit has lucky powers we might need to activate during a future game. I bet my former teacher told her friends about the time she didn’t want to miss a tournament game, so she lugged her heavy old TV to work and conned her class into thinking they were being rewarded for their good behavior.

That’s not unique to Memphis. What makes us different is the fact that we are a little nuts and we care too much. Memphis fans come in all stripes, but they share a reputation for outsized expectations. Whether those expectations are viewed as passion or delusion, endearing or annoying, determines just as much as recruiting and X’s and O’s. It’s a blessing or a curse, depending on your outlook. And I have a feeling this new guy gets it.

Jen Clarke is a digital marketing specialist and an unapologetic Memphian.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Tubby Smith Out as Tiger Basketball Coach

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Tubby Smith has been dismissed as University of Memphis men’s basketball coach. His departure comes with three years and more than $9 million remaining on his contract. (Terms of his buyout will be updated when made available.) Smith announced he is no longer the Tiger head coach after a brief meeting Wednesday morning with U of M president David Rudd.

A brief statement from the university was released after Wednesday’s meeting: “After considerable deliberations and in the best financial interests of the University of Memphis, an agreement of separation with head men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith has been reached.”
Larry Kuzniewski

Smith posted an overall record of 40-26 over his two seasons at the Memphis helm, but failed to get the Tigers to the postseason (NCAA tournament or NIT), extending a drought that now measures four years. A significant portion of his roster at the end of the 2016-17 season — most notably brothers Dedric and K.J. Lawson — chose to transfer with eligibility remaining. This forced Smith and his staff to replenish the program with junior-college transfers like Kyvon Davenport, Kareem Brewton, and Mike Parks. Smith was unable to land prize recruits, including local talent like East High’s Alex Lomax or Cordova’s Tyler Harris. Worst of all for Smith, attendance at FedExForum plummeted to an average of 6,225 in 2017-18, the lowest figure since the Tigers played at the Mid-South Coliseum in 1969-70 (the year before Larry Finch first suited up for Memphis State).

Memphis is the first of six career stops on Smith’s head-coaching resume where he failed to take a team to the NCAA tournament. He has taken teams to the Sweet Sixteen nine times (but not since 2005) and won the 1998 national championship with Kentucky. He leaves Memphis with a career record of 597-302.

Rumors have been swirling for weeks that former Tiger and NBA star Penny Hardaway will be hired to succeed Smith. Hardaway is currently coaching the East High Mustangs, a team favored to win its third straight state title this week in Murfreesboro. The Tiger job would be the first college gig for Hardaway who happens to be a few months older than Finch was when he was fired by the university after the 1996-97 season.

Categories
Music Music Features

Kedron Johnson: From Hoops to Hip Hop

CREDIT: Adrian Berryhill

You might remember Kedren Johnson as the Vanderbilt transfer who helped shape the final years of the Pastner era of the Memphis Tigers. As a shooting guard, Johnson quickly became a crowd favorite, known for his defensive tenacity and his impressive spin moves. But these days the former hooper is more concerned with studio time than SportsCenter plays. I caught up with Johnson to find out more about how the former Memphis Tiger deals with his new spotlight. — Chris Shaw

How much basketball are you playing these days?

These days, almost none. I love to watch it, and I play and I still shoot around, but that’s all.

How do you use a Division 1 basketball career to your advantage as a musician?

Around seventh grade, I hit like a six-inch growth spurt, and that made basketball a lot easier. When I was 10, I started recording with my mom’s laptop, so I’ve been doing music longer than I’ve been playing basketball, but it was the tool to train me for a music career. It allowed me to study music. When I got to Memphis, I had to make sure that my coach understood that that’s where my heart was. They had to really understand that music is what I wanted to do. That was the first step.

When did you realize you wanted to pursue being a recording artist?

Around 16, I got serious about it. I started getting equipment, and I pretty much knew that I was going to make music. All of the college decisions came after my decision to play basketball. Music was always in the back of my mind. I was just trying to get as close to that dream as I could.

So much time and energy goes into being a college athlete. Do you feel like the work ethic required to be a Memphis Tiger basketball player helped you as an artist?

Definitely. It’s not just the basketball part of it, that puts more stress on it, but just college trained me to rethink how I could be better at whatever it is I’m working on. Coming out of college, I’m always thinking about what I’m supposed to be doing — what’s next? Am I slacking or wasting time?

How did your teammates react when they knew music was your main thing?

They all respected it. They all liked to listen to music, but no one else was talking about quitting basketball. It was strange to them. They had aspirations to go to the NBA while I was thinking about my music career.

The city of Memphis already knows you as a basketball player. What do you want to convey as a musician?

I can do so much more with music, and I can touch people in a deeper way through music as opposed to sports. There is not much you can convey through sports other than “go hard, go hard, go hard,” but with music, I can convey a lot of different feelings.

What’s the biggest difference between music and basketball?

The main difference is that people think I’m crazy. People think I’ve lost my mind. It’s been that way for a while. Now that basketball is over, people think I’m crazy for doing this. [People say] “Why would you not try to go overseas,” but that’s not what my calling is. I just don’t feel that way. Basketball was a tool that helped me unwrap my gift.

Kedren Johnson’s debut single “Notification” will drop early this year.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

[UPDATED] University of Memphis Hires Tubby Smith as New Basketball Coach

CREDIT: Tubby Smith at UM Press Conference

“Today the University of Memphis has hired the most accomplished [basketball] coach in our history. He is precisely the right coach at the right time for the University of Memphis.” — U of M president David Rudd

Josh Pastner was 14 years old when Tubby Smith presided over his first college basketball game as a head coach. The more telling number is Smith’s age (40) when he first walked the sideline — in 1991 —  as coach of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

In naming Smith the 18th men’s basketball coach in Memphis history today, the powers that be at the university chose a career profile that couldn’t be more different from that of Smith’s predecessor. Whereas Pastner had no head-coaching experience when he was given the job (in 2009) at age 31, Smith has 25 seasons of Division I head-coaching experience on his resume and has taken five programs — Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Texas Tech — to the NCAA tournament. He won a national championship at Kentucky in 1998, his first of 10 seasons at the helm in Lexington. (Smith’s departure from Kentucky in 2007 led to the departure of John Calipari from Memphis two years later). At age 64, Smith becomes the oldest basketball coach in Tiger history. 

Tubby Smith at UM Press Conference

Frank Murtaugh

Smith won the 2003 Naismith Coach of the Year award at Kentucky and was named SEC Coach of the Year three times. He earned Big 12 Coach of the Year honors this year for having led Texas Tech to a 19-13 season in the nation’s toughest conference. (The Red Raiders lost to Butler in the first round of the NCAA tournament.) Smith’s overall record is 557-276. He was an assistant coach for the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team in 2000.

Some highlights from Smith’s remarks at his introductory press conference:

“Our philosophy has always been big on love, family, and discipline. You can imagine, growing up in a household with [15] siblings, that was a focal point. You can’t survive, prosper, and grow without love.”

“Everyone I’ve coached and taught as a teacher, I love them all. I may not have liked everything they did, but I’ve loved them all. I was blessed to have parents who made me go to Sunday school. You have to have some values.”

“You don’t become successful without surrounding yourself with people whose goals are at least equal to yours, or greater. I’m a blue-collar worker. We put on our practice gear and we work with these young men. I just got to meet our present players, and they’re fine young men. We talked about goals: our basketball goals, our social goals, our academic goals, our spiritual goals. There’s a lot of pride in this program and university.”

“My dad told me that if you cut grass the right way, you’ll always have grass to cut. You’ll have a job.”

“When you see this team play, you’ll leave saying they played hard, played together, and played smart. That’s what we preach and teach. The fundamentals of the game are critical.”

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Josh Pastner’s Attitude of Gratitude

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

Josh Pastner

Attention, Miserables. The season of great feasting has begun.

“The Miserables,” of course, was the name former University of Memphis Coach John Calipari gave to a contingent of Tiger fans that was seemingly never happy during his time here. They were always kvetching, always looking for gray clouds, no matter how well the team performed. Calipari always said they didn’t know how good they had it. He was probably right.

Now the Calipari years are long gone, as the Tigers begin their seventh season under Josh Pastner, but the Miserables are back and calling for the coach’s head. Pastner is on every major sports medium’s “Hot seat” list. After the program lost a couple of key players via transfer last summer, Pastner tried to downplay expectations for this year’s squad, forgoing the usual glitzy Midnight Madness with rappers and fireworks in favor of a family-friendly event in the daytime. It did not draw many folks, but the plan all along was to turn down the hype and outperform the lowered expectations. This year’s bunch would have to rely on freshmen and transfers to carry much of the load.

In preseason, Pastner revved up one of his favorite themes: That the team — and indeed, all of us — need to have an “attitude of gratitude.” Which, at its simplest level, is being grateful you’re alive; being thankful you’re playing (or watching) basketball. It could be a lot worse. You could be getting attacked by terrorists or dying of a wasting disease. It’s just basketball. Let’s enjoy the games. (This could also be called the “attitude of platitude,” but I digress.) He also not-so-subtly called out a couple of members of the local sports media for their negative attitudes.

Let’s be honest, being grateful for what you have and putting silly things like basketball games in perspective is a great way to live a happier life. It’s a simple but wise message, one that I’ve heard from ministers and Boy Scout troop leaders and motivational speakers through the years. It’s a great thought to take to heart during this Thanksgiving season. Be grateful for your blessings.

But it’s not a message you’ll hear from Nick Saban or Tom Izzo or Bobby Knight. They don’t like perspective. They hate gratitude. Unless it’s for beating the crap out of their last opponent. They realize that no one’s grateful about anything in big-time college athletics except winning. Is that a sad indictment of our culture? No doubt. Is it what may get Pastner shown the door? Possibly.

Pastner has been an absolute model human being and a near-perfect representative for the University of Memphis. He’s been generous with his time, kind to the infirm and dying, helpful with all kinds of good works and charities. There’s no cussing, no drinking, no hanky-panky. He’s a model father. His players graduate (at least, the ones who don’t transfer), and they stay out of trouble. His teams win 20 games a year, contend for conference titles every other year or so, and often go to the NCAA tournament, though they don’t tend to stick around long.

Is that enough for him to keep his job? I don’t know. It would cost a fortune to buy out his contract. But if there are many more losses like the one this week to the UT-Arlington Mavericks, the university’s gratitude for Pastner’s attitude will be tested like never before.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Austin Nichols/Marc Gasol: It’s All About Relationships

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

Austin Nichols

This week has been a lesson in relationships for Memphians, at least for those of us who pay attention to basketball. (And there are a few in the Mid-South who do.) On Monday, All-NBA center Marc Gasol — an unrestricted free agent — officially announced he would stay with the Memphis Grizzlies, signing a five-year contract extension that will pay him around $110 million. The sound of angels singing could be heard from the Mississippi River halfway to Jackson, Tennessee.

The next day, though, all-conference forward Austin Nichols announced that he would be leaving the University of Memphis, forsaking at least one, probably two seasons of All-America candidacy in blue and gray. You could feel the tremors emanating from the Finch Center several miles away, at least to the Nichols family home in Collierville.

Larry Kuzniewski

Marc Gasol

Gasol’s return is a special, human tribute to the Grizzlies franchise and also the larger Memphis community, one the native Spaniard has come to know well since he wore a Lausanne Collegiate School uniform while his big brother, Pau, starred with the Griz. Let’s be a bit clinical and acknowledge the 110 million reasons Marc has to stay in Memphis . . . but the fact is, he appears to love Memphis, particularly the likes of Mike Conley and the teammates he feels have helped create an annual title contender. Gasol is good enough to play for other contenders. And there are other contenders who can pay the former Defensive Player of the Year more millions than he or his children will ever be able to spend. But Marc Gasol, let it be said, has become a Memphian. He met with one (and only one) franchise during his brief free agency. Where else would a Memphian play?

Then we have the saga of Austin Nichols, the Briarcrest product around whom Tiger coach Josh Pastner built a roster, the shot-blocking face and leader — captain! — of a team hoping to prove last season was an 18-14 anomaly, a single down year in what has been one of college basketball’s most successful institutions this century. Despite swirling rumors since late March, Nichols appeared to be all-in as a Tiger, even after the spring departures of teammates Pookie Powell and Nick King. But something clearly changed the 20-year-old’s mind over the last three months. A player who would make preseason All-America lists is willing to stay on the sidelines a year to get away from the Memphis program he joined two years ago, a match he considered — 24 months ago — a dream come true.

The Memphis-Nichols divorce is simply the other end of the relationship spectrum from the Memphis-Gasol marriage. And these relationships, remember, are intensely personal. No matter how close we media types like to think (or say) we are to a team of athletes and their coaching staff, few relationships outside actual family are as interwoven — and complicated — as those on a basketball team. The rosters are small, the coaching staff smaller (certainly relative to football). If there is the slightest animosity between two personalities, a locker room can divide. When one of those personalities is the head coach? The fracture can be quick, emotional, and permanent. That appears to be the case with Josh Pastner and Austin Nichols.

Can Pastner — and in the larger picture, the U of M basketball program — recover from this mess? Not in time for the 2015-16 season. If you’re going to hold anything against Nichols, it should be the timing of his decision more than the choice to leave itself. Whatever scraps may be left among college basketball transfers (the NCAA has free agents, too), they won’t replace 13 points, six rebounds, and three blocks per game. Worse, they won’t mollify a fan base that has come to consider Pastner a fine recruiter who cannot retain the talent he brings to Memphis. Tarik Black leaving after three seasons (having earned his degree) was one thing. Nick King leaving after two injury-riddled, disappointing seasons was another. Austin Nichols is precisely equivalent to Marc Gasol choosing to leave the Grizzlies. With one parting handshake (or other hand signal), a team is diminished.

There is no winner in the Tiger divorce. Nichols appears to be indecisive, minus the leadership skills Pastner trusted him to display next winter. And the coach, as noted earlier, appears to get in his own way when it comes to building a strong, steady program, let alone a Final Four contender.

For now, Memphis basketball fans should open their arms and return the embrace Marc Gasol offered so openly on Monday. Some relationships come and go. Others come to define a franchise and the community it represents.