We learned in their upset of 6th-ranked Houston on February 12th that the Memphis Tigers have a “Big Three”: Landers Nolley, DeAndre Williams, and Jalen Duren. In the four games since that season-turning victory, we’ve learned which player, among those three, is this team’s Alpha. It’s freshman center Jalen Duren, by a head and two large shoulders. With March basketball upon us, it’s about time for this clarification.
Since returning from a hand injury on February 5th, Duren has averaged 14.6 points and 7.6 rebounds over seven games (six of them Memphis victories). He scored at least 11 points in all seven games and put up double-doubles in consecutive wins over UCF, Tulane, and Houston. He may have joined the Memphis program as merely one of two top-five recruits (along with Emoni Bates), but Duren alone has risen to the college game in much the same way Precious Achiuwa did two seasons ago on his way to Player of the Year honors in the American Athletic Conference. Currently the AAC’s leader in both rebounds and blocked shots, Duren is a lock for first-team all-conference accolades, if not the same hardware Achiuwa landed.
The Pennsylvania native may be only 18 years old, but he stands 6’11” and weighs 250 pounds, very little of that weight so much as approximating flab. And size, friends, does not slump. These are assets Duren will enjoy as long as he plays a sport with a goal ten feet above the floor. Add his quickness, a shooting touch from beyond 10 feet, and a healthy dose of “want to” — Duren will hit the floor after a loose ball — and you see how the Tigers’ Alpha is projected among the top 15 players in June’s NBA draft. (He turns 19 in November, making him eligible for this year’s draft.)
Duren had what might be considered, for him, an off day in the Tigers’ beat-down of Wichita State Sunday: merely 13 points and seven rebounds. But he altered one Shocker shot after another, the kind of defensive presence that can’t be measured in the box score. (He did get credit for three blocks.) Following the game, I asked Tiger coach Penny Hardaway if Duren reminded him of any teammate or opponent from Hardaway’s playing career.
“Jalen reminds me of Chris Webber,” said Hardaway. “He has the same mannerisms. [Assistant Coach] Rasheed [Wallace] and I talked about that. They have similarities.”
If you know your basketball history, Hardaway’s comparison is poignant. Webber and Hardaway were both consensus All-Americans in 1992-93 (Webber with Michigan, Hardaway with Memphis State). The Orlando Magic chose Webber with the first pick in the 1993 NBA draft, only to trade him minutes later to Golden State for the Warriors’ selection at number-three: Penny Hardaway. Webber was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, while Hardaway still awaits the game’s highest honor. You can be sure the Tigers’ coach knows Webber’s game almost as well as his own. And he sees that game — that kind of impact — in Jalen Duren.
The last time the Memphis program reached the second weekend of the NCAA tournament, in 2009, the Tigers’ had a distinctive Alpha on the roster: Tyreke Evans. If there was a shortcoming for the teams that made the Dance four straight years (2011-14) under coach Josh Pastner, it was the lack of an Alpha star. Was it Will Barton? (Maybe his sophomore season.) D.J. Stephens? Joe Jackson? Those were multi-talented teams, and they should be credited for making the NCAAs when so many Tiger teams fell short in the eight years since. But the one player — the Alpha — capable of shouldering a deep tournament run? I’m not convinced Pastner ever had the asset Hardaway does right now in Jalen Duren.
After Sunday’s win, Landers Nolley — a “Big Three” member himself — said, “We’re in control of our own destiny. If we lose, it’s on us.” His team’s Alpha may be only 18, and he may have one eye already on a promising NBA career. But if the 2021-22 Tigers are to reach the heights they envision, it’s on no player more than Jalen Duren. Based on his play in February, that may be a comfortable load.
