Despite its No. 19 ranking, Memphis began the week with plenty of things to work on, leaving coach Penny Hardaway thankful to have extra practice days.
East Carolina, which will visit Memphis for an American Athletic Conference matchup on Saturday afternoon, is coming off a hard-fought win on Wednesday. The Tigers, in turn, have not played since slipping past North Texas on Sunday.
In their preseason poll, conference coaches voted Memphis (12-3, 2-0) to finish second, and although the Tigers routed Florida Atlantic on Jan. 2, North Texas proved a tougher challenge.
The Mean Green outrebounded Memphis 30-21, including 12-4 on offense, and never trailed by more than seven points before losing 68-64.
Florida Atlantic and North Texas were viewed as middle-of-the-pack teams in the conference, so Hardaway viewed those games as learning experiences for a team with a target on its back due to its ranking.
“The (Florida Atlantic) game wasn’t a true test of what our conference is all about, because we got off to a great start and blew out a really good team. Then we came home and played a really good team, so they know it’s not going to be easy, because when you have to win games, it makes it way tougher,” Hardaway said.
PJ Haggerty leads the Tigers in scoring with an average of 22.2 points per game this season and netted 27 against North Texas. Big man Dain Dainja, a transfer from Illinois, added 14 points but also was responsible for seven of Memphis’ 15 turnovers. The Tigers are averaging 14.5 turnovers a game.
“North Texas showed these guys what we have to (work on),” Hardaway said. “I already understood, but it gave me a chance to coach these guys in a different way this week as well because of what North Texas did to us.”
East Carolina’s victory in the team’s most recent game was a relief in a different way.
The Pirates (9-7, 1-2) had lost six of their previous seven games before pulling out an 80-79 win over visiting Temple on Wednesday. Only one of those six losses came by more than seven points, and the defeats to conference opponents South Florida and Florida Atlantic came by a combined eight points.
“They’re all big (wins), obviously, but any time you’re in a little bit of a losing streak and you’re feeling the mud, so to speak, wins are even that much more in terms of emotion,” East Carolina coach Michael Schwartz said.
Jayshayne Woodard’s driving layup bounced around the rim before dropping through for the go-ahead points with 10 seconds to play against Temple. Woodard had missed two free throws with the Pirates trailing 77-76 with 1:06 left, and he missed a last-ditch 3-pointer against Florida Atlantic on Sunday.
“How can you have even more poetic justice than the last game?” Schwartz asked rhetorically. “(Woodard) missed a couple free throws, and he comes back and does that? It speaks volumes to him. He’s a great, great kid.”
Woodard finished with 15 points, well above his season average of 5.8. RJ Felton, who scored 23 points on Wednesday, leads the team at 17.4 per game, followed by C.J. Walker (16.8) and Jordan Riley (14.4).
–Field Level Media
