Memphis basketball mailbag: Are the Tigers an NCAA tournament team right now?

The Memphis basketball team — such as it is presently — is into its fourth out of eight weeks of summer workouts.

The Tigers have nine scholarship players (although Baraka Okojie is hurt) and one walk-on on campus. While there are at least three open scholarships and Tigers coach Penny Hardaway remains steadfast in his pursuit of reinforcements, being relatively this far ahead of the game has him in a good place.

“It’s going to equate to some beautiful things,” Hardaway said during an appearance last week on The Voice of MSCS’ “TaylorMade Sports” with Marcus Taylor. “(In the past), everybody else already has that June jump on us. (But) we’ve now put our playing style, who we are, the non-negotiables — we put that in in June and July. Now, when we get to the fall, we can start working on something else.”

With that in mind, let’s get into this week’s Memphis basketball mailbag.

Hardaway wanted to rebuild his roster with defense as the top priority.

“When you have an offensive-minded team, you can’t win championships,” he said last week. “This year, I’m back to that defensive-minded team.”

So it shouldn’t be surprising that those standing out so far are the ones bringing that mentality to the table. Former Texas guard Tyrese Hunter, former Ole Miss center Moussa Cisse and former SMU forward Tyreek Smith have generated positive buzz with their ability as well as their mindsets.

Former Tulsa guard PJ Haggerty (with his multi-level scoring prowess) and former Illinois big man Dain Dainja (with his ability to score on the block) have shown Memphis won’t be a one-dimensional offense.

If you had to set the odds today, how likely is it that Memphis will make the Big Dance? — anonymous, via Tiger Basketball Insider text group

I think it’s an extremely safe bet.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest projection has the Tigers in as a 9-seed. I have Memphis closer to a 7, but that’s essentially just splitting hairs. The point is, I feel like this is a top-30 team right now (even…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/memphis-basketball-mailbag-tigers-ncaa-100927540.html

Author : The Commercial Appeal

Publish date : 2024-06-26 10:09:27

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.