Memphis took its seven-game winning streak to USF on Thursday and extended it with an 80-65 victory. So the Tigers remain No. 12 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. And if you’re wondering whether Memphis fans are truly excited with how things are going, or, instead, a little bored, peek at this sign that showed up in Tampa.
No, it wasn’t actually a Quad 8 win for the Tigers — but it was a victory that fell in Quad 3, which is where just about every victory in the American Athletic Conference falls for Memphis, if not worse. For context, consider that Memphis’ eight-game winning streak consists of six Q3 wins and two victories in Q4, and of the Tigers’ six regular-season games remaining, five currently project to fall in either Q3 or Q4. In other words, basically all the AAC offers Memphis are games that can damage its resume, not help. Frustrating as that might be for some fans, this should more or less be life for the Tigers until the school figures out how to upgrade conferences.
Either way, Penny Hardaway is handling it well.
After entering his seventh year at his alma mater with big questions following last season’s collapse and some unusual personnel moves fairly late in the calendar (and various other things), Hardaway has been terrific through 25 games. He guided his mostly new team through a challenging non-league schedule and now has the Tigers cruising through an overmatched conference. Memphis is 21-4 overall, 11-1 in the AAC and bolstered by a resume featuring five Q1 victories — specifically wins over Ole Miss, Michigan State, Missouri, Clemson and UConn.
And oh, by the way, Thursday’s win over USF happened to double as Hardaway’s 150th victory since replacing Tubby Smith in March 2018. That’s an accomplishment worthy of celebration considering there were times when it was reasonable to wonder if Hardaway would ever get here — both to 150 career victories and into the top 15 of the AP poll in the middle of February. But now he’s here — getting ready to try to secure career victory 151 on Sunday at Wichita State, and with the Tigers ranked this high this late in the season for the first time in 16 years.
“I’m so thankful,” Hardaway told Dave Woloshin, the longtime radio play-by-play voice of the Tigers, according to Bluff City Media’s Roman Cleary. “I’ve been faithful to my craft. Even if I’ve made mistakes, I’ve been faithful and I worked really hard.”
Would all of this be more interesting with more interesting conference games? Yes, of course it would.
But Hardaway can’t personally do anything about that. Rather, all he can do is his best to try to keep his players focused on matchups they’re largely supposed to win by double-digits, and, ask any coach, that’s not easy. But he’s doing it, pretty consistently. And as long as that continues, the Tigers will soon have their first conference regular-season championship since 2013 while Hardaway secures his first AAC Coach of the Year award in a landslide.
