Penny Hardaway isn’t looking for his new Memphis basketball team to be the best it can be in October, the seventh-year coach said after Tuesday’s 84-76 exhibition loss to North Carolina.
“We tried not to run any sets. We tried not to really show much,” Hardaway said. “We didn’t play Memphis basketball tonight.”
But, as the Tigers begin preparing for their next preseason charity exhibition game on Oct. 28 (7 p.m.) against Alabama in Huntsville, Alabama, now seems like a perfect time to throw caution to the wind and draw some concrete conclusions based on what we saw at FedExForum.
Here are five observations and overreactions.
Toughness skyrockets − compared to last season
The Tigers ran out a starting backcourt of Tyrese Hunter and PJ Haggerty.
The Tigers trotted out Baraka Okojie − a surprise, considering he missed the whole summer after undergoing surgery on his left shoulder and was only cleared for contact drills about a week ago − and true freshman Jared Harris off the bench.
And the results were encouraging − especially from a toughness perspective. For weeks, Hardaway has said most of Memphis’ identity will be made up of how tough the players are. Hunter, Haggerty, Okojie and Harris proved it.
Against a preseason top-10 team, the foursome combined for 38 points and 17 rebounds (nine from Haggerty alone). Hunter, Okojie and Harris combined for nine steals (eight between Okojie and Harris).
Is that group on the same level as Kendric Davis, Alex Lomax and Damaria Franklin, who were instrumental in leading the Tigers to a 26-win season in 2022-23? Let’s not go quite that far just yet.
But this version of the Tigers − especially the backcourt − appears exponentially tougher than last season’s.
Dain Dainja struggles
The Illinois transfer arrived in Memphis with a lot of promise and generated quite a bit of buzz in recent weeks.
But the big man had a tough performance against the Tar Heels. He made a nifty move and a crafty shot on the Tigers’ first possession of the game, but was held to just three points the rest of the game. He was 1-of-6 from the free throw line. Although he contributed three blocks, he had just two rebounds. All in 18 minutes.
“Yeah, Dain didn’t have a great night,” Hardaway said. “We’ll see him bounce back for the next game.”
Baraka Okojie will be an all-AAC performer
Okojie had just one point. But he stepped up in other areas.
He had three rebounds, four assists and four steals in 16 minutes. Reminder, the George Mason transfer and sophomore has had less than a week’s worth of full-fledged practice time with his new team.
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Is he an AAC Sixth Man of the Year candidate? He might be the frontrunner already.
Shooting, spacing could be a problem
One of the bigger question marks hovering over these Tigers all offseason revolved around whether they have enough perimeter shooting on the roster.
Colby Rogers and PJ Carter are both above average from 3-point range. But, apart from Nicholas Jourdain, who is a low-volume 3-point shooter, no one else has exhibited much consistency in their collegiate careers.
It showed Tuesday. Memphis was 5-for-23 beyond the arc, and Rogers made two of them. Hunter, Haggerty and Carter had the other three.
The Tigers shot a respectable 42.9% from the field. Maybe what Hardaway said about the team not running any sets factored into that. If not, it could be a wild ride.
Memphis basketball will win the AAC
How’s that for an overreaction from a loss in October?
Here’s the deal: There are no Seth Trimbles (who had 33 points in RJ Davis’ absence) in the AAC. There are no Elliot Cadeaus (11 points, 13 assists). There may not even be any Jalen Washingtons (17 points, six rebounds).
Also, Memphis will absolutely get better − and the Tigers weren’t bad at all Tuesday.
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.
