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Memphis Tigers Basketball Returns Home to Host the SMU Mustangs Thursday Night

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Basketball

The Memphis Tigers look to rebound from a buzzer-beater loss in their last outing, as SMU heads to FedExForum Thursday night for Memphis' first home game in 11 days. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

The Tigers dropped a 72-71 heartbreaker at the buzzer at East Carolina Saturday afternoon for their second-straight loss after winning three-in-a-row.
 
Landers Nolley II and Jayden Hardaway were new additions to the injury report and missed the East Carolina game. Now seven different Tigers, Emoni Bates, Jalen Duren, Alex Lomax, Earl Timberlake, DeAndre Williams, Nolley II and Hardaway, have missed at least one game this month due to injury. Counting Chandler Lawson, who has been out with injury since November, the Tigers have not played with a full complement of scholarship players available since Nov. 24 against Virginia Tech. Just three Tigers, Tyler Harris, Josh Minott and Lester Quinones, have played in all 16 Tiger games this year.
 
SMU enters the game in second place in the AAC standings at 4-1, one-half game behind 4-0 Houston. The Mustangs are 13-4 overall on the season and have won 10 of their last 11 games, with the only loss coming at Cincinnati on Jan. 6. SMU is led by Kendric Davis, the AAC's leading scorer at 21.1 points per game, which also ranks 10th in the NCAA. He is also top-five in the conference in free throw percentage, field goal percentage, assists, 3-pointers made and assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
Thursday's game is a matchup of two of the conference best offenses. Memphis ranks second in the league in scoring at 77.0 points per game, and SMU is right behind at 76.9 per contest. SMU also leads the AAC in 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage, with three players averaging at least 1.9 triples per outing.
 
The Memphis coaching staff has two people with ties to SMU. Assistant coach Larry Brown went 94-39 as head coach at SMU for four seasons from 2012-16, including the Mustangs' first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1993 in 2014-15. Additionally, Memphis assistant to the head coach Shawn Forrest was an assistant coach at SMU under Tim Jankovich for three seasons from 2016-19, which included SMU's 30-5 2016-17 campaign.
 
After Thursday's game, the Tigers head to Tulsa Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. That game will conclude a stretch of three road games in Orlando, Greenville, N.C., and Tulsa that covers approximately 2,000 miles. Memphis then returns to FedExForum to host East Carolina on Thursday, Jan. 27.
 
Thursday's game is presented by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.
 
GAME DETAILS
Memphis Tigers (9-7, 3-3 AAC) vs. NR/RV SMU Mustangs (13-4, 4-1 AAC)
Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022 | 6 p.m. CT
FedExForum (18,400); Memphis, Tenn.
Television: ESPN2 (Kevin Brown, pxp; Jon Crispin, analysis)
Radio: 98.9 THE ROAR OF MEMPHIS (Dave Woloshin, pxp; Matt Dillon, analysis)
 
BY THE NUMBERS

  • 9: Consecutive American Athletic Conference home wins for the Tigers, dating back to a 56-49 loss to Tulsa on Dec. 21, 2020.
  • 1: 3-pointer needed by Tyler Harris to move past Jeremy Hunt (2002-07) into sole possession of fifth place on Memphis' career leaderboard (168).
  • 7: Teams in the AAC with two or three conference losses through, at most, six league games so far this year.
  • 5.7: Memphis' average margin of defeat in its seven losses this season, with five coming by four points or fewer including two of its last three by one point apiece.
  • 9: Consecutive games with a new starting lineup for the Tigers; Memphis has used 12 different starting lineups overall with 11 different players making a start.

THE LAST TIME OUT

  • East Carolina's Brandon Suggs hit a buzzer beater, and the Pirates topped short-handed Memphis Saturday afternoon in Greenville, N.C., 72-71.
  • The Tigers were playing with six scholarship players due to injuries.
  • East Carolina led for only 53 seconds of the game.
  • Memphis was led in scoring by Jalen Duren with 15.
  • Emoni Bates and Tyler Harris each added 13, Josh Minott had 12 and Lester Quinones finished with 10.
  • Memphis used an 11-0 run to open up a 19-8 lead, while forcing East Carolina into seven-straight misses, which set the tone for the remainder of the first half.
  • The Tigers led by as many as 19 points when Bates hit his third of three-straight triples, and the Pirates did not get within single digits for the remainder of the half.
  • The Tigers made five of their seven 3-point tries in the first half (.714) and shot 57.6 percent from the field overall (19-33).
  • Memphis also had 24 points in the paint in the opening 20 minutes.
  • The second half got dicey late, with the Pirates going on a 10-0 run to tie the game at 70 with under a minute left.
  • Quinones drove to the basket on the next possession and was fouled, and he split the pair of free throws to put Memphis ahead, 71-70, with 14 seconds left.
  • East Carolina took it down and tried a layup, which was swatted out of bounds by Earl Timberlake.
  • With one second on the clock, the Pirates inbounded to Suggs, who banked it in for the victory.
  • East Carolina is 10-0 at home this season.
  • Suggs and Vance Jackson led the Pirates with 17 points apiece.

NOTING THE OPPONENT

  • SMU went 11-6 a season ago and finished fourth in the AAC with a 7-4 record.
  • The Mustangs advanced to the NIT, where they bowed out in the first round after an 85-84 loss to Boise State.
  • Memphis then went on to beat Boise State in the quarterfinals, 59-56.
  • Davis was the AAC's leading scorer and assist-giver a season ago at 19.0 points and 7.6 assists per game.
  • The Mustangs also return Emmanuel Bandoumel, who averaged 10.2 points per game.
  • SMU was picked to finish third in this season's preseason coaches poll, behind Houston and Memphis.
  • Davis was a unanimous first-team all-conference pick in the preseason.
  • SMU has won four total AAC championships, winning the regular season and tournament titles in 2015 and 2017.
  • The Mustangs have had 17 All-AAC honorees, the highest in the conference, in the first eight seasons of the league.