Tigers Look to Extend Run on Wednesday

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis Tigers will put their current three-game stretch on the line on Wednesday evening when the team travels to Philadelphia to take on the Temple Owls.

GAME INFORMATION
Memphis (15-5, 5-2 American Athletic Conference) vs. Temple (10-10, 1-6 American Athletic Conference)
When: Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Tip-Off: 5 p.m. (CT)
Location: Philadelphia, Pa.
Arena: Liacouras Center
TV: CBS Sports Network
Tom McCarthy, play-by-play
Jordan Cornette, analyst
Jon Rothstein, sideline
Radio: Memphis Radio Network / 600 WREC / Rock 103
Dave Woloshin, play-by-play
Matt Dillon, analyst
Forrest Goodman, pregame / postgame host
Live Stats: Temple Sidearm Live Stats

SCOUTING THE OWLS

Temple comes into the game riding a three-game losing skid, and has dropped six of the last seven games, with a win against East Carolina sandwiching three losses.
    In the team's last game, an 81-74 loss at Cincinnati, Temple took a two-point, 28-26 lead into the locker room at halftime, but was out-scored 55-46 in the second half in the seven-point loss.
    Shizz Alston Jr. scored a game-high 25 points, while Quinton Rose and Daniel Dingle each scored 12 points. Rose pulled down a team-best five rebounds, as the Owls were out-rebounded 32-to-23. Alston also dished out six assists and added five steals, with Temple dishing out 14 team assists and committed just 13 turnovers.
    On the season the Owls have three players averaging in double-figure scoring, with a fourth just off of the pace. Obi Enechionyia averages a team-best 14.1 points per game, with Alston Jr. scoring 13.9 - just five points fewer than Enechionyia. Dingle averages 12.1 with Rose just off of the double-figure pace with a scoring average of 9.6 points per game.
    Enechionyia averages a team-best 6.4 rebounds per game with Ernest Aflakpui close behind at 5.4 rebounds per game for a squad that gets out-rebounded by 3.3 rebounds per game. Alston Jr. has dished out 86 assists to lead the team, while also leading the team with 38 steals. As a squad the Owls have a 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio, and have a +1.6 turnover margin.

THIRD PLAYER OF THE WEEK

On Monday, January 23, K.J. Lawson was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week. Lawson averaged 22 points, 12 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game.

THREE-TIMES AWARD WINNERS

When K.J. Lawson earned the Player of the Week honor, he became the third different Tiger to be named Player of the Week this season. That figure ties an American Athletic Conference record for the most different players from one school to earn the award in a year. The Tigers join Tulsa from last season, and SMU and UConn from the 2014-15 season.

FIRST-YEAR SUCCESSES

New University of Memphis head coach Tubby Smith has opened his Memphis career with a 15-5 overall record, which stands as the seventh-best record among coaches in their first year at the current school. Below is a list of the top 14 such coaches, ranked by winning percentage.

Rk.	Coach	School	Record
1.	Paul Weir *	New Mexico St.	18-2
2.	Tim Jankovich	SMU	17-4
3.	Matt Lottich *	Valparaiso	16-4
4.	Tubby Smith	Memphis	15-5
5.	Jamie Dixon	TCU	14-5
	Chris Beard	Texas Tech	14-5
	Johnny Dawkins	UCF	14-5
8.	Grant McCasland *	Arkansas State	13-6
	Ryan Odom *	UMBC	13-6
10.	Kyle Smith	San Francisco	14-7
	Scott Nagy	Wright State	14-7
12.	Allen Edwards *	Wyoming	13-7
13.	Kevin Stallings	Pittsburgh	12-7
14.	Reggie Witherspoon	Canisius	12-8
* First Time Head Coaches \| As of games on 1/19/2017

MR. SMITH GOES TO PHILADELPHIA

While new Memphis head coach Tubby Smith has not faced off against Temple, or against Fran Dunphy, but that does not mean that he has not coached a game in Philadelphia, or in the state of Pennsylvania. Smith is 5-4 all-time when coaching in the state, including a 2-2 record within the City of Brotherly Love.

TUBBY SMITH VS FRAN DUNPHY

The two coaches have coached for a combined 1,106 wins and 54 years on the sideline, coaching eight different programs combined. Of all of the games, 1,680 total, the team have met just once on the basketball court, in the 1999-00 season opener as part of the Preseason NIT. Smith's Kentucky squad won 67-50 over Dunphy's Pennsylvania team.

STRONG FROM DISTANCE

Temple comes into the game ranking first in the American Athletic Conference in three-point field goals made, at 174 (8.7 per game), while standing fifth in three-point field goal percentage, and first in three-point field goals attempted (492), 74 more than the second-highest total in the league.

TOUGH SCHEDULE

This season, Temple's schedule which includes games against Florida State, West Virginia, and Villanova - has been ranked as the 27th-most difficult strength of schedule in the country. Additionally, Memphis has five games against teams in the top-30 in strength of schedule (Oklahoma, 19th; Ole Miss, 26th; Temple 27th; and South Carolina; 28th).

28 TALLIES, THREE TIMES OVER

This season the University of Memphis has had three players score 28 or more points in a single game. Dedric Lawson, Markel Crawford, and K.J. Lawson have all reached the scoring milestone for the Tigers. Only Texas A&M Corpus Christi has had more players reach the milestone this season, with four, and there are 17 schools, along with Memphis, that have had three different players score 28 or more points in a game this season.

Rk.	School	28+ Scorers	Record
1.	Texas A&M Corpus Christi	4	9-9
2.	Memphis	3	15-5
	Belmont	3	13-4
	Cal State Bakersfield	3	12-7
	Citadel	3	9-13
	Incarnate Word	3	8-10
	Iowa State	3	12-6
	Jacksonville	3	13-9
	Marshall	3	12-8
	Nevada	3	16-4
	Northern Kentucky	3	13-8
	Oral Roberts	3	7-14
	Oregon	3	18-2
	Siena	3	9-12
	Tennessee Tech	3	8-14
	UMBC	3	13-6
	Utah Valley	3	9-10
	Washington State	3	10-9

YOUNG AND (NEAR A) GRAND

University of Memphis sophomore Dedric Lawson has scored 917 points over his one-plus seasons with the program, and is one of a small number of sophomores at or near the 1,000-point plateau. Below is a list of the top 10 sophomore career scorers in the country.

Rk.	Student-Athlete	School	Games	Points
172.	Tyler Hall	Montana State	52	1,064
184.	Marcus Evans	Rice	52	1,048
201.	Mike Daum	South Dakota St.	56	1,020
206.	Chris Clemons	Campbell	50	1,012
266.	Dedric Lawson	Memphis	53	917
276.	Derick Newton	Stetson	55	906
283.	Tookie Brown	Georgia Southern	50	898
286.	Nick Emery	BYU	57	889
293.	Dwayne Bacon	Florida State	54	883
347.	Nick Mayo	Eastern Kentucky	53	830

TWO IN TOP 10 OF P-R-A

The University of Memphis is the only school in the American Athletic Conference with two players ranking inside of the top-10 in points, rebounds, and assists (p-r-a). Dedric Lawson and Markel Crawford rank 2nd and 6th in the league in scoring. Dedric Lawson and K.J. Lawson rank second and third in the conference in rebounding, while Jeremiah Martin and Dedric Lawson rank fourth and ninth, respectively in assists.

2x 30+

When Markel Crawford scored 30 at home against the USF Bulls on Saturday, January 14, he became the second member of the Tigers to score 30+ points in a game. At the time, it gave the Tigers the only sets of teammates on the list; however, during the previous mid-week game, UCF's Matt Williams drained 11 three-pointers to join Tacko Fall on the list.

MEMPHIS VS THE AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

Memphis stands with a 206-112 record all-time against the other 10 teams in the American Athletic Conference. New Memphis head coach Tubby Smith is 16-5 all-time against teams from the league.

SCHOOL	Memphis	Smith
Cincinnati	32-40 *	1-0
UConn	3-6 *	1-1
East Carolina	15-3 *	1-0
Houston	29-14 *	3-1
SMU	10-9 *	0-1
Temple	8-8	0-0
Tulane	47-11 *	3-0
Tulsa	22-16 *	2-1
UCF	19-1 *	3-0
USF	23-4	1-0
Totals	207-112 *	16-5

* Does not include wins vacated by the NCAA from the 2007-08 season: Connecticut 1; Cincinnati 1; East Carolina 1;Houston 2; SMU 2; Tulane 2; Tulsa 3; UCF 1

BLOCKING, THE LEADERS

With eight blocked shots in two of the last four games, the Memphis Tigers have climbed into 16th place in Division I in blocked shots per game. Additionally, Memphis sophomore Dedric Lawson has moved into 17th place individually in the same category. Below are the top three teams, and the two surrounding Memphis; and the top three individuals and the two surrounding Lawson in the NCAA standings in blocked shots per game.

Rk.	School	G	Blks	BPG
1.	Oregon	20	153	7.7
2.	Washington	19	127	6.7
3.	Georgia Tech	19	124	6.5
...
14.	UCLA	21	120	5.7
15.	Louisiana Tech	20	113	5.7
16.	Memphis	20	112	5.6
	Rutgers	20	112	5.6
18.	Rhode Island	18	100	5.6
19.	Florida State	20	111	5.6

Rk.	Student-Athlete	Cl.	School	BPG
1.	Liam Thomas	Sr.	Nicholls	4.10
2.	Justin Tuoyo	Sr.	Chattonooga	3.42
3.	Ben Lammers	Jr.	Georgia Tech	3.37
...
15.	Malik Dime	Sr.	Washington	2.60
16.	Moses Kingsley	Jr.	Arkansas	2.58
17.	Dedric Lawson	So.	Memphis	2.55
18.	Kingsley Okoroh	Jr.	Arkansas	2.50
19.	Dominick Robb	So.	Niagara	2.50

TWO NEAR DOUBLE-DOUBLE TOP

This season, Memphis sophomore forward Dedric Lawson has 14 double-doubles, which is third-most in the NCAA. Additionally, with K.J. Lawson's seven double-doubles, Memphis is one of two teams, along with LIU Brooklyn, to have two players on the same squad that have 7+ double-doubles during the season.

ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST TEMPLE

In 15 previous all-time meetings between the two programs, the series is deadlocked at seven wins apiece. The series, which has its largest margin by either team at 10 points, has seen the margin for the last three meetings being at five points or less, including an overtime game in 2014.

Overall Series: Series tied 8-8
Games in Memphis: Series tied 3-3
Games in Philadelphia: Series tied 3-3
Games at Neutral Site: Series tied 2-2
Current Series Win Streak: Temple one game
Longest Memphis Win Streak: four games
Longest Temple Win Streak: three games
Largest Memphis Victory: 10; three times
Largest Temple Victory: 8; November 29, 1986
Most Memphis Points: 82; February 22, 2014
Fewest Memphis Points: 53; February 5, 1995
Most Temple Points: 80; March 13, 2015
Fewest Temple Points: 51; February 5, 1995

Jan. 17, 1953	Temple 71, Memphis 64	Philadelphia, Pa.
Dec. 26, 1974	Memphis 71, Temple 68	Jacksonville, Fla.
Nov. 29, 1986	Temple 67, Memphis 59	New York, N.Y.
Feb. 13, 1992	Temple 65, Memphis 63	Memphis, Tenn.
Feb. 24, 1993	Temple 65, Memphis 58	Philadelphia, Pa.
Feb. 5, 1995	Memphis 53, Temple 51	Philadelphia, Pa.
Dec. 28, 1995	Memphis 68, Temple 58	Memphis, Tenn.
Nov. 17, 2000	Temple 67, Memphis 62	Memphis, Tenn.
Dec. 20, 2001	Memphis 64, Temple 54	Philadelphia, Pa.
Mar. 26, 2002	Memphis 78, Temple 77	New York, N.Y. ~
Jan. 11, 2014	Memphis 79, Temple 69	Philadelphia, Pa.
Feb. 22, 2014	Memphis 82, Temple 79 (ot)	Memphis, Tenn.
Feb. 7, 2015	Temple 61, Memphis 60	Memphis, Tenn.
Mar. 13, 2015	Temple 80, Memphis 75	Hartford, Conn. ^
Jan. 13, 2016	Memphis 67, Temple 65	Memphis, Tenn.
Mar. 3, 2016	Temple 72, Memphis 62	Philadelphia, Pa.
~ Postseason NIT
^ American Athletic Conference Tournament

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Markel Crawford

Dedric Lawson

K.J. Lawson

Jeremiah Martin

University of Memphis Athletics