University of Memphis Athletics
Women's Basketball Unveils 2008-09 Schedule
Sep 19, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Sept. 19, 2008
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -
Complete Schedule in PDF Format 
The Melissa McFerrin era at the University of Memphis will begin with seven of the Tigers' first nine games being played at home before a December trip to the Bahamas for a tournament which features Memphis with UT Arlington, Georgia Tech and Winthrop. In all, the Tigers will play 15 games at home, including match-ups against Louisiana Tech, Arkansas and defending Conference USA Champion UTEP. Also included in the home schedule is the 24th Annual Piggly Wiggly Classic, which features Wichita State as Memphis' first opponent, followed by either Stephen F. Austin or Jacksonville State in the second round.
"Our schedule features some old and some new for our women's basketball team and fans," McFerrin said. "We renew a rivalry with Ole Miss, continue match-ups against Louisiana Tech, Arkansas and Mississippi State and add some new opponents, like Ohio University and Northern Arizona. The variety of styles and levels of competition will allow us to learn the strengths and weaknesses of our team during actual competition. The early season will be about learning and improving each time out."
Memphis should be well-prepped for C-USA road games, as the Tigers have just four non-conference road games, but play each in cities with reputations for supporting their women's basketball programs.
"Playing Belmont in Nashville, Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi State in Starkville and Tennessee Tech up in Cookeville will give us a great taste of playing in front of great women's basketball crowds who will try to make it tough on us on the road. We'll need to keep our confidence up in those environments so we come in to our conference schedule with some momentum since we play our first three league games at home," McFerrin said.
The season will kick off with an exhibition game on Nov. 7th against Team Essence at 11:30 a.m. That game will be a special kick-off event for the Classroom on the Court program being put together by Conference USA this season. Over 5,000 Memphis primary school students have been signed up for the program, which uses basketball to teach geography and other subjects in elementary classrooms.
Memphis opens the regular season against Northern Arizona on Nov. 14th, then goes on the road to Nashville to face Belmont, Nov. 16th. The Tigers return home for a second game in the Fieldhouse against Louisiana Tech on Nov. 18th, then venture down the road to Oxford, Miss., to face the first of three SEC opponents on this year's schedule with a Nov. 21st game at Ole Miss.
The Tigers will then welcome back-to-back opponents with new head coaches to round out November. Memphis will host Semeka Randall's Ohio University squad, a 20-13 team a year ago, on Nov. 24th. Just four days later, Memphis will again face another coach new to her program in the opening game of the 24th Annual Piggly Wiggly Classic. Memphis will face Wichita State and new head coach Jody Adams in the first round, then will face either Stephen F. Austin, a team that swept the Southland with a 16-0 record two seasons ago, or Jacksonville State, a team returning all five starters from last year on day two.
Memphis will play their final home games of the calendar year early in December, hosting SEC rival Arkansas in the 19th meeting between the two programs on Dec. 3rd and South Alabama, a team that finished 20-11 last season, on Dec. 11th.
The Tigers will then face the final SEC opponent of the regular season schedule, Dec. 13th when the team travels to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State in Humphrey Coliseum.
Memphis will step on to a plane for the first time of the fall semester on Dec. 16th when the team packs the passports and heads for the beaches of the Bahamas to participate in the Sunsplash Shootout. The Tigers will face the Mavericks of the University of Texas-Arlington in the opening round of the tournament on Dec. 18th. The Mavericks capped last season with a 19-10 overall record and tied for second in the Southland Conference behind Texas State. The Tigers will then face either Georgia Tech or Winthrop in the second day of competition on Dec. 20th. Both teams have some familiarity with the Tigers as former Tiger assistant coach Sytia Messner is now the associate head coach at Georgia Tech, while Winthrop faced Memphis just two seasons ago in the season-opening tournament at Louisville.
Memphis will return to campus following the semester break only to get back on the bus for a non-conference trip to Tennessee Tech, Dec. 30th. Cookeville, Tenn., has been one of the tougher places for a Memphis team to play historically. Memphis is just 5-15 all-time against TTU, and is 1-4 against the Golden Eagles in Cookeville.
Similar to the opening of the non-conference schedule, Memphis will also have some home-court advantage in the opening of the league slate. The schedule opens against travel partner UAB on Jan. 4th, a team Memphis has not beaten since 2003-04.
The Tigers then host UCF and Southern Miss in the first two-game league weekend on Jan. 8th and 10th, respectively. UCF upended Memphis in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse on Senior Day last season, while Southern Miss returns all five starters from a team that went 21-14 last season and advanced to the third round of the WNIT.
After the home start, the Tigers will hit the road for four straight games, making a weekend stay in Houston to face Rice and Houston. The trip to Rice will be just the third trip Memphis has ever made to Rice, and the team is still winless in Houston against the Owls. The Houston team across town has not been much nicer to the Tigers, as Memphis carries a four-game winless streak against the Cougars in to Hofheinz Pavillion, where a Memphis team was last victorious in 2002-03.
After the tandem of games in Houston, Memphis will head back to the airport the following weekend for a trip to East Carolina (Jan. 22nd) and Marshall (Jan. 24th). Memphis picked up its first-ever win in Greenville last year to complete a regular season sweep of ECU, but then heads to Marshall to face a Thundering Herd team against which Memphis is still winless in seven attempts.
The Tigers will close out January with a pair of home games, facing defending regular season champion UTEP, Jan. 29th, then facing Tulane, a team that is looking to avenge a Memphis victory in New Orleans last season, on Jan. 31st.
February opens on the road at UAB, the site of the last Memphis victory in the series, on Feb. 7th. The Tigers then return home to begin a split weekend against West Division opponents by hosting SMU, then traveling to Tulsa to face the Golden Hurricane on Feb. 12th and 15th, respectively.
The final home games of the year will be the return part of the home-and-home series against East Division foes East Carolina (Feb. 20th) and Marshall (Feb. 22nd). The regular season closes out on the road at UCF (Feb. 26th) and Southern Miss (Feb. 28th) before the Conference USA tournament begins on Mar. 5th at Tulane University in New Orleans.
