Tigers Women's Basketball Faces Kansas Thursday

Thursday, November 19

Lawrence, Kan.

7 pm CT

University of Memphis

Kansas

Tickets

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Nov 18, 2015 | Women's Basketball

Game is the 2015-16 road opener.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The University of Memphis women's basketball squad faces its first road test of 2015-16 when it travels to Lawrence, Kan., to meet Kansas Thursday, Nov. 19. Game time is 7 p.m. (CT) from Allen Fieldhouse. The contest can be viewed on ESPN3.com.

For the second-straight season, the Tigers are off to a 2-0 start. Last weekend, Memphis posted home wins over Jacksonville State 70-55 Nov. 13 and Eastern Illinois 80-49 Nov. 15. The Jayhawks won their season opener over Texas Southern 72-65 Nov. 15.

Despite the two victories, Tigers assistant coach Jessica Bogia and the rest of the staff are focused on starting games better. In both wins last weekend, Memphis fell behind early with low-energy starts, trailing Jacksonville State 13-5 and Eastern Illinois 13-6 in the games' opening minutes.

"This week, we're emphasizing how to bring energy early and get off to a good start," said Bogia. "In our first two games, we got off to slow starts, and we need to start games with a better tempo.

"We can't have a slow start against Kansas like we did in our first two games. It's a Big 12 (Conference) team we're facing Thursday, and we see it as an opportunity. We need to come out with the energy, tempo and defensive mindset from the start. Kansas is a young and athletic team with good size. But, I think we match up well with them."

Radio: 91.7 FM (WUMR)
Internet Video: ESPN3.com
LiveTweet: @MemphisWBKB, #MEMWBKB, #GoTigersGo

Tigers Tidbits/Five Notes To Know
• Senior guard Ariel Hearn needs two assists to move into the top-10 on the Memphis career assists chart. Hearn enters Thursday's game with 324 assists. On her average of dishing out 100 assists per season, Hearn could move as high as the No. 4 spot on that list.

• Thursday's trip to Lawrence, Kan., is going to be a homecoming for one Tiger. Junior Taylor Williams calls Kansas City, Kan., home, which is just under an hour drive from Lawrence. Williams attended Bishop Ward High School.

• For the first time since 2004-05, Memphis attempts to start a season 3-0. In that 2004-05 campaign, the Tigers opened with a 4-0 record. In the Melissa McFerrin era, Memphis has started a season 2-0 two times prior to 2015-16 (2011-12; 2014-15). Both times, hopes for a 3-0 start were dashed in narrow road losses at Illinois (62-54 in 2011-12; 60-58 in 2014-15).

• Memphis enters Thursday's match-up with a little more experience than Kansas and hopes to use that to its advantage. The Tigers have 10 returning players and five newcomers, while the Jayhawks have six returnees and nine newcomers. Memphis returns over 90 percent of its points, rebounds, assists, steals and minutes played from last season's squad. On the other side, Kansas returns less than 30 percent of its points and rebounds and less than 50 percent of its assists, steals and minutes played from the 2014-15 team.

• The Tigers have a 7-12 all-time record against Big 12 Conference members. The last time Memphis played a Big 12 Conference foe was in the 2013-14 season. The Tigers dropped a 65-36 decision to Texas in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands Nov. 30, 2013. The last time Memphis posted a victory over a Big 12 Conference squad was in the 2004-05 season. The Tigers defeated Oklahoma State 68-59 Dec. 11, 2004, at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse.

Scouting Kansas
The Jayhawks opened their 2015-16 campaign with a 72-65 win over Texas Southern Nov. 15. Lauren Aldridge, the returning leading scorer from last year's team, led Kansas with 17 points and seven assists in the season-opening win. Caelynn Manning-Allen and Timeka O'Neal each netted 12 points in the win. Kylee Kopatich grabbed a team-high eight boards, and Tyler Johnson blocked three shots in the Nov. 15 victory.

Kansas is shooting 41.1 percent from the floor, 35 percent from the three-point arc and 50 percent from the foul line.

The Jayhawks return six players from last season's squad, but only one of last year's top-five scorers (Aldridge). Kansas has nine newcomers on this season's squad.

The Jayhawks were picked to finish 10th in the Big 12 Conference preseason poll.

Head coach Brandon Schneider is in his first season at Kansas. He came to Lawrence, Kan., after a five-year stint as the head coach at Stephen F. Austin from 2010-15.