Tigers Women's Basketball Opens AAC Tourney Play Saturday

Saturday, March 5

Uncasville, Conn.

11 am CT

University of Memphis

Tulane

Photo by: Brandon Dill

Tigers Women's Basketball Opens AAC Tourney Play Saturday

Mar 04, 2016 | Women's Basketball

Memphis, Tulane to meet in No. 4-No. 5 seed quarterfinal match-up.

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – The calendar turned to the month of March earlier this week, and that can mean only one thing: March Madness has arrived.

The Madness begins for the University of Memphis women's basketball team Saturday, Mar. 5 when it opens play in the 2016 American Athletic Conference Tournament. The Tigers, the tournament's No. 4 seed, faces No. 5 seed Tulane in an 11 a.m. (CT) quarterfinal contest.

The league's four-day annual tournament is being played at the Mohegan Sun.

The Tigers enter the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the league, having won nine of their last 11 games. But, while she acknowledges the Tigers' regular-season success, Memphis head coach Melissa McFerrin now wants her squad to turn its sights to the "new season" known as March Madness.

"I think any coach in American would take the way our team is playing right now," said McFerrin. "We've won nine of our last 11. We've got a win over a ranked team (USF) and a win over a Temple team that may receive an NCAA Tournament bid.

"We feel really good about our team right now, but we're also not satisfied. We didn't come to the tournament just to play. We came here to notch some wins."

The first chance for a victory is Saturday against an always-steady Tulane program. The Green Wave are a perennial top-five finisher in the conference standings and are a "tough-out" at conference tournament time.

"I can talk a lot about our team accomplishments this season, but our focus now is Tulane. They are a good team," McFerrin said. "Historically, Tulane is an NCAA Tournament team, and they made the 'Big Dance' a season ago.

"Lisa Stockton is one of the finest coaches in the country. They have great guard play and also a solid inside game. We haven't played them since early January, so we've done a lot of prep work this week. Tulane plays zone against us the most of any team in the conference, so we had to refresh ourselves on that. Tulane is a very good team, and I'm sure they haven't forgotten the last time we played."

Radio: 91.7 FM (WUMR)
Internet Video: ESPN3.com/WatchESPN
LiveTweet: @MemphisWBKB, #MEMWBKB, #GoTigersGo
Live Stats: aac.statbroadcast.com

Tigers Tidbits/Five Notes To Know
• Memphis enters this weekend's American Athletic Conference Tournament one of the hottest teams in league play since mid-January and the record proves it. Since Jan. 19, the Tigers have a 9-2 conference mark, which is the second-best record over that span of time. The only team with a better record over that stretch is No. 1 Connecticut (12-0). Also, the Tigers' only two losses over that span were road setbacks at Connecticut and USF.

• Memphis leads the all-time series with Tulane 24-18. The Tigers won the only 2015-16 regular-season meeting between the two squads, an 83-67 victory at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse Jan. 3. Memphis and Tulane have played only three times in conference postseason play, with the Tigers holding a 2-1 series edge in those match-ups. The last time the two teams played a conference postseason game was in the 2012 Conference USA Tournament held in Memphis. The Green Wave posted a 63-44 win in the C-USA Tournament semifinal round at FedExForum.

• In the earlier meeting this season, Memphis posted an 83-67 win over Tulane Jan. 3, and the Tigers held the Green Wave to 39.7 percent shooting from the floor in that win. In fact, Memphis has been rather successful this season when it's held opponents to under 40 percent shooting from the field. The Tigers have an 11-3 record (.786 winning percentage) when they hold opponents to under 40 percent from the field in 2015-16.

• Sometimes the No. 4-No. 5 match-ups in postseason tournaments can produce a close outcome. If that's the case Saturday, then the Tigers have a good chance of advancing. In games decided by five or fewer points this season, Memphis is a perfect 7-0. In league play, the Tigers had a 4-0 record in games decided by five or fewer points. Memphis defeated No. 15 USF and East Carolina by one point and Cincinnati and Temple by three points. The USF and East Carolina games were one overtime contests, and the Temple game was an NCAA-record tying five overtime contest.

• A couple of "first time sinces" for the Tigers entering the 2016 American Athletic Conference Tournament. Memphis' No. 4 seed is the program's highest since 2012 when the Tigers were the No. 2 seed in the Conference USA Tournament. The Tigers' first-round bye is the program's first since 2012.

Scouting Tulane
The Green Wave enter this weekend's American Athletic Conference Tournament with a 20-10 overall record. Tulane posted an 11-7 conference mark and placed fifth in the league's final regular-season standings. The Green Wave were picked to place fourth in the conference's preseason coaches' poll. Tulane has a 1-2 record in neutral-site contests in 2015-16.

Tulane returns only two starters and six letterwinners from the 2014-15 team. Sophomore guard Kolby Morgan is the Green Wave's leading scorer at 17.4 ppg. Senior guard Leslie Vorpahl is the team's second-leading scorer at 11.0 ppg. Senior forward Tierra Jones leads Tulane on the glass with a 5.8 rebounding average. Vorpahl leads the team in assists (164 total; 5.5 apg), and Morgan is tops on the team in steals (67 total; 2.2 spg). Vorpahl (40.4 percent) and Morgan (33.3 percent) are Tulane's top threats from the arc.

Tulane is shooting 42.6 percent from the floor, 33.6 percent from the three-point arc and 70.2 percent from the free throw line. Opponents are out-rebounding the Green Wave by a narrow average margin of +0.3 boards per game (36.3-36.6).