Tigers Open New Calendar Year against Huskies

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis Tigers open the 2017 calendar year on Thursday evening, when the squad hosts the UConn Huskies at FedExForum in a 6 p.m. tip-off on ESPN2.

GAME INFORMATION
Memphis (10-4, 0-1 American Athletic Conference) vs. UConn (5-8, 0-2 American Athletic Conference)
When: Thursday, January 5
Tip-Off: 6 p.m. (CT)
Location: Memphis, Tenn.
Arena: FedExForum
TV: ESPN2
Adam Amin, play-by-play
Len Elmore, analyst
Radio: Memphis Radio Network / 600 WREC / Rock 103
Dave Woloshin, play-by-play
Matt Dillon, analyst
Forrest Goodman, pregame / postgame host
Live Stats: Memphis Sidearm Live Stats

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES

UConn comes into the game riding a three-game losing skid, including two in overtime, and an 0-2 start in American Athletic Conference play.
    In the team's last game, a 61-59 loss in overtime at Tulsa, Jalen Adams returned from a one-game injury absence to score a game-high 18 points, while Rodney Purvis scored a dozen. Christian Vital and Amida Brimah scored nine and eight points in the game, respectively.
    In all, the Huskies got just six points - and 30 combined minutes - from their bench. Brimah nearly recorded a double-double with nine rebounds, while also blocking six shots. Adams led the team with six assists and two steals.
    The Huskies have four players that have a double-digit rebound average; however, two of the players on the list, Terry Larrier and Alterique Gilbert, have played in just four and three games, respectively, before each suffered a season-ending injury.
    Adams leads the team with a 16.8 point per game average, while Purvis averages 12.7. Vital averages 7.9 points per game, while Brimah - who ranks ninth in the country in blocked shots per game - averages 6.7 points.
    Kentan Facey leads the team in rebounding, averaging 6.6 boards per game, with Brimah pulling down 5.4. Adams has a team-best 66 assists, while Purvis is second on the team with 36. Brima's 39 blocked shots has him near the top of the national rankings, and his total represents half of the team's blocked shots this season.

BROTHER-BROTHER

University of Memphis' Dedric Lawson and K.J. Lawson are one of 17 sets of brothers currently playing together in the NCAA. Of those 17 pairs, the Lawsons have the highest combined scoring average, rebounding average (the highest tandem rebounding average in the country), and assist average. Below is the complete list of brothers playing in NCAA Division I basketball, and their three primary stat totals.

School	Student-Athletes	PPG	RPG	APG
Memphis	Dedric Lawson	20.6	11.1	3.9
	K.J. Lawson	13.4	8.4	3.0
Miami (Ohio)	Michael Weathers	19.2	4.8	5.0
	Marcus Weathers	8.6	5.5	0.7
Northern Colo.	Jordan Davis	19.9	4.8	5.8
	Gerad Davis	4.5	2.5	0.8
Marshall	Jon Elmore	20.9	4.4	6.7
	Ot Elmore	0.0	0.0	0.0
Old Dominion	Brandan Stith	11.5	8.3	1.2
	B.J. Stith	7.3	2.8	0.8
McNeese	Kalob Ledoux	10.3	2.8	0.9
	Jacob Ledoux	4.3	1.8	0.6
Winthrop	Anders Broman	6.8	1.8	1.2
	Bjorn Broman	5.8	1.6	2.2
Idaho	Nate Sherwood	5.9	4.1	1.3
	Chad Sherwood	4.8	1.7	1.3
Incarnate Word	Jorden Kite	7.3	1.3	0.8
	Jerred Kite	1.3	1.4	0.4
TCU	Brandon Parrish	6.9	3.5	0.6
	Josh Parrish	1.6	1.0	0.4
Denver	Thomas Neff	7.7	2.1	1.4
	Luke Neff	0.7	0.3	0.0
Milwaukee	Brett Prahl	4.8	2.8	0.3
	Alex Prahl	2.0	0.0	0.0
Alabama State	Steve Rogers	5.5	1.9	1.4
	Austin Rogers	1.1	1.1	0.7
Army	Scott Mammel	3.6	0.8	0.7
	Ben Mammel	2.0	1.0	1.0
Stanford	Marcus Allen	3.7	2.3	1.5
	Malcolm Allen	1.2	0.4	0.2
Liberty	Ezra Talbert	2.2	1.3	0.1
	Josiah Talbert	1.6	1.2	0.0
UCLA	Isaac Wulff	2.3	1.3	0.5
	Alec Wulff	1.0	0.2	0.2

THREE "POWER-FIVE" WINS

Since the 1996-97 season - when the Big 12 came into existence - there have been five primary "Power Five" conferences in college athletics - Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big 10, Southeastern Conference (SEC), Big 12, and Pac 12. In those subsequent 21 seasons, the Tigers have beaten teams in the regular season from three different "Power Five" conferences twice - in the 2005-06 season (SEC, Pac 12, and Big 10), and this season (Big Ten, Big 12, SEC). The 2007-08 team, through its NCAA Tournament run beat schools from four different "Power Five" conferences; however, two of those came during the tournament.

HISTORIC TEAMMATE REBOUNDING

Since 2001-02 (16 seasons), there have been nine tandems in the NCAA that have ended the season with a higher combined rebounding total than the number that Dedric and K.J. Lawson have put up this season (19.5). Below are the top-12 single-season rebounding pair totals in NCAA Division I since 2001-02.

Rk.	School	Student-Athletes	Rebs.	Season
1.	Radford	Artisiom Parakhouski (13.4)	21.5	2009-10
		Lazar Trifunovic (8.1)
2.	UNLV	Roscoe Smith (10.9)	21.1	2013-14
		Khem Birch (10.2)
3.	Quinnipiac	Ousmane Drame (10.5)	20.7	2013-14
		Ike Azotam (10.2)
	UConn	Hasheem Thabeet (10.8)	20.7	2008-09
		Jeff Adrien (9.9)
5.	Oklahoma	Blake Griffin (14.4)	20.2	2008-09
		Taylor Griffin (5.8)
	St. Mary's (Calif.)	Diamon Simpson (10.8)	20.2	2008-09
		Omar Samhan (9.4)
7.	Siena	Ryan Rossiter (13.2)	20.0	2010-11
		O.D. Anosike (6.8)
8.	Kansas	Drew Gooden (11.4)	19.7	2001-02
		Nick Collison (8.3)
9.	Stony Brook	Jameel Warney (11.7)	19.6	2014-15
		Rayshaun McGrew (7.9)
10.	Memphis	Dedric Lawson (11.1)	19.5	2016-17
		K.J. Lawson (8.4)
	North Carolina	John Henson (9.9)	19.5	2011-12
		Tyler Zeller (9.6)
	USC	Nikola Vucevic (10.3)	19.5	2010-11
		Alex Stephenson (9.2)

BROTHERLY MARK TO HIT

The table above also reveals another mark that the Lawson brothers are aiming to hit. The Memphis brother duo has the second-highest mark among teammates who are brothers, trailing just Oklahoma's Blake (14.4 rebounds per game) and Taylor (5.8) Griffin for the highest combined rebounding total for brothers.

HIGH UP IN THE CONFERENCE

University of Memphis sophomore Dedric Lawson is one of nine players in NCAA Division I, and the only one in the American Athletic Conference, to rank inside of the top-10 in their league standings in points, rebounds, and assists. Lawson is joined by UMass-Lowell's Jahad Thomas, New Hampshire's Jaleen Smith, Richmond's T.J. Cline, Villanova's Josh Hart, Southern Utah's Randy Onwuasor, Brown's Steven Spieth, North Carolina Central's Patrick Cole, and Northern Iowa's Jeremy Morgan. Additionally, Lawson, Smith, and Morgan are part of an even more prestigious list, as those three rank in the top-10 in the aforementioned stats, and also blocked shots.

FIRST IN A WHILE

A Memphis win on Thursday evening against UConn will put the Huskies in a position they have not been put into in some time. A loss would give UConn its first four-game losing skid since 2011-12, and would put the Huskies four games under .500 for the first time since the end of 1986-87, former head coach Jim Calhoun's first season at the helm of the program.

BLOCKING UP THE LANE

UConn is one of the top teams in the conference - and country - in blocked shots. The Huskies rank second in the American Athletic Conference, and 15th in the NCAA, in blocked shots per game, averaging 6.0 per contest. Center Amida Brimah leads the American Athletic Conference, and is ninth in the country in blocked shots per game, averaging 3.0 per contest.

TWO-TIME PLAYER OF THE WEEK

After setting an American Athletic Conference record last season by being named the Conference Rookie of the Week six times, two more than the previous high mark, Memphis sophomore Dedric Lawson has earned back-to-back Conference Player of the Week honors, the first two of his collegiate career. He is one of three active players to have won two Player of the Week honors in their career.

BACK-TO-BACK PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

When Dedric Lawson was named American Athletic Conference Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks, he became one of a small number of players to have earned the award two times in a row. He joined Jordan Tolbert (SMU, Dec. 14 and 21, 2015), Chris Perry (USF, Dec. 23 and 30, 2013), Justin Jackson (Cincinnati, Dec. 23, Dec. 30, and Jan. 6, 2013-14), and Sean Kilpatrick (Cincinnati, February 3 and Feb. 10, 2014) to have won the award multiple times in a row.

POSITIVE RATIO

This season the Memphis Tigers are setting new standards for assists, while also cutting down on the turnovers. As such, the Tigers rank seventh in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio. Memphis has dished out 254 assists this season against just 159 turnovers. Of the six teams immediately ahead of the Tigers, five are nationally ranked including four inside of the top-15. Below are the top seven in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio, with their national ranking noted as well.

Rk.	School	Ast.	TO	Ratio
1.	#23 Notre Dame	261	129	2.02
2.	#4 UCLA	347	185	1.88
3.	#7 West Virginia	246	137	1.80
4.	#6 Kentucky	253	146	1.73
5.	#11 Virginia	195	113	1.73
6.	Northwestern	269	164	1.64
7.	Memphis	254	159	1.60

ONE OF THREE IN THE NCAA

Dedric Lawson ranks 10th in the country in rebounds per game, and 33rd in the country in points per game. With that, he is currently the one of two players in NCAA Division I to average 20+ points and 10+ rebounds per game, joining Lehigh's Tim Kempton (21.3 points / 10.5 rebounds) and Valparaiso's Alec Peters (25.0 points / 10.4 rebounds).

TEAMING UP ON THE BOARDS

This season Memphis' Lawson duo of Dedric and K.J. combine to average 19.5 rebounds per game. That is the highest teammate average in the country. Dedric Lawson ranks 10th, while K.J. Lawson ranks 76th. Below are the top six teammate rebounding totals in the NCAA this season.

Rk.	School	Student-Athletes	Rebs.
1.	Memphis	Dedric Lawson (11.1)	19.5
		K.J. Lawson (8.4)
2.	Hofstra	Rokas Gustys (13.4)	19.4
		Ty Greer (6.0)
3.	Seton Hall	Angel Delgado (11.6)	18.8
		Ismael Sanogo (7.2)
4.	UCF	Tacko Fall (11.5)	18.7
		A.J. Davis (7.2)
5.	Georgia Tech	Ben Lammers (10.1	18.3
		Quinton Stephens (8.2)
6.	UCLA	Thomas Welsh (9.2)	18.1
		TJ Leaf (8.9)

CAREER AVERAGE AMONG THE NCAA BEST

In addition to ranking 10th in the country in rebounding, Dedric Lawson has the fifth-highest career rebounding average in the country at 99 rebounds per game. Texas Southern's Derrick Griffin has the highest active rebounding average for a career at 11.0 rebounds per game. Below are the five highest current career rebounding averages in the country.

Rk.	Student-Athlete	Cl.	School	Reb.
1.	Derrick Griffin	So.	Texas Southern	11.0
2.	James Thompson IV	So.	Eastern Mich.	10.8
3.	Rokas Gustys	Jr.	Hofstra	10.4
4.	Angel Delgado	Jr.	Seton Hall	9.9
5.	Dedric Lawson	So.	Memphis	9.9

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Players Mentioned

Dedric Lawson

K.J. Lawson

University of Memphis Athletics