Tigers Basketball Preview: Mercer

Saturday, December 2

Memphis, Tenn.

4 PM

University of Memphis

Mercer

Buy Tickets

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Dec 01, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Memphis Game Notes (vs. Mercer)Mercer Game Notes (vs. Memphis)

Tigers, Bears to battle in FedExForum Saturday afternoon.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – It's going to be a storyline through the University of Memphis men's basketball non-conference schedule in 2017-18. That storyline is how inexperienced the Tigers are compared to some of the opponents they're playing.

That disparity in experience may be on display Saturday when the Tigers host Mercer from the Southern Conference. It's been well documented that Memphis returns only two starters and two letterwinner and welcomes 11 newcomers. On the other bench, Mercer returns all five starters and 12 letterwinners and adds only four newcomers.

To take it further, the Tigers return under 30 percent of their minutes played (28.3), points (22.4) and rebounds (17.9) from a year ago. Mercer returns over 80 percent of its minutes played (85.0), points (87.7), rebounds (82.0) and assists (92.7).

Game Quick Facts

Opponent	Mercer
Day/Date	Saturday, Dec. 2
Time	4 p.m. (CT)
Site	Memphis, Tenn./FedExForum
Television	None (Web: ESPN3.com)
Radio (Flagship)	600 WREC AM/Rock 103 (102.7 FM)

Tigers Tidbits/Five Notes To Know

Saturday's match-up is only the third all-time meeting between the two programs and the first since the 1990-91 campaign. The Tigers won the previous two match-ups and hold a 2-0 series lead. The last time the two programs played was Dec. 13, 1990, and Memphis won 99-48.
Some have taken shots at the Tigers' non-league schedule in 2017-18, but if those pundits look further, they'll see Memphis' early-season foes are picked near the top of their respective leagues. Of Memphis' first six non-conference opponents, four were picked to finish in the top-four of their leagues in preseason voting. Those teams are Alabama (4^th in the SEC), Northern Kentucky (2^nd in the Horizon League), UAB (2^nd in Conference USA) and Mercer (1^st in the SoCon).
The state of Georgia is going to well represented in Saturday's game. The two teams combine for nine players on their rosters from the Peach State. The four Tigers from Georgia are Kyvon Davenport (Gainesville), Raynere Thornton (Marietta), Malik Rhodes (Claxton) and Victor Enoh (Decatur). The Bears have five players from the state of Georgia.
Although Memphis and Mercer have not played since the 1990-91 season, the two programs have seen each other recently. The Tigers and Bears both were placed in the NCAA Tournament second/third rounds at NC State's PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C., in 2014. Memphis was in the East Region pod as the No. 8 seed, and Mercer was in the Midwest Region as the No. 14 seed. Both teams won their opening games, with the Tigers defeating George Washington and Mercer upsetting No. 3 seed Duke in the Blue Devils' own backyard.
Head coach Tubby Smith is 2-0 against Mercer in his career. He faced the Bears as the head coach at Georgia in 1995-96 and again as the head coach at Kentucky in 1998-99.