Tigers Look to Bounce Back on Tuesday Against Tulsa

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis Tigers will look to shake off its most recent loss at UCF this Tuesday evening when the team hosts the Tulsa Golden Hurricane in a 6 p.m. tip-off at FedExForum

GAME INFORMATION
Memphis (17-7, 7-4 American Athletic Conference) vs. Tulsa (12-10, 6-4 American Athletic Conference)
When: Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Tip-Off: 6:00 p.m. (CT)
Location: Memphis, Tenn.
Arena: FedExForum
TV: ESPNU
Richard Cross, play-by-play
Julianne Viani, 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 GOLDEN HURRICANE

Tulsa comes into the Tuesday evening game having dropped three of its last four games with loss to East Carolina, Cincinnati, and SMU, the latter two of those coming at home.
    In the team's last game, a 76-53 loss to SMU, Junior Etou scored 18 points for the Golden Hurricane, making 6-of-10 shots from the field and all four of his three-point tries, while Sterling Taplin scored 12 points. Tulsa was out-rebounded 38-to-23 in the game, as Etou had a team-best five rebounds, while Taplin dished out four assists.
    For the season it is Etou who leads the team in scoring, averaging 12.8 points per game, and is the only player on the squad to average in double-figures. Jaleel Wheeler (9.8), Pat Birt (9.5), and Taplin (9.4) are all near the double-figure plateau, while Corey Henderson averages 7.8 points per game.
    Etou pulls down a team-best 6.8 rebounds per game, including 39 of those on the offensive end. Martins Igbanu averages 3.4 rebounds; however, over half of his boards (38 of his 75) come on the offensive end. Taplin leads the team with 78 assists and is tied for the team lead with Birt with 25 steals. Will Magnay has blocked 26 shots to pace the team.

NEARLY ONE OF A KIND

This season, University of Memphis sophomore Dedric Lawson is averaging 19.8 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. He is just the second player since the 1992-93 season (24 seasons) to average such numbers, joining 2016 NBA top draft pick Ben Simmons of LSU (19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists) in that grouping.

HISTORY WITH THE GOLDEN HURRICANE

Current Memphis head coach Tubby Smith received his first-ever collegiate head coaching position at the University of Tulsa in 1991, and roamed the sidelines for four seasons, leading the Golden Hurricane to a 79-43 overall record, including the program's first two NCAA Sweet 16 appearances. His four-year tenure length with the program has not been matched since he stepped away after the 1994-95 season to take the head coaching position at Georgia. While with the Golden Hurricane he was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year.

PERFECTION AT THE STRIPE

On Saturday, February 4, Memphis' Dedric Lawson made all 14 of his free throw tries. The 14-for-14 effort set a new American Athletic Conference record, previously held by Rutgers' Kadeem Jack. Below are the top eight in American Athletic Conference history in single-game free throw percentage.

FT	Student-Athlete	School	Season
14-14	Dedric Lawson, Memphis	UCF	2016-17
13-13	Kadeem Jack, Rutgers	USF	2013-14
12-12	Ricky Tarrant Jr., Memphis	UT Arlington	2015-16
12-12	Ricky Tarrant Jr., Memphis	South Carolina	2015-16
11-11	Sean Kilpatrick, Cincinnati	Louisville	2013-14
11-11	Shabazz Napier, UConn	Temple	2013-14
11-11	B.J. Tyson, East Carolina	Fresno State	2014-15
11-11	Devonta Pollard, Houston	Prairie View A&M	2015-16

BROTHERLY MARK TO HIT

This season, the Memphis brother duo of Dedric and K.J. Lawson average a combined 18.8 rebounds per game, second-highest such total in the country (a table with the highest teammate rebounding totals are later in this notes package. 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.

FACING HIS FORMER TEAMS

Among the five previous stops for Memphis head coach Tubby Smith, he has faced a school he had previously been a head coach at 24 times, and has a 18-6 record in those games. The 1997-98 season at Kentucky was the first time he had faced a previous team, and he beat Tulsa in the regular season, and then two wins over Georgia during the same season. His first trip for an away game at a previous stop came on January 6, 1998 when his squad won at Georgia 90-79.

KARL MALONE AWARD FINALIST

Memphis' Dedric Lawson was named as one of ten finalists for the Karl Malone Award, given annually to the top power forward in the country. Lawson is joined in the top-10 by Arizona's Lauri Markkanen, Baylor's Johnathan Motley, Cal's Ivan Rabb, Michigan State's Miles Bridges, Notre Dame's Bonzie Colson, Pittsburgh's Michael Young, Purdue's Caleb Swanigan, UCLA's T.J. Leaf, and Valparaiso's Alec Peters.

TOP-10, FIVE TIMES OVER

Memphis' Dedric Lawson currently leads the American Athletic Conference in rebounding, is second in scoring, fourth in blocked shots, ninth in steals, and 10th in assists. Ranking inside of the top-10 of their leagues in each of those five categories puts Lawson in extremely rare company, as he is the only player in the country to be in that grouping.

REBOUNDING PACE

This season Dedric Lawson is averaging 10.1 rebounds per game, with 242 rebounds over 24 games. His rebounding average is on pace to shatter the American Athletic Conference single-season mark, which he set last season with his 9.3 rebound per game average as a freshman. Additionally, he currently stands 40 rebounds away from climbing into the top-five in the single-season record books. His 549 career rebounds also stand less than 40 rebounds away from climbing into fifth in the conference's career record books.

SEASON

Rk.	Rebs	Student-Athlete	School	Date	Needs
1.	321	Daniel Hamilton	UConn	2015-16	79
2.	311	Monrezl Harrell	Louisville	2013-14	69
3.	307	Dedric Lawson	Memphis	2015-16	65
4.	290	Gary Clark	Cincinnati	2015-16	48
5.	282	Dylan Osetkowski	Tulane	2015-16	40
-	242	Dedric Lawson	Memphis	2016-17

CAREER

Rk.	Rebs	Student-Athlete	School	Needs
1.	709	Gary Clark	Cincinnati	160
2.	697	Ben Moore	SMU	148
3.	692	Shaq Goodwin	Memphis	143
4.	588	Markus Kennedy	SMU	39
	588	Daniel Hamilton	UConn	39
-	549	Dedric Lawson	Memphis

FIRST-YEAR SUCCESS

New University of Memphis head coach Tubby Smith has opened his Memphis career with a 17-7 overall record, which stands as the fifth-best record among coaches in their first year at the current school.

Rk.	Coach	School	Rec. (Pct.)
1.	Paul Weir *	New Mexico St.	22-2 (.917)
2.	Tim Jankovich	SMU	20-4 (.833)
3.	Matt Lottich *	Valparaiso	19-5 (.792)
4.	Grant McCasland *	Arkansas State	17-6 (.739)
5.	Tubby Smith	Memphis	17-7 (.708)
6.	Chris Beard	Texas Tech	16-7 (.696)
	Jamie Dixon	TCU	16-7 (.696)
	Ryan Odom *	UMBC	16-7 (.696)
9.	Kyle Smith	San Francisco	17-8 (.680)
10.	Johnny Dawkins	UCF	15-8 (.652)
	Brad Underwood	Oklahoma State	15-8 (.652)
12.	Allen Edwards *	Wyoming	15-9 (.625)
13.	Scott Nagy	Wright State	15-9 (.625)
14.	Reggie Witherspoon	Canisius	14-10 (.583)
15.	Josh Pastner	Georgia Tech	13-10 (.565)
* First Time Head Coaches \| As of games on 2/5/2017

YOUNG AND (NEAR A) GRAND

University of Memphis sophomore Dedric Lawson has scored 995 points over his one-plus seasons with the program, and is one of a small number of sophomores at or near the 1,000-point plateau. Below is a list of the top 10 sophomore career scorers in the country.

Rk.	S-A	School	G	Pts
159.	Tyler Hall	Montana State	55	1,136
	Mike Daum	South Dakota St.	60	1,136
177.	Marcus Evans	Rice	55	1,112
181.	Chris Clemons	Campbell	54	1,109
230.	Derick Newton	Stetson	60	1,025
251.	Dedric Lawson	Memphis	57	995
268.	Tookie Brown	Georgia Southern	54	971
298.	Dwayne Bacon	Florida State	57	929
317.	Nick Emery	BYU	61	909
321.	Nick Mayo	Eastern Kentucky	57	906

TOP-100 IN THE COUNTRY

This season Memphis ranks in the top-100 in 22 team categories, including assist-to-turnover ratio (16th), total blocks (22nd), total assists (24th), blocked shots per game (29th), and assists per game (30th). For a full breakdown of where Memphis ranks in the country, and the American Athletic Conference, see page 12 of this notes package.

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 16th in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio. Memphis has dished out 400 assists this season against just 279 turnovers. Of the 15 teams immediately ahead of the Tigers, nine are nationally ranked including three inside of the top-10. Below are the top 18 in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio, with their national ranking noted as well.

Rk.	School	Ast.	TO	Ratio
1.	#10 UCLA	528	288	1.83
2.	(RV) Notre Dame	386	228	1.69
3.	#11 Cincinnati	390	245	1.59
4.	#20 St. Mary's (Calif.)	393	248	1.58
5.	(RV) Northwestern	385	245	1.57
6.	#12 Virginia	336	217	1.55
7.	#1 Gonzaga	410	266	1.54
8.	UNCW	412	268	1.54
9.	#13 West Virginia	409	269	1.52
10.	(RV) Iowa State	347	229	1.52
11.	#25 SMU	401	269	1.49
12.	#23 Creighton	422	284	1.49
13.	(RV) Wichita State	429	290	1.48
14.	Portland State	346	240	1.44
15.	#8 North Carolina	439	305	1.44
16.	Memphis	400	279	1.43
17.	#16 Purdue	460	321	1.43
18.	#15 Kentucky	391	274	1.43

Tigers Look to Bounce Back on Tuesday Against Tulsa

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Shaq Goodwin

Dedric Lawson

K.J. Lawson

Ricky Tarrant Jr.

University of Memphis Athletics

Tigers Look to Bounce Back on Tuesday Against Tulsa

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Shaq Goodwin

Dedric Lawson

K.J. Lawson

Ricky Tarrant Jr.

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