Tigers Begin Quest for AAC Tournament Crown Friday Night

Friday, March 10

Fort Worth, Texas / Dickies Arena

6:00 PM

University of Memphis

(7) UCF

Tickets

Tigers Begin Quest for AAC Tournament Crown Friday Night

Mar 09, 2023 | Men's Basketball

FORT WORTH, Texas – The Memphis Tigers begin postseason play Friday night in the quarterfinals of the 2023 American Athletic Conference Championship in Fort Worth, Texas.

By virtue of earning a first-round bye, the second-seeded Tigers will play at 6 p.m. Friday on ESPNU against the winner of the first-round matchup between No. 7 UCF and No. 10 SMU.

This is the highest seed the Tigers have been since joining the AAC in 2013-14. They were the No. 3 seed in each of the previous two seasons.

Memphis enters postseason play winners of 11 of its last 14 games, with the stretch including two losses against AAC regular-season champion Houston while ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the country, and another by one point in overtime at home to Tulane.

The Tigers have won 20-plus games for the sixth-straight season, including all five under head coach Penny Hardaway. The 23 victories are the most in his five seasons.

The Tigers won 13 AAC games during the regular season, which tied last season as their most since joining the conference prior to the 2013-14 campaign.

Memphis split two meetings with UCF during the regular season, with each winning on its home court, and the Tigers swept SMU in two meetings by an average of 17.0 points.

Historically in tournament play, the Tigers bested UCF in the 2012 C-USA semifinals and in the AAC quarterfinals in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

UCF got the better of the Tigers in the 2017 AAC quarterfinals in Hartford, Conn., 84-54.
The Tigers and SMU have played once in AAC Tournament action, a 70-63 Memphis win in the 2022 semifinals against a Kendric Davis led Mustang squad.

With a victory Friday, Memphis would advance to the semifinals of the AAC Tournament Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN2.

It would be the fifth-straight season in which the tournament has been played that they've reached the semifinals.

The championship game is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. Sunday on ESPN, and NCAA Tournament bids are awarded later Sunday evening during CBS's Selection Show starting at 5 p.m.

A trip to the NCAA Tournament would be Memphis' second-straight after earning a #9 seed in 2022.

Last season's trip was the program's first in eight seasons since 2013-14.

GAME DETAILS
No. 2 Memphis Tigers (23-8) vs. No. 7 UCF/No. 10 SMU
2023 American Athletic Conference Championship Quarterfinals
Friday, March 10, 2023 | 6 p.m. CT
Dickies Arena (14,000); Fort Worth, Texas
Television: ESPNU (John Schriffen, pxp; Perry Clark, analysis)
Radio: 98.9 THE ROAR OF MEMPHIS (Dave Woloshin, pxp; Matt Dillon, analysis)

BY THE NUMBERS

2013: Memphis' last conference tournament championship, which came in its last season in Conference USA; the Tigers received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2014 in its last NCAA appearance.
1st: First-time ever the Tigers have put two players on the All-AAC first team with Kendric Davis and DeAndre Williams earning postseason nods. It also marks the fifth-straight season Memphis has been represented on the first team and the eighth time in 10 seasons since joining the AAC.
74.1: The team's free throw percentage (496-of-669) which is on pace to be the highest in a single season since 1987-88 when the Tigers shot 76.3 percent at the line.
50.0%: Shooting better than 50.0 percent in games seems to be a great indicator of success for the Tigers in recent years. The Tigers have won 54 of the last 55 games when shooting better than 50.0% from the floor. That stretch included a streak of 47-straight games before falling 107-104 in 2OT at UCF on Jan. 11, where they shot 50.7%.
644: Kendric Davis' total points scored this season, which ranks 9^th all-time in a single season. He needs 22 points to pass Elliot Perry (665) for eighth. Dajuan Wagner's 762 points in 2001-02 is the most all-time.

THE LAST TIME OUT

In what was inevitably one of the best games of the season in college basketball, the Memphis Tigers lost a heartbreaker at the buzzer to No. 1 Houston, 67-65, Sunday afternoon inside FedExForum on Senior Day.
After Kendric Davis tied the game up at 65 on a driving layup with eight seconds to play, the Cougars' Jamal Shead got a pull-up jumper to fall as the horn sounded in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,437 at the Forum.
Davis totaled a game-high 26 points after going 11-of-12 at the line.
Chandler Lawson added 10 points, including a pair of big three-pointers in the second half, to go with five rebounds.
Malcolm Dandridge showed up big with nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks in 28 minutes off the bench.
The Cougars led by as many as 11 late in the first half and took a 41-32 lead into the break after shooting 46 percent from the floor with a 7-of-19 mark from long distance.
After not making a three in the first 20 minutes, the Tigers came out swinging from deep after halftime. Chandler Lawson and Davis connected on back-to-back triples as Memphis opened the half 4-of-4 from three-point land. Davis and Alex Lomax later nailed back-to-back triples midway through the period to give the Tigers their first lead since the first minutes of the game at 51-47.
After Memphis took a 56-51 advantage with 8:31 to play, the Cougars put together a 10-0 run to regain the lead before DeAndre Williams sunk a pair of free throws with 3:29 to play.
Davis pulled the Tigers even on two separate occasions with a three and a driving layup before Shead's game-winner.
Jamal Shead and Tramon Mark led the Cougars with 16 points apiece.

How to follow the Tigers: For complete information on Memphis Tiger Men's Basketball, visit www.GoTigersGo.com and follow the team's social media channels on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.