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The only matchup on Tuesday’s schedule between two teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 is a nonconference showdown between Virginia and Memphis. Incredibly, as The Daily Memphian’s Parth Upadhyaya noted, it will represent the first time a ranked Memphis team has hosted a ranked opponent inside FedExForum since March 8, 2014 when the Tigers beat SMU.
So it’s been a minute.
Since that day, when the Tigers got 18 points in the win from local star Joe Jackson, Memphis has gone through two coaching changes and what feels like a million ups and downs. After that 2013-14 season, the Tigers didn’t make the NCAA Tournament again until Penny Hardaway took them to the 68-team bracket in 2022. He did it again in 2023. And now the Memphis graduate has his alma mater ranked No. 23 in the AP poll, No. 23 in the Coaches poll and No. 18 in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings heading into a night that will have Memphians’ attention split between an important game for the Tigers and Ja Morant’s season debut for the Grizzlies 400 miles south in New Orleans.
“It makes me feel proud to see this thing come full circle — first as a player and now as a coach,” Hardaway said Monday night during his weekly radio show, per Upadhyaya. “Everyone in Memphis knows a good basketball team.”
In an attempt to build an at-large résumé good enough to keep Memphis out of the 8-9 game in the NCAA Tournament for what would be the third straight year, Hardaway challenged his team with a non-league schedule that has required the Tigers to play seven power-conference opponents in their first 10 games, six of which were away from home. So far, so good. Memphis is 8-2 with six victories in the first two…
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