The Tigers are the undisputed powerhouse in Conference USA, and although they lost their only NCAA Tournament game, they still are one of the better teams in their conference. Memphis has won the conference in six of the last seven years, and they have participated in the finals of the CUSA tournament in seven of the last eight years.
However,
runs to the Conference USA finals will soon be over, as this is the last
season Memphis will spend in CUSA before moving to the bigger and more
competitive Big East.
NCAAB
Future odds have the Tigers as +4000 to win the NCAA Tournament. That may sound
like a lot, but they are in the preseason top 20 according to the college basketball odds makers.
Where will Memphis end up in 2013, and will it best their one and done
performance as an eighth seed in 2012?
CUSA one more time
With one
more season of CUSA games for Memphis, I would expect nothing more than an
outstanding season from the Tigers. They lost their best player, Will Barton, to
the NBA draft but, either way, Memphis should be poised for a CUSA title and a
run in the NCAA Tournament.
Even
with the departure of Barton, Memphis has three McDonald’s All Americans on
their roster for next season. Not even some of the top programs can claim that.
Returning from last year’s squad will be Joe Jackson and Adonis Thomas along
with freshman recruit Shaq Goodwin.
Jackson
finished the season averaging 11 points and 4 assists in 2011-2012 while
Thomas averaged nearly 9 points a game. Between those two and Goodwin, they
will have to do a lot of work to make up for the absence of Barton’s 18 points
per game.
What stands in the way?
The main
problem for Memphis will be their lack of size. The Tigers lost one of their
senior big men in Wesley Witherspoon; Tarik Black, along with Goodwin, will
have to make up the slack. To make matters worse for the Tigers, they lost their
best rebounder in 6’6" Barton, a shooting guard. Barton averaged 8 rebounds per
game from the guard position, the next closest was Black at 5 rebounds per
game.
The only
other problems I can see coming from Memphis will be themselves. They were such
a talented team last season, but a first round exit from the tournament was not
what they had in mind. They have a lot of talent and experience returning, so
it will be interesting to see whether or not they can come together and get
higher than an eighth seed.
Their strength
of schedule last season was adequate, but they didn’t have that many big wins.
In fact, they didn’t have any big wins. They lost to then unranked Murray State
at home, lost to Louisville and Georgetown on the road, and lost to
Michigan at home. That put their record against top 25 teams at 0-5 during the
regular season.
I could
see Memphis making some noise, but I don’t expect them to do a whole lot more
in postseason play in this upcoming season.