Memphis wrapped up back-to-back home wins over Temple and UTSA, and now Penny Hardaway’s team hits the road for a matchup against Tulsa on Wednesday. It will be the first road game the Tigers have played since losing to FAU in Boca Raton, and they’ll look to maintain their second-place spot in the conference standings.
Tulsa enters the game with a 15-3 record, but they’re 3-2 in conference play after dropping back-to-back games against North Texas and USF. While the Hurricane have put together a solid season, they’ve only played two teams inside the KenPom top 100 and lost both games against Kansas State and USF.
As a team, Tulsa averages 88.3 points per game, shooting 49.5 percent from the field, 39.7 percent from three and 79 percent from the free-throw line. Eric Konkol’s team is the best three-point shooting team in the conference, and they’re shooting 44.7 percent from deep through five conference games.
Three players average more than 14 points per game, and senior David Green leads the team with 16.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.
Defensively, the Hurricane allows 72.1 points per game, and opposing teams are shooting 42.4 percent from the field and 33.5 percent from deep. Konkol’s team also averages 38.6 rebounds per game, and they have a plus-8.4 rebounding margin.
Here’s a look at how to watch the Tigers’ game at Tulsa:
TV: N/A
Stram: ESPN+
Radio: 98.9 The Roar of Memphis
Line: Tulsa -6.5
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT
What to expect from Memphis against the Hurricane:
Penny Hardaway said after the UTSA game that he hopes to get Julius Thedford and Aaron Bradshaw back during one of these road games, and it’ll be interesting to see if either player is back tonight against Tulsa. The Memphis basketball social media page posted a video that showed Bradshaw dunking, which should mean that he’s close to a return after suffering an injury last week against Temple.
The Hurricane have shown to be one of the better three-point shooting teams in the country, but the Tigers have done a really nice job defending on the perimeter. Memphis has held opponents to 29.6 percent from three-point range, and that number has improved to 23.2 percent in conference play.
Memphis will make it difficult for Tulsa to get quality shots from deep, and that could give them an advantage with how reliant the Hurricane have been this season on three-point shots.
Sincere Parker was the story from Sunday’s win over UTSA, and the Tigers will look to get him going again against Tulsa. Hardaway said after Sunday’s game that Parker has done a nice job coming off the bench, and it’ll be interesting to see if Memphis can find some consistency out of the guard.