Memphis heads to New Orleans to wrap up the regular season with a matchup against Tulane on Sunday. The Tigers haven’t won a game since February 8, and they’ll look to finish the season with a victory a month later.
These two teams have already played once this season, and the Green Wave won by two points with a late-game shot from Rowan Brumbaugh. The preseason player of the year leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 18 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, and he’s one of three players averaging more than 10 points per game.
As a team, Tulane averages 71.8 points per game, shooting 42.6 percent from the field and 32 percent from deep, and they rank No. 300 in effective field-goal percentage.
Defensively, the Green Wave allow 75.1 points per game, and opposing teams shoot 44 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from deep. They’ve struggled rebounding and have a minus-7.8 rebounding margin.
Here’s how to watch Memphis’ road game against the Green Wave:
TV: N/A
Stream: ESPN+
Radio: 98.9 The Roar of Memphis
Line: Memphis -1.5
Time: 1:00 p.m. CT
What to watch for in the Tigers’ road game against Tulane:
With a win, Memphis will make the conference tournament as the No. 10 seed, but a loss could make things tricky. The Tigers have lost seven games in a row, and they’d love nothing more than to end the regular season with a win and a trip to Birmingham.
It looked like Memphis figured out how to attack the zone defense on Thursday against USF, and it will likely face much more zone defense on Sunday against the Green Wave. Hunter is known for his zone defense, and it’ll be interesting to see how the Tigers play against it on Sunday.
In the first game, Penny Hardaway’s team won the rebounding battle 40-to-25, and that could be a huge advantage for Memphis on the road. It has struggled with rebounds all season, but it will have a significant size advantage against Tulane.
The Tigers shot only 36 percent from the field in their first matchup against the Green Wave, but they distributed the points across the team. Six players finished with nine or more points, but they must do a better job knocking down shots on Sunday.
They also need to have a better game defensively after allowing Tulane to shoot 50 percent from the field and make 10 three-pointers. Memphis has allowed opponents to shoot better than 43 percent in six of its last seven games, and it must find a way to slow down Brumbaugh, who finished with 27 points in the first game.
Dug McDaniel has played well down the stretch of the season, averaging 22 points over the last four games, and the Tigers will lean on him to step up again in the season finale. The point guard scored 13 points in the first meeting, and Hardaway will lean on the senior to help keep the team’s conference tournament hopes alive.