The American Conference will host its 2026 American Tipoff event on October 11 and 12 in Tampa, Florida. The event will serve as the conference’s media days for the upcoming season, and every men’s and women’s basketball coach and several players from each team will be on hand for the event. ESPN+ will broadcast the event on Monday. Penny Hardaway will take Northwestern transfer Jayden Reid and Southern Miss transfer Tylik Weeks, while women’s coach Hana Haden is taking senior Daejah Richmond and Cincinnati transfer Destiny Thomas. There are a lot of questions around the Tigers’ upcoming season after Hardaway added 13 new players to the roster. After William Whorton and Julius Thedford decided to return, Hardaway added nine players from the transfer portal, three high school signees and an international signee. The Tigers will play a pair of exhibition games against Mississippi State and Arkansas before starting the season in a neutral site game against Iowa State. Here are three questions for Memphis as it prepares for media days. Where will the Tigers land in the preseason poll/preseason All-Conference teams: While the American doesn’t do a preseason poll in football, it still puts out a full preseason poll and All-Conference selections ahead of the season. This might be the most unclear it’s been on where Memphis will land in the preseason poll. Last year, the Tigers finished eighth in the conference with an 8-10 record in conference play and 13-19 overall. While they struggled last year, it’s a completely new team, and there’s a good chance Memphis is in the top few spots in the rankings. Most people predict Wichita State will win the conference this season, and it’s extremely likely it will be at the top of the conference’s poll. Who falls in behind them? The Tigers have been predicted to be anywhere between second and fourth in several preseason predictions, but it will be interesting to see where the coaches place Memphis. What does Hardaway say about his roster? Hardaway has a brand new roster, and he will talk highly about his group at the event. Keep an ear open for any additional information about the group. The Tigers will role out a new starting five, and it will be interesting to hear if Hardaway says anything about how the group is taking shape. It will also be interesting to hear about who has impressed during the preseason. What does Tylik Weeks and Jayden Reid say about the team? It’s always up in the air on how much you’ll get out of the players at media days, but it will be fun to hear from Weeks and Reid. Both players joined the program during the offseason, but they had different routes to Memphis. Reid signed with USF out of high school before transferring to Northwestern ahead of last season. He averaged 9.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 rebounds for the Wildcats and had 19 points and nine assists in his final game against Purdue. Weeks started his collegiate career at a JUCO before transferring to Southern Miss, where he led the Golden Eagles in scoring. He averaged 19.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.3 assist, and he scored 30+ points in two conference tournament games last season. It will be fun to hear what the two say about the team and the upcoming season.
