No. 18 Memphis did its work in non-conference play, beating two-time defending national champion UConn, Michigan State, Clemson and Ole Miss, among others.
The Tigers own nine victories against Quad 1 or 2 opponents this season.
Now comes the tough part, according to coach Penny Hardaway.
“If you’re a ranked team and you’re playing against a team you’re supposed to beat — at home or on the road — you just have to overpower them and beat them,” he said. “We can’t go in just sleepwalking.”
Hardaway and the Tigers will need to be wide awake Thursday night when they travel to Philadelphia for an American Athletic Conference test with Temple.
Memphis (13-3, 3-0) nearly stepped on a landmine Saturday when it was tied 68-68 with 1:11 left against East Carolina. But PJ Haggerty made two free throws to snap a tie and Texas transfer Tyrese Hunter converted a layup to assure a victory, 74-70, that enabled the Tigers to avoid a dreaded Quad 4 loss at home.
Haggerty, a 6-foot-3 guard who averaged 20.9 points a game last season as a freshman at Tulsa, is scoring more efficiently this season for his new team. He’s averaging 22.4 points and shooting 49.5 percent from the field, plus 42.3 percent on 3-pointers — about 13 percentage points better than last season.
Hunter adds 15.1 ppg for the Tigers, who rank ninth in Division I in 3-point shooting at 40 percent. Their major weakness is taking care of the ball, as they average 14.6 turnovers, 325th in the country. They committed 16 on Saturday, costing them 24 points.
However, that’s yet to be a major problem because of Memphis’ ability to pour on the points in pressure situations, according to Hardaway.
“We’ve got guys that can finish the game,” he said of the Tigers, who have won four contests in a row.
Meanwhile, Temple (10-6, 2-1) is coming off a 73-70 win Saturday at Rice as New Mexico transfer Jamal Mashburn Jr. scored 24 points, including a pair of free throws with one second remaining.
Mashburn, who averaged double figures in points the last three seasons for the Lobos, is at a career-high 20.7 ppg this season. A volume shooter, Mashburn is hitting a career-best 43.1 percent of his field-goal attempts.
“He’s a proven scorer,” Temple second-year coach Adam Fisher said.
The Owls also are getting offense from forward Steve Settle (11.1 ppg) and guard Zion Stanford (10.7). They are averaging 78.9 points despite not getting a lot of production inside or shooting a high percentage from the floor.
It will be interesting to see if they can take advantage of the Tigers’ inability to value the basketball. Temple holds opponents to 41.2 percent shooting from the field but forces an average of only 11.4 turnovers per game.
The other interesting trend to watch will be the Owls’ ability to defend without fouling. Memphis has made nearly as many free throws (298) as its opponents have tried (317).
Haggerty has been a foul-shooting machine, averaging nine attempts per game.
