KNOXVILLE – Memphis qualifies as the youngest men’s basketball team in America, according to KenPom.com.
A 51-47 victory over Tennessee Saturday afternoon before a sellout crowd of 21,868 at Thompson-Boling Arena says something else about the Tigers, something that’s hard to quantify.
The sum of five true freshmen and a pair of redshirt freshmen is greater than the youthful parts. Subtract top freshman recruit James Wiseman because of suspension and freshman starter Lester Quinones due to injury and the victory adds up to something even more impressive.
Memphis came to Knoxville and ended Tennessee’s home winning streak at 31 games. No Division I team in the nation had a longer run going. In other words, many teams with more experience had tried and failed to do what these callow Tigers accomplished.
Go figure
“With a young team, you really don’t know,” Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said.
Combine Saturday’s result with the Tigers erasing a 20-point deficit in beating UAB 65-57 last Saturday and the Tigers already know a thing or two about perseverance.
In this case, they survived a 1-for-13 shooting start, which resulted in them going scoreless for nearly seven minutes during the first half and falling behind by 12 points. Their struggles were amplified by the raucous setting, which was extra hostile, given the acrimonious fallout from a late-game scuffle in last season’s game in Memphis.
“I knew we were going to have our hands full coming into this game,” Hardaway said, “especially with how last year’s game went.”
Their response was to be a hand-full defensively, particularly regarding the Vols senior guard tandem of Jordan Bowden and Lamonte Turner. UT’s two leading scorers, who combine to score nearly 28 points per game on average, were held to 10 on 3-for-21 shooting from the floor.
“We tried to make everything hard for those guys,” Hardaway said. “We knew if they were going to win, it was going to go through those guys.”
When asked afterward about how Turner and Bowden can achieve greater consistency, UT coach Rick Barnes seemed stumped.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. “I have trust in them.”
At least they have experience on their side.
“They’ve had bad games before,” freshman teammate Josiah-Jordan James said. “I know they’re going to bounce back. You have to make a loss into a lesson. They’re already told us they’re going to be better.”
How does the team as a whole follow suit?
Hard to ask more of Tennessee defensively. The No. 19 Vols (8-2) held No. 13 Memphis (8-2) to 31 points below its per-game scoring average.
Memphis’ 49-39 rebounding advantage wasn’t necessarily as great as it appeared. Second-chance points (11-10 in Memphis’ favor) were virtually a wash.
Forward John Fulkerson, who had nine points, seven rebounds and blocked three Memphis shot, tried to will Tennessee to the win during the second half. Nobody played harder.
“That might be the hardest working guy in America,” Hardaway said.
Barnes eventually got to the bottom of UT’s predicament by considering their 25 percent shooting from the floor (15 for 60) in saying: “At some point in time, you have to make shots.”
With that thought in mind, the Vols’ freshmen ought to take a cue from their Memphis counterparts. After scoring a career-high 14 points on Saturday, James should be more assertive going forward. Classmates Olivier Nkamhoua and Davonte Gaines, on the other hand, need to deliver more than four combined points.
It all adds up.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri who covered University of Tennessee athletics for the Knoxville News Sentinel from 1988-2019. He may be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com