Memphis Basketball: Tough times ahead for Tubby Smith and Tigers

By Carmine Carcieri | Apr 8, 2017

Mar 2, 2017; Memphis, TN, USA; Memphis Tigers head coach Tubby Smith during the second half against the Tulane Green Wave at FedExForum. Memphis Tigers defeated the Tulane Green Wave 92-70. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports /

The offseason departures for Memphis basketball continue as Keon Clergeot announced his decision to leave on Saturday afternoon.

While the entire AAC should be celebrating the new addition of Wichita State this weekend, the Memphis Tigers have no time to be thinking about their 2017-18 opponents. Tubby Smith and company are currently in a miserable state that could force Memphis into rebuild for years to come.

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The Tigers are coming off of a decent 19-13 season (9-9 in AAC) but they failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. And now, it looks like the program has hit rock bottom.

In a matter of days, the Tigers have lost a potential All-American candidate in Dedric Lawson, his brother, K.J. Lawson, and point guard Keon Clergeot, who announced on Saturday that he will officially be transferring. Without adding in Markel Crawford (who CBS Sports expects to also leave), the three new names increase Memphis’ departure list from two players (Chad Rykhoek and Craig Randall) to five.

So what does this mean for the program?

Nothing good…at all.

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Smith will return just three scholarship players in 2017-18 — Jeremiah Martin, Jimario Rivers and Karim Azab — and he will lose his top three scorers, barring a last-minute change of heart from Crawford. Add in the fact that their recruiting class is underwhelming (no four or five-star talents), and the Tigers won’t just be one of the worst teams in the AAC next season, but they very well could be one of the worst teams in all of the multiple bid leagues.

This is heartbreaking for a program that is a few years removed from their fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. In fact, Memphis made nine tournaments in 11 years from 2003 to 2013. They had a Hall of Fame coach in John Calipari roaming their sidelines and they had Derrick Rose leading their unit back in 2007-08.

Even after the Calipari era, the Tigers were a success as Josh Pastner led the team to four NCAA Tournaments and five 20+ win seasons in seven years.

But Memphis fans couldn’t keep Calipari out of their minds. Instead of sticking with a young promising coach, the fan base grew tired of losing before the first weekend of the Big Dance ended. The last straw was when Pastner and the Tigers failed to make a postseason appearance in both 2014-15 and 2015-16.

That’s when the Tigers had to pay Pastner to leave the school and take the Georgia Tech position. Like Tom Crean in Indiana, the relationship between the fan base and the coaching staff could not be revived.

A year later, and this is where the Tigers stand.

Calipari’s departure was always expected — he’s currently guiding a blue blood program — but pushing out Pastner has spiraled Memphis into rock bottom.

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While the team’s former head coach took Georgia Tech to the NIT final in year one, Memphis is trying to figure out how they are going to not only win basketball games in 2017-18 but who is going to be on their team. It’s sad to say that a program of this caliber is stuck in this position for no fault other than expectations and themselves.