AAC Basketball: Updated 2018-19 preseason rankings for the conference

Welcome to the second Penny Hardaway era of Memphis basketball. After the program fired Tubby Smith after this past season, the Tigers called on their former superstar guard to take over as the new head coach. While this news has been greeted with optimism by the fanbase, it is still reasonable to question how well Hardaway’s coaching ability will transition to the college level. Regardless of this, though, he has already been tremendously successful on the recruiting trail and has plenty of talent returning on the 2018-19 roster.

With this being said, a strong coaching debut season from Hardaway could see the Tigers back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013-14, which happened to be the inception season of the AAC. The major reason for this, coaching aside, is that Memphis has some serious senior studs coming back from last season. At the forefront of this group is Jeremiah Martin, a proven college star who averaged 18.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game last season. Easily one of the best guards in the conference, he will be the focal point of the team this year.

Additionally, three other seniors are also returning to help lead the way. Alongside Martin in the backcourt will be Kareem Brewton Jr., who played in all 34 games for the team last season while posting 9.1 points per game. Then, in the frontcourt, both Kyvon Davenport (13.3 points, 6.1 rebounds) and Mike Parks Jr. (8.1 points, 4.5 rebounds) are likely to reprise their full-time starting roles from a year ago.

With these four returning along with an excellent recruiting class coming in, Memphis should be in great shape to compete for the AAC regular-season title and a bid to the NCAA Tournament. However, this might come down to how well Coach Hardaway performs in his first season.