Memphis Basketball: Takeaways from season opening win at Vanderbilt

Unlike most notable teams, Memphis Basketball had a good opponent on opening night in Vanderbilt. The Tigers were able to handle business.

Not many teams around college basketball picked up a better season-opening win on Monday night than Memphis Basketball. Granted, the opening night slate didn’t necessarily pose a plethora of marquee match-ups but let’s not take this title away from Memphis. A team from the AAC picking up a road win against an SEC foe to start the season? Very nice.

While Vanderbilt clearly has some struggles to get through, this is still a solid win and the Tigers looked dominant at times during the game, holding a lead of as high as 17 points in the first half. Coach Penny Hardaway won the battle of former NBA stars that turned into college head coaches. His team won and his team is definitely the better team and will be one of Houston’s greatest threats to winning the conference this season. Here are some of my biggest takeaways from the opening night win at Memorial Gym.

This team is new but old.

I swear it makes sense. The Tigers returned only four players who averaged more than a single point per game from last year. Traditionally, rosters like these get replenished with younger, incoming recruits, and with a recruiter like Hardaway, that task can be easier for him than others. But not in the year of our lord 2022 in which college athletics are still populated by the Super Senior. To say the least, the Tigers took advantage of that.

Memphis added five additional fifth-year seniors including former All-AAC guard Kendric Davis from SMU. Four of these new Super Seniors played against Vanderbilt and despite so many new pieces to the roster, the offense and defense visually flowed without too many hiccups. So many times in season-opening games we see teams that revamp their rosters struggle early on. That’s not the case for Memphis, at least after one game.

The Tigers’ ball movement was good in the first half but most impressively, they hit many tough shots. Malcolm Dandridge hit a contested pull-up long two, Jayden Hardaway hit a contested mid-range pull-up with Vanderbilt center Quintin Millora-Brown obstructing his vision. Vanderbilt played a quality game on defense but it wasn’t enough because Memphis made tough shots and put up 34 points by way of making 12 of their 17 two-point attempts.

In the second half, the ball movement was crisper and the Tigers were able to wear out Vanderbilt’s defense by moving them around and creating easier looks. The adjustments made and the ability to get on Vanderbilt early are a result of the overall college basketball experience in the Memphis Tiger locker room. It’s a new team, but it’s also an old team.

Familiar faces, familiar production.

The additions of Davis, Elijah McCadden, Keonte Kennedy, and Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu were big for this team and they will all be relied upon to make an impact this season. However, in the opener, the familiar faces in the Memphis locker room proved to be reliable.

Fifth-year senior Alex Lomax (who has played for Penny Hardaway ever since he was in high school at Memphis East), logged 34 minutes and handled most of the point guard duties while chipping in ten points. But the surprising stat of the night for Lomax was his double-double with points and rebounds. Yes, the six-foot point guard grabbed ten rebounds for the Tigers, leading the team by a significant margin (the next highest was Malcolm Dandridge with six). Lomax was fierce on the defensive end as well, coming away with three steals.

Senior forward DeAndre Williams, in his third season now with Hardaway and the Tigers, led the team in scoring, with many of those buckets coming down the stretch to help put the game out of Commodore reach. His 17 points on 7-11 shooting from the field provided an offensive spark and in typical Williams fashion, was able to score at multiple levels including a three-pointer (which was one of only five on the night for the whole team). His ability to score helped create for others too as he dished out three assists on the night. Williams provided a block and two steals on the defensive side of the ball as well.

Lastly, senior Malcolm Dandridge, in his fourth year in the Memphis program, added nine points and six rebounds. All three of these players are very familiar with Coach Hardaway’s standards that are set at Memphis and they proved to be a vital part of the season-opening win and will be for future wins this season.

Kendric Davis shines in Tiger debut

Highly coveted, former AAC Player of the Year, SMU-transfer Kendric Davis made his first appearance in a Tiger uniform last night and did not disappoint. Davis scored 16 points to go along with a team-high six assists. While the shooting performance can’t be labeled as super efficient (4-11 from the field) he made up for it with his ability to attract defensive attention and find open teammates for buckets. This was highlighted by a pass made by Davis only four minutes into his debut. On the play, Davis dribbled into the middle of Vanderbilt’s match-up defense and left his feet to make a pass that was seemingly telegraphed to go out on the wing for a three-point attempt before dropping a no-look pass to McCadden on the baseline for an and-one bucket to give the Tigers an early 10-3 lead.

At SMU, Davis was expected to carry a majority of the scoring duties and did so well. He’ll be called upon to be a reliable scorer for Memphis but won’t have to put up the 19 points per contest like he did there. Davis seems like a perfect fit on this team and will be a valuable part of their success this season.

Overall takeaway

Monday night was a great way to start the season for this Memphis team. If there are any signs of concern, it probably comes from the three-point defense in the second half (Vanderbilt torched them from behind the arc and got themselves back in the game) and perimeter shooting (Tigers were 5-19 from three). Coach Hardaway would probably be more pleased if they were able to cut down on the turnovers as well (they committed 13 on the night).

But overall, a good win. The team has seemingly gelled well early, dominated the paint (scoring 38 points in that area for the game), and made 17 of their 19 free throw attempts. Houston is expected to run away with the AAC this season, but Memphis looks to be a worthy adversary that can play spoiler later in the season and be their biggest conference obstacle.