NCAA Basketball: Duke, Illinois, and Virginia tumble in latest top 25 power ranking

22. Memphis Tigers

The Tigers wrapped up non-con play with an 83-61 win over Alabama State, led by 25 points from forward Deandre Williams and 14 points and 12 assists from Kendric Davis. Big man Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu had 14 points and seven blocks off the bench, while Damaria Franklin, who recently was deemed eligible to play after transferring over from Illinois-Chicago this offseason, started and scored eight points in 26 minutes.

Memphis has won eight of nine games, with the lone loss coming in a 91-88 result at Alabama. The overall resume has been solid, with wins over Texas A&M, Mississippi, and Auburn. So if anyone is rooting for the SEC to be dominant and boost all of their member’s numbers going forward, it’s Memphis.

Davis has been as good as expected since coming over from SMU, leading the team with 19.3 ppg and 5.8 rpg. Williams, who is one of the oldest players in NCAA Basketball, is second with 15.3 ppg. Seven other players are producing between 4-8 ppg, including Alex Lomax still playing a role in the rotation despite not being the lead guard.

This is a team that’s good on both ends and assuming they avoid too many bad losses in ACC play, should be back in the NCAA Tournament. They’ll have a solid early test coming up next Sunday at Tulane.