The No. 24 Memphis Tigers continued their winning ways in AAC play with a 100-77 win at home over UAB. Memphis got out to an early lead and controlled the game for all 40 minutes of basketball.
UAB came into this game with the same conference record as the Tigers, but Memphis just proved they are simply the better basketball team. Efficiency and spreading the ball were key factors in this win with five players finishing with double-digit scoring.
PJ Haggerty led the way with 23 points, while Dain Dainja tagged in 21 of his own. The Tigers just found their offense early and did not let go of that momentum in this game.
The Tigers now advance to 16-4 on the season with a 6-1 record in conference play and have put themselves in a great position to grab a fairly high seed come NCAA Tournament time.
All of this is impressive for Memphis, but how did they get it done? And what does this mean for the Tigers going forward?
The transition play was outstanding
The transition Tigers came out big time in this matchup at home, and teams that play great in transition have plenty of success in postseason play. UAB has been one of the best offenses in the entire conference, and winning in transition is a huge way to slow that down. Haggerty was dominant in this area with a three-steal game.
Points off turnovers are key when deciding outcomes of games, but also when seeing how good transition play was. However, 32 points off turnovers is just absurd, and that will happen when the Blazers have 16 turnovers.
Memphis was in passing lanes for all 40 minutes, steals were consistently produced with 11 of them. Memphis has started to develop a true identity as a turnover-creating, defensive unit and that is dangerous if they can keep this going.
Efficiency and Control
One thing that really stands out is the pure-field goal percentage this Tiger team was able to pull off in this game. 62 percent shooting from the field is quite impressive for Penny Hardaway’s team and is just winning basketball.
Memphis controlled the pace as well and led for the entire game, and after their loss to Temple, this was an issue they quickly fixed as a unit. 100 points is not something you see much in college basketball, but Memphis’ ability to stay in control for the full game is why they are able to do that, granted a portion of the scoring came in garbage time.
This offense just did everything right in this game and was able to score efficiently in any way they needed to. The Tigers just took good shots all afternoon, and they looked like a team that can win games once March comes around.
The AAC and the entire country just got put on notice.
For Memphis, this is a win that proves they are the frontrunners in the AAC. They picked up an early win against UConn that felt a bit like an early season fluke, but now the Tigers are really getting in stride this season.
They are already in the Top 25 and may move up a bit depending on what else happens with the rest of the country with a win like this. The Tigers have the rest of AAC play to go through, but if they can continue to dominate this conference, then they will be seeded quite favorably in the NCAA Tournament whether they win the AAC tournament or not.
Memphis is a team to watch out for, and they just proved it against a solid offensive team in UAB. Time will tell if this team continues to prove themselves, but impressive is an understatement when talking about this win.