Memphis Tigers shocking the college basketball world without James Wiseman

A lot was expected of the Memphis Tigers this season. Even through unforeseen circumstances, they have met the preseason hype head on culminating with their rivalry win over the Tennessee Volunteers.

The Memphis Tigers have been waiting for nearly a decade to get back into the national title conversation. They’ve had good teams since Derrick Rose and John Calipari led them to the championship game but none really felt like they could cut the nets down.

Josh Pastner tried and failed, Tubby Smith couldn’t get it going either. In the end, they turned to the university’s most famous alumni, Penny Hardaway. In his first year, he was able to get the program back into a postseason tournament (NIT) in five seasons.

However, armed with the number one recruiting class — led by five-stars James Wiseman and Precious Achiuwa — expectations soared through the roof for this group. Hardaway did nothing to quell them either, he has let it be known that the goal for this year’s team is to be the last one standing in April.

Aside from the McDonald’s All-Americans, Memphis also brought in Damion Baugh, Malcolm Dandridge, Boogie Ellis, DJ Jeffries and Lester Quinones. Add in two redshirt freshmen Ryan Boyce and Jayden Hardaway (Penny’s son) and that means nine of the 14 roster spots are secured by young, inexperienced players — in fact, there’s only one upperclassman on the entire roster.

Still, the sheer talent of their youth was too hard to ignore and they began the season ranked 14th in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll. They steamrolled their first two opponents winning by 33 and 46 points respectively. Wiseman looked like a surefire number one pick in the 2020 NBA Draft averaging 22.5 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks per game.

Yet, drama hit the program prior to that second game when the NCAA announced that they had deemed the superstar freshman ineligible to play due to money Hardaway provided to the family in 2017, before being hired by Memphis.

A temporary injunction was enough to get Wiseman on the court for that game and the Tigers’ first real test of the year against the Oregon Ducks at the PK80 Invitational. Foul trouble slowed down the momentum of both Wiseman and the Tigers who were unable to overcome the more experienced foe.

Not long after the loss, Wiseman’s attorneys dropped their case against the NCAA and the university decided to hold him out of games as the NCAA came to a resolution on the proper punishment for the infraction. It ended up being a 12-game suspension, which would keep him out until mid-January.

Many felt that without the number one overall recruit, things would fall apart for Hardaway, that the other freshmen would no longer accept their roles and each would attempt to rise to the top of the power vacuum his suspension created.

Since the loss to Oregon, Memphis has gone 7-0 and has had five different players lead them in scoring during the winning streak. Achiuwa has filled in well for Wiseman and brought similar rim protection (1.4 blocks per game) and rebounding (9.4 per game) from the center position.

They’ve taken down power five opponents Ole Miss, North Carolina State and Tennessee. Though not exactly a murderer’s row, the team has shown poise that wouldn’t be expected given their inexperience.

However, this isn’t the first time many of these players have played together — or for Penny for that matter. Seven players are from the Memphis area and five played at East High School where Hardaway coached prior to taking over the Tigers.

It’s evident that this group is more connected than the run of the mill underclassmen-led teams we’ve seen try to make it through the NCAA Tournament in past seasons.

If they can continue to play at this level without Wiseman, the sky’s the limit for them once he is allowed back on the floor

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