In the waning minutes of Memphis’ 75-53 dissection of Tulsa, it came time for the Tigers to salute their seniors and let them sub out of the game one last time at FedExForum.
The first senior to say goodbye was Doneal Mack. But it wasn’t just the crowd of 17,238 who cheered and thanked Mack — Mack wanted to show some appreciation, too.
The buzzer sounded, public address announcer Chuck Roberts called his name, and Mack walked to center court where he bent down and kissed the Tiger logo.
“To me, it was a way of showing appreciation to the fans, the city and the program, and how much I enjoy them, their encouragement, their support and everything,” Mack said. “It was my way of saying, ‘Thank you.’”
It was that kind of day for the Tigers. A day of appreciation, final hurrahs and complete domination of the preseason favorite of the league Memphis wasn’t supposed to win. But more importantly, it was yet another day when the Tigers did everything they could to keep their names in the conversation for an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
With only the conference tournament ahead of them (they'll be the No. 2 seed), the Tigers (23-8, 13-3 Conference USA) are teetering on the bubble. Games like Saturday — when Mack finished with 14 points, senior point guard Willie Kemp with a career-high 10 assists and big man Will Coleman with 15 points and nine rebounds — make the Tigers think they’ve got a shot.
“Let me say this — I think right now we’re one of the 65 best teams in the country,” coach Josh Pastner said. “I believe that.”
Coleman v. Jordan II
Reference back to a Will Coleman tweet (@m3mphisman2011, which no longer exists) dated Oct. 24, 2009, at 6:08 p.m.
“Put that on my momma Jerome Jordan get shut down when he see Memphis..Coleman ain’t havin it”
Hey, at least he backed it up.
Coleman had seven points, seven rebounds, a steal and three blocks in Memphis’ 93-86 win at Tulsa on Feb. 13. Saturday he finished with an even more impressive line: 15 points, nine boards, a steal and a block in just 26 minutes.
Jordan was nowhere to be found until the Tigers were up by 20 and the game was out of hand. He had three points and two rebounds in the first half when even the likes of 6-foot-5 DJ Stephens was checking him.
Jordan upped his stats in garbage time and finished with 19 points, six boards and a block.
‘We want Aaron!’
Mack and Kemp weren’t the only Tiger seniors who did it big Saturday. Give some love to 6-foot-6 walk-on Aaron Jacques.
Memphis was way ahead with less than two minutes to play, and the student section started chanting.
“We want Aaron! We want Aaron! We want Aaron!”
Do you really think Pastner had a choice?
Jacques, who joined the team in October as Pastner was scrambling to add bodies to the depleted roster, had three points and a rebound in one minute of play. That’s efficiency for you.
You had to be there
Remember all those cheesy promotions and on-screen games at Tiger games? Well, Memphis just about screwed one up pretty bad. Luckily, someone caught it at the last second — and I mean at the LAST second.
The on-screen game when Chuck Roberts lists a player’s stats and fans have to guess the Super Tiger” came on during the first half. Roberts was reading former Tiger Kelly Wise’s stat line, but after the first fourth of the photo was unveiled and you could see a portion of the “Super Tiger’s” head, the photo changed.
One the whole photo was unveiled, it was indeed Wise. The original photo, though, was definitely someone else.
Dunk counter
Not the best night for dunks, but the Tigers will take that when they shoot 7-of-15 from 3-point range and 48 percent from the field.
The best of the two dunks went to Williams amid an 8-0 Memphis run. After Kemp stole a Tulsa pass at the wing, he pushed the ball up the floor and dished it to Williams, who jammed it home.
Tulsa’s Justin Hurtt tried his hand at blocking the shot, but he, um, whiffed. The dunk increased Memphis’ lead to 16-11, and the Tigers never looked back.
Dunk count: 2 — Coleman 1, Williams 1.
Quotable
You’ve absolutely got to love this.
“I’m going to go home tonight and celebrate with a nice cold glass of lemonade over ice.”
— Josh Pastner on his post-game festivities.
Twitter watch
It was that kind of game for Memphis. Shortly before the end of the first half, walk-on Drew Barham buried an open 3-pointer to put Memphis up 27-17. After Tulsa’s Steven Idlet scored on the other end, DJ Stephens drilled a 3-pointer of his own on the next possession to give Memphis a 30-19 lead at the break.
Naturally, a fake Twitter personality had to chime in with a doozy.
“I’m putting DJ Stephens out for attempting a 3 pointer. Forget the fact that he made it. It’s the principle of the matter.” — @FakePeteGillen
Brandon Harris covers Tiger basketball for Memphis Sport. You can follow him via Twitter @bharris901.
