Needing to make the NCAA Tournament to put last season's collapse in the rearview mirror, and stuck in a terrible conference that currently offers zero Quadrant 1 opportunities, Memphis coach Penny Hardaway created an aggressive non-league schedule designed to allow his Tigers to build a resume that the committee would deem at-large worthy on Selection Sunday.
The only catch?
They had to survive it -- specifically a trip to the Maui Invitational that presented games against three teams that are all ranked in the top 20 of the AP Top 25 poll (UConn, Michigan State, Auburn), a total of four games against SEC teams (Auburn, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss) and road games against two ACC teams (Clemson, Virginia).
That's a top-five non-league schedule featuring 13 games.
The Tigers were favored in the betting markets in only six of those games, underdogs in seven. In other words, this could've gone terribly -- especially for a team that returned just one scholarship player.
But it didn't.
Instead, Memphis completed its non-league schedule on Saturday with an 87-70 victory over Ole Miss inside FedExForum that pushed its record to 10-3 with eight wins falling inside the first two quadrants.
Nobody else has more than six wins inside the first two quadrants.
That doesn't mean Memphis has the best body of work in the sport, or even the best wins in the sport. But it does highlight that nobody has as many quality wins as the Tigers, who are now clearly the favorites in the AAC despite not being picked that way in the preseason by the league's coaches.
"Just an unbelievable run," Hardaway said, "to be 10-3 at the end of this [non-conference] schedule."
It's unreasonable to disagree.
Considering everything written above -- most notably that Memphis already had more wins inside the first two quadrants than anybody else in the sport even before Saturday's victory over Ole Miss -- you might be wondering why the Tigers aren't already in the AP poll or weren't in Saturday morning's CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings.
If so, fair question.
The answer is Arkansas State.
Twenty-one days ago, on a Sunday afternoon, Memphis hosted Arkansas State and lost 85-72. To be clear, Arkansas State is top 100 in the NET, the best team in the Sun Belt and led by Brian Hodgson, the 37-year-old, second-year coach who is on track to eventually join his old boss, Alabama's Nate Oats, at the power-conference level. The Red Wolves are NOT bad -- but they are 98th in the NET. And when you lose at home to a team that's 98th in the NET, that's a Quadrant 3 loss. And that Quadrant 3 loss, combined with last weekend's 79-66 loss at home to Mississippi State, combined with some not-so-great computer numbers, was enough to reasonably move Memphis out of all human rankings just before Christmas, in part because literally no team in last Monday's AP poll had a Quadrant 3 loss on the resume.
But the convincing win over Ole Miss should push the Tigers back in.
Again, they're now 10-3 with eight victories coming inside the first two quadrants. Again, nobody else -- not even No. 1 Tennessee or No. 2 Auburn -- has more than six wins inside the first two quadrants. So, yeah, the Q3 loss is a drag -- and it likely always will be. But, based on the strength of the wins and entire body of work, I've moved Memphis to No. 18 in Sunday morning's updated Top 25 And 1. After AAC coaches voted the Tigers second in the league's preseason poll, they're currently 35 spots better than any other AAC team at KenPom.com and expected to win the conference's regular-season title by multiple games. If so, they'll cruise into the 2025 NCAA Tournament and receive the type of seed that should set them up to advance.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Chaz Lanier finished with 23 points and four rebounds in Monday's 82-64 win over Middle Tennessee. The Vols' next game is Tuesday against Norfolk State. | -- | 12-0 |
| 2 |  | Johni Broome finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday's 87-69 win over Purdue. The Tigers' next game is Monday against Monmouth. | -- | 11-1 |
| 3 |  | Tamin Lipsey finished with 20 points and five assists in Sunday's 99-71 win over Morgan State. The Cyclones' next game is Monday at Colorado. | -- | 10-1 |
| 4 |  | Kon Knueppel finished with 18 points and five assists in Saturday's 82-56 win at Georgia Tech. The Blue Devils' next game is Tuesday against Virginia Tech. | -- | 10-2 |
| 5 |  | Mark Sears finished with 16 points and two steals in Sunday's 81-54 win over Kent State. The Crimson Tide's next game is Sunday against South Dakota State. | -- | 10-2 |
| 6 |  | Zeke Mayo finished with 25 points and eight rebounds in Sunday's 87-53 win over Brown. The Jayhawks' next game is Tuesday against West Virginia. | -- | 9-2 |
| 7 |  | Will Richard finished with 26 points and five rebounds in Saturday's 99-45 win over North Florida. The Gators' next game is Sunday against Stetson. | -- | 12-0 |
| 8 |  | Kam Jones finished with 20 points and eight assists in Saturday's 73-70 win at Xavier. The Golden Eagles' next game is Tuesday at Providence. | -- | 11-2 |
| 9 |  | Jaxson Robinson was 3-of-11 from the field in Saturday's 85-65 loss to Ohio State. The Wildcats' next game is Tuesday against Brown. | -- | 10-2 |
| 10 |  | Coen Carr finished with 17 points and eight rebounds in Saturday's 86-69 win over Florida Atlantic. The Spartans' next game is Monday against Western Michigan. | -- | 10-2 |
| 11 |  | Eric Dailey finished with 18 points and six rebounds in Saturday's 65-62 win over Gonzaga. The Bruins' next game is Saturday at Nebraska. | 5 | 11-2 |
| 12 |  | Kwame Evans Jr. finished with 13 points and three rebounds in Saturday's 76-61 win over Stanford. The Ducks' next game is Sunday against Weber State. | -- | 11-1 |
| 13 |  | Riley Kugel finished with 19 points and four rebounds in Saturday's 79-66 win at Memphis. The Bulldogs' next game is Monday against Bethune Cookman. | -- | 11-1 |
| 14 |  | Wade Taylor IV finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds in Saturday's 92-54 win over Abilene Christian. The Aggies' next game is Saturday against Texas. | -- | 11-2 |
| 15 |  | Julian Reese finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday's 81-66 win over Maryland Eastern Shore. The Terrapins' next game is Thursday at Washington. | -- | 11-2 |
| 16 |  | Braden Smith was 3-of-12 from the field in Saturday's 87-69 loss to Auburn. The Boilermakers' next game is Sunday against Toledo. | 1 | 8-4 |
| 17 |  | Kasparas Jakucionis finished with 21 points and four assists in Sunday's 80-77 win over Missouri. The Illini's next game is Sunday against Chicago State. | 1 | 8-3 |
| 18 |  | Colby Rogers finished with 28 points and four rebounds in Saturday's 87-70 win over Ole Miss. The Tigers' next game is Thursday at Florida Atlantic. | NR | 10-3 |
| 19 |  | Alex Karaban finished with 21 points and six rebonds in Saturday's 78-74 win at Butler. The Huskies' next game is Jan. 1 at DePaul. | -- | 10-3 |
| 20 |  | Dre Davis was 1-of-5 from the field in Saturday's 87-70 loss at Memphis. The Rebels' next game is Saturday against Georgia. | 9 | 11-2 |
| 21 |  | Braden Huff was 1-of-6 from the field in Saturday's 65-62 loss to UCLA. The Zags' next game is Monday at Pepperdine. | 1 | 9-4 |
| 22 |  | Emanuel Sharp finished with 18 points and two assists in Saturday's 87-51 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christie. The Cougars' next game is Monday at Oklahoma State. | -- | 8-3 |
| 23 |  | Duke Miles finished with 29 points and three assists in Sunday's 89-66 win over Central Arkansas. The Sooners' next game is Sunday against Prairie View A&M. | -- | 12-0 |
| 24 |  | Asa Newell finished with 16 points and six rebounds in Thursday's 100-49 win over Buffalo. The Bulldogs' next game is Sunday against Charleston Southern. | -- | 11-1 |
| 25 |  | Norchad Omier finished with 19 points and 24 rebounds in Friday's 107-53 win over Arlington Baptist. The Bears' next game is Tuesday against Utah. | -- | 8-3 |
| 26 |  | Ian Jackson finished with 24 points and four rebounds in Saturday's 76-74 win over UCLA. The Tar Heels' next game is Sunday against Campbell. | -- | 7-5 |
In: Memphis
Out: San Diego State
