Given that No. 18 Memphis has a rich basketball tradition and high expectations almost every year, it is difficult to believe that Tigers have not won a regular season conference title since 2013.
Memphis will take a big step in that direction on Sunday afternoon if they can complete a seasonal sofa of the American athletic conference Rival UAB in Birmingham, Ala.
The tigers (23-5, 13-2) have a game with a game of Blazers and North Texas with three matches left. A victory over UAB would give Tigers a seasonal sweep, and they lined north Texas in January in their only meeting, so they would own head-to-head tie-breakers at both clubs.
And Memphi’s schedule in the past week will contain two smaller opponents in Exhaust and South Florida, although seventh-year Tigers coach Penny Hardaway knows better than taking either competition for granted.
“It’s so hard to win any game,” he said. “You can look around the country and see non-ranked teams that hit ranked teams this time of year. You have to keep getting up your guys. And we have to be up for every single game.”
Example: Tigers ’84 -72 AAC Win Wednesday evening over rice. Seems simple enough, right? Well, with the exception of the part where the team was tied to 70 with under four minutes left before Memphis went on a game-ending 14-2 driving.
Hardaway wants his team to experience what no Memphis team has had since Josh Pastner left the US conference with a Runaway League championship as coach in 2013.
“It’s very important to me,” Hardaway said. “If any coach says it is not, it is. I have been in it seven years. I want that feeling.”
If Dain Dainja continues to dominate as if he recently, Hardaway can get that feeling. Dainja went for 25 points and 10 returns to the owls after shredding Florida Atlantic for 22 and 11 respectively in the previous match.
Dainja also came big in a blowout of UAB 100-77 on January 26 and did what was then a season high 21 points to go with eight returns.
Blazers (19-9, 12-3) has won seven out of eight matches since then, including an 80-72 decision on Thursday evening on the same Wichita state outfit that stopped Memphis on February 16 in overtime.
Alejandro Vasquez banded his career high with 29 points on Thursday, while versatile 6-foot-9 Post Yaxel Lendeborg had 11 points, eight returns and six assists. For the season, Lendeborg, UAB goes in points (17.6 ppg), rebounding (10.9) and assists (4.3).
Lendeborg came close to the program’s first Trippeldfold in 16 years during a February 23 victory over the temple and finished with 13 points, 11 returns and eight assists.
“It feels like I’ve been chasing a ghost for a long time now,” he said. “I’m coming there all the time to open the door, but I can’t grab the steering wheel. That’s how it feels.”
Lendeborg’s Allround Excellence has helped Blazers an average of 83.4 points per match, 12th best in Division I.
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