A strong outing in the AAC should propel them for another NCAA tournament berth. Can Memphis follow the same path? It’s highly possible. Those teams may not have talent bound for the NBA, but their veteran experience in big moments has always shown success against some of college basketball’s best programs. History has shown us that in the current landscape of college basketball, veteran-laden teams have been able to make deep runs in the NCAA tournament. Projected Starting Five PG: Kendric Davis SG: Keonte Kennedy SF: Johnathan Lawson PF: DeAndre Williams C: Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu Projected Outlook: NCAA Tournament (Sweet 16) Akot only lasted a few months with the program after being flipped by Western Kentucky. Lester Quinones and Jalen Duren decided to take their talents to the NBA. Nolley joined the Cincinnati Bearcats, while Harris became a member of the South Florida Bulls. Regarding departures, players such as Landers Nolley lll and Tyler Harris entered the transfer portal. But here’s the caveat: Young and Franklin have eligibility issues that have not been resolved. Each transfer player listed brings a unique skill set to the current team. Those accolades allowed him to win the AAC’s Player of the Year award for 2021-2022.Īlong with adding Davis, the Tigers added veteran talents such as Keonte Kennedy, Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu, Elijah McCaden, Damaria Franklin, Emmanuel Akot, and Jahmar Young. In his final year with the SMU, Davis led the conference in scoring by averaging 19.5 points per game, third with 4.6 assists, and third by hitting 45.2% on all field goals. Before joining Memphis, he was a member of the SMU Mustangs. Davis is no stranger to the Tigers or the AAC. The Tigers got the country’s number one transfer portal prospect when Kendric Davis decided to commit to the program in April. Instead, he utilized the transfer portal to assemble a squad of veteran talent. Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway decided to avoid building the roster loaded with young four and five-star prospects. They defeated Boise State in the tournament’s first round but fell short to Gonzaga in the next matchup. Those victories, combined with an impressive outing during the AAC tournament, allowed the Tigers to qualify for an NCAA tournament berth. Memphis closed the regular season by winning 10 out of their last 11 games. The program head’s into a new year with excitement after qualifying for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014. So I suspect Lively will be impactful right from the jump as a dunk-everything/block-everything big who overwhelms less-talented post players way more often than not.It’s almost that time again for Memphis Tigers Men’s basketball. But awesome traditional centers are still highly valuable in college basketball. He's more of a traditional center than a modern center, which will likely impact where Lively is selected in the 2023 NBA Draft. And in the spirit of keeping this simple, I'll go with Lively, the consensus No. They're all top-five national prospects So the only sensible move here is to go with a Blue Devil. The ACC's three highest-ranked freshmen are enrolled at Duke - namely Lively, Dariq Whitehead and Kyle Filipowski. CBS Sports ACC Preseason Freshman of the Year Dereck Lively | C | Duke He averaged 15.3 points and 4.3 rebounds last season. Isaiah Wong | G | Miami: Wong is the leading returning scorer for a Miami team that advanced to the Elite Eight of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. That would be an improvement over the five bids the league earned last season and represent a move back in the right direction. So things have been trending in the wrong direction - although, it should be noted, the ACC did have two Final Four teams last season - in part because traditionally strong programs like Syracuse, Louisville and Virginia have been down relative to where they normally reside.Īnd, for what it's worth, so does CBS Sports Bracketology expert Jerry Palm, who currently projects the ACC to place seven teams in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. For context, understand that the ACC didn't finish any lower than fourth among conferences in any of the seven seasons that preceded the previous two. ![]() Which is why it's noticeable and somewhat troubling that basketball has been a bit down in recent years - evidence being that the ACC was ranked as only the fifth best conference, according to, in each of the past two seasons. But if there's one league that has leaned more than most toward basketball over the years it's probably the ACC, a conference with multiple blue blood programs and FIVE DIFFERENT SCHOOLS that have won national championships in the past 20 years. College football is the focus of every Power Five conference.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |