Jump On Em Early

The University of Memphis was decked out in Memphis State gear for Saturday’s afternoon matchup with the SMU Mustangs, and the fans were amped up for this one from the jump. The Tigers jumped on the Mustangs as soon as the ball was tipped, similar to how the Memphis State teams of the past used to do with their patented alley-oop play off the jump ball.

There was no alley-oop in this one, but there were buckets by starters Kyvon Davenport and Raynere Thornton, to go along with 2 deep balls from fellow starter Kareem Brewton, and the below shot from beyond the arc by Tyler Harris, who came off the bench.

Yes, that score in the video is correct! All of this is before SMU even scored a point. Not a single bucket. So this is the type of day it turned out to be. A full on rout of a team that came into the game at 11-6, just as the Tigers were. The win moved the Tigers to 12-6 on the season, but more importantly 4-1 in AAC play. The Mustangs fall to 3-3 in the conference.

So SMU finally scored with 12:44 remaining in the first half. But then Kareem Brewton did this:

And then Brewton did this:

While Brewton was scorching the nets, freshmen Antwann Jones and Thornton were doing a little bit of everything. Oh, and FedExForum was ecstatic. It was a truly joyful place. Everyone seemingly having the same thought of “Damn, it feels good to be able to cheer for Memphis Basketball again”. And save your “fans should have supported Tubby” bullshit. Not the time, not the place. Ain’t trying to hear that shit anyway.

Keep The Pedal To The Metal

So Jones finished with 5 assists, including some passes that made you say, “Oh Shit,” and 5 rebounds. Thornton finished with 14 boards, 11 points, 2 steals and 2 assists.

After hitting his first 4 3-pointers, Brewton finished 6-11 from long range to account for most of his 20 points. He also had added 3 steals in 25 minutes.

Senior Jeremiah Martin finished with just 8 points, but had a career-high 11 assists, including finding Thornton for the 3 on a nice pass in the video below. Martin played a team-high 31 minutes.

Memphis was up 40-23 as they closed the half in style, with Antwann Jones finding Thornton in their very own version of a Dwyane Wade to Lebron James Full Court Alley Oop.

The second half was more of the same, the Tigers defense continued to stifle the Mustangs as Memphis finished with 10 steals, compared to just 5 from SMU. Memphis also won the rebound battle 39-38, which is always a plus for this undersized version of the Tigers. Memphis State also limited SMU’s ball movement, as they finished with just 13 assists, well shy of the Tigers’ 24. Speaking of assists, check out Twan…

Tyler Harris got to have some fun in late-game extended run. He finished 4-11 from deep and 14 points, and about 4 times of having the fans ready to blow the roof off of the building. Big man Mike Parks tossed in 11 points off the bench on 5-6 shooting from the field.

This Harris trey extended the Tigers’ lead to 25, and it came off a nice little inbounds play against SMU’s zone defense. Even though his shots haven’t been falling as much as some may have expected, I’m still completely ok with Harris firing away as he pleases. Like this:

Davenport Gets Disrespectful

And to cap things off, Memphis senior Kyvon Davenport put poor SMU freshman Feron Hunt on a highlight tape. Watch below as Davenport takes it off the bounce, and even after appearing to stride too far, still has the ability to elevate over the 6’8 defender.

The blowout continued and the final horn sounded with a final score of 83-61. Memphis will travel to Philly later in the week for a matchup with Temple on Thursday at 6 pm local time. Following a conference opening loss to UCF, the Owls have won 4 straight, including home wins over Houston and USF (OT).

According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, Temple has a 79.9% chance to beat the Tigers. Fuck That. Go Tigers.

–@BarnBurnerSlim

For more content from The BarnBurner, click HERE and follow us on Twitter and IG.

[Headed Image: GoTigersGo.com]

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Reddit

