In the second-to-last home game of the season, the Memphis Tigers would welcome the Shockers of Wichita State to the FedEx Forum for a must-win basketball game. At this point in the season, with a 12-15 record, the Tigers need all the wins they can get just to reach the conference tournament, as the new American Tournament format goes into effect this year, with the top-ten teams making the conference tournament. Coming into the day, Memphis would be the 7th seed, playing North Texas in the first round, and would need to win three games in three days just to reach the semifinals of the conference tournament. 

With March looming and the hard fact that Memphis would need to win the conference tournament just to reach the NCAA Tournament, anything that has happened in previous months, or at this point, days, simply does not matter, what matters is flipping a switch and changing the outlook on the season by playing your best ball in March and peaking at the right time. We’ve seen it with other programs before: all hope is lost, but something changes once March hits and the team changes overnight. That mindset is of the utmost importance when it comes to the legacy the 2025-2026 Memphis will be remembered for. There’s still hope for a team with the talent levels they have, but that has to change starting on Thursday night against the Shockers. 

Coach Penny Hardaway would go with a smaller starting lineup to go against the big Wichita State lineup. Memphis would go with Dug McDaniel, Curtis Givens, Julius Thedford, Sincere Parker, and Thierno Sylla as the starters on Thursday night. 

Memphis opened up to an early 12-7 lead over the Shockers at the under-16 media timeout. However, the Shockers would continue applying pressure on the Tigers before taking a 40-35 lead at the break. With that Wichita State lead at the half came a glaring rebounding difference: the Shockers outrebounded the Tigers 31-16 at the break, showing a lack of effort on Memphis’s part. You can tell a lot about a team by how they rebound and by the made free throws compared to attempts. Both come down to effort, and without effort, both struggle, often leading to lackluster performances. Finding themselves down by 5 points felt like a minor win for the Tigers as they went to the locker room to make adjustments and avoid a 5th straight loss. 

Wichita State would pick up where they left off in the first half as they extended the lead over Memphis to 50-39 at the under-16 media timeout of the second half. Memphis would manage an 8-0 run at the under-12 media timeout of the second half, cutting the Shockers’ lead to 59-56, showing a little fight left in the tank for the Tigers. At the under-8 media timeout, Memphis had cut the lead to one with the Shockers hanging on to a 68-67 lead with 7:57 to play. Despite a valiant comeback effort at the end, Wichita State completes the season sweep of Memphis with an 88-82 victory over the Tigers. 

With the fifth straight loss on Thursday night, the Tigers face a harsh truth: without drastic internal changes, the season will end in Birmingham in two weeks. No postseason play, not even the CBI or NIT, it’ll be over all because the guys on the roster refused to mesh together as one, and a lifetime of regret will soon then follow, of what could have been this season. As far as the coaching staff goes, difficult decisions will be made in a couple of weeks, with no easy answers anywhere. Coach Hardaway is about as Memphis as it comes, he loves the university, does a lot for the city, and is a Memphis man through and through, but the truth is, not only has this season been a disater but attendance at games is non-existent. In eight seasons, Memphis has one NCAA Tournament win and only two conference tournament championships. That alone is simply not good enough, and Dr. Ed Scott will have to make a tough decision about the future of Memphis basketball. 

With that said, nobody has ever accused Coach Hardaway of not caring or even loving Memphis, but this program is not heading in a good direction. If change doesn’t happen, then hiring a GM to help run the day-to-day is one of the most important moves of the offseason for Tigers basketball. Again, when you’re a top program like Memphis, basketball is a business, and sometimes business decisions have to be made. Factually speaking, fan attendance is at its lowest level ever, and the program has seen only one NCAA Tournament win since Coach Hardaway took over, plus only two conference tournament wins; that alone is not the Memphis standard. If Coach Penny Hardaway is the coach next year, then hiring a respected GM and working all off-season on fan support will need to be at the forefront. You can’t blame the fans either; this team has lost five straight games, and unlike in normal Memphis basketball years, the hope of a late-March run is almost nonexistent. 

All things considered, Memphis did show better effort in the second half, but as we see in college basketball, all the effort went into making a comeback, leaving little fuel to complete the task. It’s been the story all season, but if Memphis could manage to put together a full forty minutes instead of little runs here and there, then the Tigers could be a hard out in the conference tournament. It all starts with the guys on the roster, they’ve got to come to terms with a loss in Birmingham and the season is over and for some, their basketball careers as well, with East Carolina on the horizon the time for excuses are no more, it’s time to play for the front of the jersey while going to war with your brothers. There’s still hope for this team, but it all starts on Sunday with a road game at East Carolina. Win that one, then shift the focus to South Florida on Thursday night, before heading to Tulane to close out the regular season. It’s all right there for the taking, and the legacy of this team will be determined by what happens over the next few months. 

Memphis will now hit the road as they head to North Carolina to take on the East Carolina Pirates on Sunday. 

Photo Credits- Memphis basketball on X