Top Players<\/strong><\/p>\nJoe Jackson – One of the quickest players in the nation is becoming a better floor leader as he matures.
\nChris Crawford – The versatile two guard could easily bust out now that Barton has moved on to the NBA.
\nTarik Black – His big body on the block can be tough to handle when he is playing at his best. \u00a0He has only shown flashes in the past
\nAdonis Thomas – Huge upside for the sophomore who looks like an NBA prospect.<\/p>\n
All the preseason reports are that this is a team to keep a close eye on. \u00a0They are very athletic and play hard nosed defense with enough scoring to beat most any team in the nation.<\/p>\n
It seems like the question with Memphis is always whether they will live up to their promise. \u00a0This was true when coach Cal was there but maybe even more so with Josh Pastner at the helm. \u00a0Pastner is a young coach and no matter what anyone says I think the jury is still out on whether he can handle a big time program like Memphis where the expectations are high. \u00a0I think this is the year that winning puts some of those questions to bed. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n
Strengths<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen most people think of Memphis basketball I think they envision a freelancing undisciplined style. \u00a0With the talent they have they can certainly get away with that sometimes but this is a team that also plays hard nosed defense (63ppg against last year), shoots well (49% – 6th in the nation) and makes it free throws (71%). \u00a0That combination and improvement amongst key contributors could lead to even more success in the future.<\/p>\n
Weaknesses<\/strong><\/p>\nMemphis might struggle this year if they have to play a team that has some real effective size and length up front. \u00a0They have some thick bodies on the roster but no one measures over 6\u20198\u201d. \u00a0It might not affect them too much in Conference USA but when it matters most they might struggle with a guy like Cody Zeller or the other top big men across the country.<\/p>\n
Top Games<\/strong><\/p>\nNov. 22 – The Tigers will visit one of the recent darlings of the tournament VCU. \u00a0It should be a good barometer for both teams.
\nDec 15 – A game against Louisville will be a huge one, especially if the Tigers win. \u00a0Look for a close defensive battle.
\nFeb 26 \u00a0– A late trip to Xavier will help the Tigers polish up their tournament resume.<\/p>\n
Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\nMemphis should cruise through Conference USA. \u00a0Most mags have three Tigers on the all conference team and they should be able to out talent the rest of the league. \u00a0As for March this is a tough team to read. \u00a0They might rack up a great regular season record and be flying high when the music starts playing. \u00a0If they can beat Louisville then this will definitely be a team to be reckoned with. \u00a0I think Sweet Sixteen but it wouldn\u2019t shock me to see more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memphis Tigers Season Preview \u2013 CBB Handicapping The Memphis Tigers are clearly the class of Conference USA. They are blessed with quite a bit of talent and for the first time in years some experience too as they will likely start a senior, 3 juniors and a sophomore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":24852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[39626,56882,6250,4207,4633,3993,2551,3099,56889,4785,21162,1229,11523,11524],"class_list":["post-56677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-39626","tag-2012-college-basketball-gambling","tag-cbb-odds","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-college-basketball-picks","tag-conference-usa","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-tigers","tag-memphis-tigers-season-preview","tag-ncaa-basketball-futures","tag-ncaa-basketball-predictions","tag-tigers","tag-tigers-odds","tag-tigers-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56677"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56812,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56677\/revisions\/56812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}