Despite its No. 19 ranking, Memphis began the week with plenty of things to work on, leaving coach Penny Hardaway thankful to have extra practice days.East Carolina, which will visit Memphis for an American Athletic Conference matchup on Saturday afternoon, is coming off a hard-fought win on Wednesday. The Tigers, in turn, have not played since slipping past North Texas on Sunday.In their preseason poll, conference coaches voted Memphis (12-3, 2-0) to finish second, and although the Tigers routed Florida Atlantic on Jan. 2, North Texas proved a tougher challenge.The Mean Green outrebounded Memphis 30-21, including 12-4 on offense, and never trailed by more than seven points before losing 68-64.Florida Atlantic and North Texas were viewed as middle-of-the-pack teams in the conference, so Hardaway viewed those games as learning experiences for a team with a target on its back due to its ranking.”The (Florida Atlantic) game wasn’t a true test of what our conference is all about, because we got off to a great start and blew out a really good team. Then we came home and played a really good team, so they know it’s not going to be easy, because when you have to win games, it makes it way tougher,” Hardaway said.PJ Haggerty leads the Tigers in scoring with an average of 22.2 points per game this season and netted 27 against North Texas. Big man Dain Dainja, a transfer from Illinois, added 14 points but also was responsible for seven of Memphis’ 15 turnovers. The Tigers are averaging 14.5 turnovers a game.”North Texas showed these guys what we have to (work on),” Hardaway said. “I already understood, but it gave me a chance to coach these guys in a different way this week as well because of what North Texas did to us.”East Carolina’s victory in the team’s most recent game was a relief in a different way.
With work to do, No. 19 Memphis takes on East Carolina
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