The Tigers Return Home to face Texas A&M

Coming off of back-to-back games away from home against Auburn and Alabama over the past week, the Memphis Tigers return home to finalize the SEC portion of their non-conference schedule against Texas A&M. The Aggies will be the fifth SEC opponent the Tigers have faced in the non-conference slate, going 3-1 in the first four games. This also marks the fourth consecutive game against an SEC opponent.

The Aggies are 6-3 on the season with losses to Murray State, Colorado and Boise State. Texas A&M has only played one true away game and that was a win at DePaul on November 25. According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, the Tigers have a 63.4 percent chance to win.

Texas A&M is led by sophomore point guard Wade Taylor IV. The former four-star prospect is leading the Aggies in scoring averaging 14.4 on 41% shooting overall and 36% shooting from three. Overall, the Aggies have three players averaging double figures in scoring with guard Tyrece Radford and forward Henry Coleman III joining Taylor IV with 11.8 PPG and 10.3 PPG, respectively.

Buzz Williams is in his fourth season coaching the Aggies and is looking to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in his tenure there. This game will present a Quad 1 opportunity for the Aggies to boost their resume against the 26^th KenPom ranked Tigers.

Although the Tigers are favored and have fared well against their tough schedule so far, this game should not be overlooked. As of now, the Tigers only have two Quad 1 opportunities remaining for the rest of this season so they can’t afford to squander too many opportunities to pad their resume in the Quad 2-4 games. This game against A&M will qualify as a Quad 2 opportunity for the Tigers.

Despite losing to Alabama, 91-88, this past Tuesday, the Tigers left that game with high confidence after going toe-to-toe with the No. 4 team in the country. Kendric Davis led the way again with 30 points and 5 assists after scoring 27 points against Auburn last Saturday.

The Alabama game also marked the first time Damaria Franklin was able to play this season. He had a mixed game as expected, but he showed flashes of why Penny Hardaway has raved about him.

Although the Tigers are not built to be a great three-point shooting team, they have to make more than one three in a game. Also, cleaning up the unnecessary fouls will help this team moving forward as well. If they do a little bit better in those two categories, it will be hard the Tigers to not only lose this game but not lose many games the rest of this season.

GAME DETAILS

Memphis (8-3) vs. Texas A&M (6-3)

Saturday, December 17 at 6 p.m. CST

FedExForum – Memphis, Tennessee

Television:  ESPNU

Radio:  WKIM 98.9 FM