RECAP: No. 23 Memphis earns another quality win over No. 22 Virginia

Memphis basketball’s non-conference gauntlet is over—for the most part—and the Tigers came out relatively unscathed.

No. 23 Memphis (9-2) demolished No. 22 Virginia (9-2) Tuesday night, 77-54, in what was the first top-25 matchup inside FedExForum since 2014. This is the Tigers’ third Quad 1 win in just as many games. Penny Hardaway’s team defeated Texas A&M in College Station and No. 18 Clemson at FedExForum in its last two outings before tonight. It also owns victories over Arkansas and Michigan, two other top-55 KenPom opponents. Perhaps No. 23 is still too low for this team.

Memphis shot 47% from the field and 39% from 3-point range for the game. It also racked up 18 forced turnovers, 15 steals, 12 assists and 2 blocks. The Tigers led from wire-to-wire.

Virginia, meanwhile, shot 39% on its field goal attempts and 21% on its 3-point attempts. Just six players scored for the Cavaliers, who drew even on the rebounding battle with Memphis 32-32. UVA also shot just 60% from the free throw line and allowed 26 points off its turnovers.

The Tigers—now 6-2 against power conference foes—next host Vanderbilt on Saturday (3 p.m., CBS). Here are some takeaways from Memphis’ fourth win against an (at the time) AP Top 25 opponent.

David Jones scored at will. Hardly any other Tigers scored at all—at least in the first half.

Jones is truly an enigma at this point.

The St. John’s transfer can make nearly any shot. He oftentimes creates something out of nothing.

A step-back 3-pointer? He’s got that.

A mid-range jumper with two defenders on both sides of him? That’s somehow even less trouble. And he of course makes all the easy stuff too.

Jones continued to cause both ooh’s and ah’s in the first half with 16 points, 4 rebounds and a blocked shot while shooting 5-of-7 from the field and 2-of-2 from 3-point range. He did all that in just 13 minutes, by the way.

But the first half was something of a struggle for nearly everyone else. Caleb Mills scored just 6 points. Jahvon Quinerly scored 3. Jaykwon Walton, who replaced Ashton Hardaway in the starting lineup, racked up 4. Jones subbed out twice in the opening period, and UVA went on 6-2 and and 6-0 runs in both instances.

Jones scored 10 more points in the second half, finishing the game with 26 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Other Tigers stepped up too in the game’s final 20 minutes. Malcolm Dandridge and Quinerly both finished with 9 points. Mills ended up with 11 points.

A dominant start and ending

The opening moments of this game were like a dream come true for Memphians.

Walton scored a bucket 26 seconds after the ball tipped off. Jones made a 3-pointer half a minute later. The Domincan Republic native then scored again after a UVA turnover. It was suddenly 7-0 less than 2 minutes in, but the Tigers didn’t stop there. Quinerly and Ashton Hardaway made back-to-back perimeter bombs to push the lead to 13-1 before the first media timout.

Virginia was sped up and overwhelmed. And Memphis—for a few minutes—seemed destined to put on a clinic and a half against the Cavaliers. Tony Bennett pulled his team together, however, and Virginia outscored Memphis 31-25 for the rest of the first half. Memphis led 38-32 at the break.

But Hardaway’s team then made its own adjustments. And Virginia was more or less finished once the second half began. The Tigers started the game’s final period with a 26-12 run in less than 12 minutes, including a 13-0 push in less than five minutes, to extend their lead to 64-44 with 8:54 left to play.

Memphis then cruised to victory from there.

How much better can this team be with Nae’Qwan Tomlin?

Memphis officially announced the signing of the Kansas State transfer last week.

Tomlin can now practice with the team and be on the bench during games, but he cannot play until KSU processes his graduation. The 6-foot-10 center committed to the Tigers last week after being dismissed by Kansas State’s administration and subsequently entering the transfer portal earlier this month.

He had previously been suspended since late October, when he got arrested after a physical altercation at a sports bar in Manhattan, Kansas. He was later granted diversion in the case, per The Topeka Capital-Journal.

Tomlin comes off a productive year in Jerome Tang’s program last season. The 23-year-old averaged 10.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game for the Wildcats while shooting 50% from the field in 2022-23. He was also a key contributor in Kansas State’s run to the Elite Eight, averaging 12.5 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks in last season’s NCAA Tournament. Tomlin started all 36 games for the Wildcats last year.

Memphis—having lost Louisiana transfer Jordan Brown earlier this month—could still use another big man. But adding one of Tomlin’s caliber is borderline unfair for a team already playing at this level.

The Tigers are a great team now, but who knows how much better they can get once Tomlin is eligible to play.