Game Preview: Memphis Tigers vs Cincinnati Bearcats

The Memphis Tigers enter this matchup on a bit of a high note after defeating the Wichita State Shockers at home Thursday night. The Tigers shot a season-high 52.4% from behind the arc. They outrebounded the Shockers by 6 after being outrebounded by a combined 22 rebounds in their two previous games against UCF and Temple.

DeAndre Williams had his best game of the season against the Shockers scoring a season-high 29 points and grabbing a career-high 15 rebounds which resulted in his 5th double-double of the season. Kendric Davis followed up with 20 points and Keonte Kennedy stepped up as the 3rd guy scoring 16 points. Davis and Kennedy combined to shoot 8-11 from three.

Continued contributions from someone outside of Kendric Davis will need to travel on the road for the Tigers to pull off this Quad 2 opportunity in Cincinnati. Shooting somewhat decent from three will help too and the Tigers should have some confidence now after their shooting performance against the Shockers.

The Cincinnati Bearcats are on a bit of a roll themselves as they come into this contest on a 3-game winning streak and looking to work their way into the NCAA Tournament bubble and top of the AAC conference as they are tied for 2nd place with a 5-2 conference record. Memphis has the same amount of losses as Cincinnati but the Bearcats are .5-game up on the Tigers in the AAC standings because they have played one more game.

A familiar face leads the Bearcats in scoring as former Memphis Tiger Landers Nolley II leads a balanced effort with 15.4 points per game. He is receiving help from guards David DeJulius and Mika Admas-Woods and Forward Viktor Lakhin as the Bearcats have four players averaging double-digit points per game.

As with any former Tiger (see Tyler Harris’ performance in the USF game) expect Landers Nolley to enact some form of a revenge game against his former team, especially considering he has scored at least 20 points in 2 of the Bearcats’ last 3 games. He is having a career year shooting the basketball and would love nothing more than to put on his best performance and defeat the Tigers in this matchup.

The Prediction:

The Tigers finally got their first conference road win last Sunday against the Temple Owls in less than stellar fashion but it was a win. Cincinnati is 10-2 at home with their only losses coming against rival Xavier and the No. 1 ranked and AAC-leading Houston Cougars. Memphis will have to bring its best foot forward in this tough road environment and they have the player that lives for this type of game in Kendric Davis. DeAndre Williams will have to continue his good run and a third guy will have to step in to help the Tigers pull off a great opportunity to not only pad the NCAA Tournament resume but move up the conference standings. Considering this has not consistently happened in any road game this season for the Tigers, I won’t bet on it to change due to the quality of the opponent.

Memphis 79, Cincinnati 84

Matchup: Memphis Tigers (14-5, 4-2 in AAC) vs. Cincinnati Bearcats (14-6, 5-2 in AAC)

Date/Time: Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023 / Noon CST

Location: Fifth Third Arena, Cincinnati, OH

TV/Stream/Radio: ESPN 2 / 98.9 THE ROAR OF MEMPHIS