Memphis basketball fell under the radar at TPC Southwind, but is determined to shine at FedExForum this season.

The stars are out at this year’s FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and the other 67 best golfers in the world hold all of Memphis’ attention this weekend. Thousands of 901 natives enthusiastically navigate through TPC Southwind in Saturday’s 93-degree heat to see who will take home the $3.6 million winner’s purse.

But in the midst of the chaos and pageantry that comes with Memphis’ most famous annual sporting event—at The Bluff on hole No. 14, to be exact—sat a Tigers basketball team with so much to prove this winter. Five players from Penny Hardaway’s club, which welcomes eight new scholarship pieces via the transfer portal, participated in a fan meet-and-greet event during Saturday’s action.

Visits and autograph signings were few and far between, however, so the players spent most of their time eating lunch from the nearby burger stand. This kind of apathy towards Memphis basketball is unusual, but perhaps justified because of the way it performed last season.

After starting the 2023-24 campaign with a 15-2 record and a No. 10 ranking in the AP Top 25, the Tigers went just 7-8 in their final 15 games—most of it against lowly American Athletic Conference (AAC) competition—and got utterly embarrassed by Wichita State in the second round of the AAC Tournament.

Colby Rogers, who transferred to Memphis this offseason, led WSU with 16.4 points per game while shooting 40.9% from 3-point range (7.1 attempts per contest) last year. He also scored 13 points in the Shockers’ 71-65 victory over Memphis that ended the Tigers’ March Madness hopes, but he now hopes to help Memphis win its bid for revenge in 2024-25.

“I think it’s just [about] the willingness to win. With this group of guys, it doesn’t really matter who gets the most points or who is the forefront…We’re not a selfish team,” Rogers said. “I think that’ll be the biggest difference from last year to this year. Talent wise, you can argue it’s the same. But if you watched Memphis basketball last year, you could tell there were rifts between the team. They just all weren’t on the same accord.”

Despite the upset win over Memphis and Rogers’ individual success, Wichita State was also quite the failure last year. The Shockers finished the campaign slotted outside of the top-150 in both KenPom and the NCAA NET rankings with just 15 wins.

PJ Haggerty, a sophomore transfer from Tulsa, is also no stranger to losing. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 21.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists last season, which helped him earn AAC Freshman of the Year award. But the Golden Hurricane left 2023-24 with only 16 victories after bowing out to East Carolina in their AAC Tournament opener, where Haggerty recorded 29 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds.

The Crosby, Texas native also shot an abysmal 28.9% from 3-point range for the season thanks to fracture in his right hand, but Haggerty told reporters Saturday that the hand feels fine now.

Tyrese Hunter, who comes to Memphis from Texas, has been a consummate winner throughout his college career. The 6-foot guard has made three NCAA Tournaments in just as many seasons, and boasts a 6-3 overall record in the Big Dance. Known for his electric style of play, Hunter put up 11.1 points and 4.1 assists per game last season. He also won the Big 12 Freshman of the Year award at Iowa State in 2021-22.

But Hunter (1.3 steals per contest in 2023-24) truly hangs his hat on defense, which is good news for a Memphis team that ranked No. 104 in adjusted defensive efficiency according to KenPom—the lowest mark of Hardaway’s tenure.

“I feel like defense comes down to a lot of effort. I put a lot of effort into it. That’s been one of the primary things that people can say about me. I’m a defender first,” Hunter said.

Many fans and critics alike claim Hardaway’s seventh season is his most important yet, with most going as far to say it’s NCAA Tournament or bust for Memphis basketball this year. The Tigers—currently ranked No. 25 on barttorvik.com—seemingly have what it takes on paper to have a bounce-back campaign. But nothing is guaranteed after last season’s disastrous conclusion.

After all, Memphis has only one returning scholarship player (Nick Jourdain) and three players with March Madness experience (Hunter, Illinois transfer Dain Dainja and SMU transfer Tyreek Smith).

The Tigers, however, see things a little differently. They might be one of the greenest teams in college basketball, but they’re holding themselves to the standard of a well-oiled machine.

They’ve publicly spewed their aspirations of a Final Four appearance every chance they’ve gotten this summer. And even on a golf course filled with world champions everywhere you look, Memphis isn’t shying away.

“Just practicing in the summer, getting to know what everybody’s good at, I feel like that was just what we got in mind. We all came together as a team, and that’s what we all wanna experience. Nobody on the team has ever been to the Final Four,” Haggerty said. “Experiencing that with this group of guys and the coaching staff. That’s just what we wanna do.”