Memphis basketball got over its losing hump Saturday afternoon. Penny Hardaway thinks it’s now primed to take off—for good this time.

Memphis basketball has gotten the seemingly unliftable weight off its shoulders. It’s ripped the losing monkey off its back.

The Tigers went through nearly every trial and tribulation one could think of throughout the past two weeks, but that’s now in the past. Memphis (16-6, 5-4 AAC) is a winner once again after David Jones’ dagger propelled it to a 65-63 victory over Wichita State Saturday afternoon.

“The guys are relieved. I’m sure they felt a ton of pressure. It’s not easy. That’s like polar opposites—to go from [winning] 10 in a row to losing four in a row. And in the fashion that we lost those games, there was no team chemistry. There was no intensity. There was no energy at all in those four losses, and we still barely lost three out of those four,” Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said Saturday.

Is Hardaway’s team still on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble? Probably.

Does it still have a significant hill to climb? Most definitely.

But he doesn’t think that hill is nearly as steep after the way the Tigers performed against the Shockers. They weren’t perfect by any means. Their 12 turnovers and near four-minute long scoring drought in the second half suggest as much, but there were still some positives to take away.

Memphis’ chemistry and effort looked significantly improved throughout the afternoon. Its defense held Wichita State to 36% shooting and 63 points despite forcing just 5 turnovers. And when it mattered most, Hardaway’s club came through and sealed a win that likely keeps its NCAA Tournament at-large bid hopes alive.

Memphis may not be No. 10 in the AP Top 25 anymore. It may not even be safely in the tournament anymore, but it was good enough to beat Wichita State. And perhaps that’s what the Tigers needed to be to find themselves again. Hardaway certainly believes so.

“All we were looking for was one win. Just one win to get us over the hump,” he said. “I think that what [the players] are saying in [the locker room] is like, ‘It’s time.’ They really bonded together in the huddle. Usually huddles are all kinda crazy on our team. There’s all kinda stuff going on in our huddles. But this huddle was [them] looking at each other in the eyes saying, ‘Don’t quit. Keep fighting.'”

But the sixth-year coach won’t just forget how the Tigers got to their precarious position in the first place. He won’t wipe the lackadaisical effort, lackluster defense and subpar team chemistry displayed during Memphis’ losing streak from his memory. Rather, he wants what his team did Saturday to be the standard of what to do moving forward.

“We only activate when we get down…Everything we’ve been asking for in this four-game losing streak, they did it the last eight minutes of the game today,” Hardaway said. “We’re very capable. It just can’t be optional. It has to be mandatory every single time…I’ll go ‘Wow, why can’t we do this the entire game?’ That’s who we were early on, and we haven’t been able to regain that since Caleb [Mills] got hurt.”

It’s not just Hardaway who feels the magnitude of what took place Saturday. His players understand it too, including point guard Jahvon Quinerly.

The 6-foot-1 Alabama transfer didn’t have his best game against Wichita State. In fact, he may have had his worst. Though he recorded 8 assists and 6 rebounds, he also shot 0-12 from the field and 0-of-3 from 3-point range in his first 32 minutes of action. But the ever-clutch Quinerly made his one and only field goal with 44 seconds left—a 3-pointer that gave Memphis a 63-62 lead. He wasn’t at his best versus the Shockers, but he was good enough when it mattered.

It’s rare for someone to make that clutch of a shot after missing his first 12. But that’s part of what makes Quinerly a different breed. He doesn’t let his shortcomings faze him. In fact, they oftentimes fuel him.

Saturday was no different, because Memphis couldn’t afford it to be. Quinerly knew what the Tigers were fighting for against Wichita, and he also knew how much it meant—not just to his team, but to all of Memphis.

“You can tell that this is a basketball city. That’s something I personally missed going to Alabama,” Quinerly said Saturday. “I think the guys know that too. We’re fighting to keep this thing alive for sure.”

The man who put Memphis over the edge, however, is the man who’s done it all season. Jones, who’s the No. 6 scorer in Division I, put on another offensive clinic in the second half. With the Tigers down by 14 points with 7:55 to go, the St. John’s transfer started the their comeback with two made free throws.

After Memphis cut Wichita’s lead to 58-49, Jones went on a 9-0 run by hitting back-to-back 3-pointers followed by an old-fashioned 3-point play to tie the game with 2:23 left. The score remained knotted at 63 apiece with 16 seconds to play, and Memphis had the ball.

Quinerly had his shining moments against Tulsa and SMU last month. Jones decided it was his turn Saturday. The 6-foot-6 wing nailed a pullup jumper in the final two seconds to put the Tigers’ four-game skid to rest.

“[Jones] was very special,” Hardaway said. “That’s just David. You gotta know David. He made it be about David mostly. But he’s like a son to me, so I can say that.”