Memphis basketball is playing down to competition too often. Tyrese Hunter is sick of it.

Tyrese Hunter is sick and tired.

Sick and tired of the nail-biters. Sick and tired of playing down to lesser opponents. Sick and tired of No. 19 Memphis consistently falling short of its standard.

He and the Tigers narrowly defeated East Carolina 74-70 inside a snow-topped FedExForum Saturday afternoon. The Pirates never led throughout the contest, though they did tie the game with just over a minute left to play. Hunter and PJ Haggerty (who had a game-high 25 points) then scored 4 straight points to pull Memphis ahead for good.

But ECU ranked No. 203 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) before tipoff, meaning the Tigers were oh-so-close to taking a Quad 4 loss after leading by as many as 18 points. Hunter, who’s 6-3 in NCAA Tournament games, is well aware of how much even one of those can hurt a tourney resume.

That’s at least one reason he’s so frustrated. Whether it’s against Louisiana Tech, Arkansas State (which beat Memphis), North Texas, East Carolina or any future opponent on Memphis’ American Athletic Conference (AAC) schedule, he knows the Tigers must stop teetering on the edge of embarrassment moving forward.

“[We keep] falling back into that hole of letting up [and] getting comfortable coming out in the second half. We just gotta keep putting our foot on, and not letting up,” Hunter, who totaled 14 points and 4 rebounds, told reporters postgame. “I think it’s frustrating for us as players, because we know what that can lead to. Whether it’s them coming back, tying the game, we gotta fight extra hard throughout the whole game.”

Memphis led 11-2 to start Saturday’s game, and later used a 16-0 run to move ahead by double digits for most of the first half. The Tigers led 38-24 at halftime.

East Carolina largely dominated the second half, however, thanks to two 7-0 runs in less than seven minutes. The Pirates forced 10 turnovers in the final period, and 16 for the game. Twenty-four of their points came from those giveaways.

This is the 15th time Memphis has committed double-digit turnovers in 16 games this season. So, the Tigers recklessly losing possessions is far beyond a trend at this point. It’s simply a formality. Coach Penny Hardaway knows exactly why too—foolish passes, unforced errors and lackadaisical mistakes.

“I’m seeing this every game now where we just get so, ‘one more dribble,’ when we should pick the ball up and pass it. We work on it all the time, but you gotta understand most of these young men were the focal point and the man on their respective teams [last year],” Hardaway said. “So, instead of making that one less dribble and passing the ball, they’re gonna take one more dribble and shoot [like] on their old teams. We have to figure it out. We’re winning ugly, and I’d rather win ugly than lose ugly.”

“Winning ugly” is what eventually led to the Tigers’ downfall a year ago, though. Memphis started last season 15-2 and climbed up to No. 10 in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25, but it dodged multiple scares to do so. Memphis won ugly against the likes of Vanderbilt, Austin Peay, Tulsa and UTSA, but those ugly wins later turned into disgusting losses to Rice, Tulane, Wichita State and many others.

What started the collapse, however, was the Tigers’ home loss to South Florida on Jan. 18, 2024, which parallels this year’s ECU game in several areas. Both contests were played right after a snowstorm befell the 901. Memphis also blew a 20-point lead to USF that night, just like it relinquished an 18-point lead to East Carolina. The only true difference is the Tigers actually defeated the Pirates.

That USF game began a stretch that saw Memphis finish 7-8 in its last 15 games, and ultimately miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2020-21. That includes the Tigers’ aforementioned Quad 4 loss to Rice on Jan. 31, 2024, which shares the same game-day theme with Saturday—Kid’s Day.

Hardaway admits he’s having some flashbacks to that horrid campaign, but he isn’t deterred by them. He already said he doesn’t believe in déjà vu after the Tigers’ loss to Arkansas State last month, and it doesn’t appear he’ll start believing now.

“The mindset, the coaching staff, everybody’s different. This isn’t like, ‘One game will send us in a tailspin,’ because these guys really love each other and enjoy being around each other. They’re so close, that they’re gonna figure out a way to work through it. Last year’s group wasn’t really close,” Hardaway said. “They wanna fix things. They don’t wanna stay where they are. They’ll be upset a little bit about this game, even though we got the victory. And they’ll be ready to go, because they’re talking about it in the huddles. We just have to do it as a group, and keep getting the five guys on the floor that are gonna be able to correct it.”

The Tigers (13-3, 3-0 AAC) visit Temple on Thursday (6 p.m., ESPN2).