Memphis basketball takes a leap in AP Top 25 on Christmas.

The Tigers rose substantially in the AP Top 25 after their 2-0 week, including a 77-54 shellacking of Virginia last Tuesday.

Memphis is now the No. 19 team in the country, jumping up four spots from last week’s rankings. It’s also No. 38 in the NCAA NET rankings and No. 32 in KenPom as of Monday morning.

NCAA correspondent Andy Katz ranks the Tigers No. 8 in his latest Power 36 rankings. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein has them at No. 12 in his top 45. And Gary Parrish slotted Memphis at No. 9 in Sunday’s CBS Sports Top 25 and 1.

The Tigers own seven wins against Quad 1 and 2 opponents, tied for most in the country with Purdue, and five wins against top-70 KenPom teams. Bracketologists Jerry Palm (CBS) and Joe Lunardi (ESPN) project Memphis as a No. 4 and 5 seed respectively in the 2024 NCAA Tournament based off its current resume.

Memphis (10-2) won an unexpectedly tough battle with Vanderbilt in its most recent outing Saturday, 77-75. It shot 38% from the field and 36% from 3-point range. The Tigers also made 74% of their free throws and turned the ball over just nine times. Defensively, they forced 17 Vanderbilt turnovers, including 10 steals, and blocked five shots while scoring 18 points off said turnovers.

Vanderbilt shot 43% from the field and 38% from the perimeter. The Commodores also outrebounded the Tigers 39-36, including 10 offensive rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse’s group led for just over half the 40-minute contest at 20:34, and racked up 12 assists, 7 blocks and 5 steals.

After trailing the Commodores for most of the afternoon, the Tigers went on a 12-0 run in the second half that propelled them to victory. Vanderbilt tried its best to take back control after that, but ultimately failed after Memphis finished it off with several trips to the free throw line. Commodores leading scorer Ezra Manjon also missed what would’ve been a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Memphis may have had an underwhelming performance against Vandy, but that wasn’t what defined Saturday for head coach Penny Hardaway. The Tigers dealt with a variety of challenges in their last game before Christmas—including fatigue, illness, injury and the insertion of Kansas State transfer Nae’Qwan Tomlin in their rotation. Combine that with the grueling schedule Memphis has faced thus far, and you get a very worn down basketball team.

“The guys are tired,” Hardaway said postgame. “We’ve been rolling. There hasn’t been any rest for the weary. We’ve had a couple weeks off, but we’ve prepared very hard those weeks for those [non-conference] teams because we knew we needed to beat them…At the end of this schedule—right before Christmas—guys are just tired.”

Katz named Tigers leading scorer David Jones his Player of the Week for his outputs against Virginia and Vanderbilt.

Jones led the Tigers to victory in the latter affair with 28 points and 9 rebounds while shooting 50% from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point range. This was the sixth 20-point game in a row for the St. John’s transfer, but his performance Saturday was particularly courageous for reasons beyond his on-court play.

“David Jones missed three days in a row of practice because he’s really sick,” Hardaway said. “He was supposed to take a flight [home] today, but he’s not going on the flight. Probably gotta get a couple IVs. He and Caleb [Mills] have both been extremely sick…Both of those guys got IV two days in a row, and I think David Jones is getting it right now. [I] don’t know what bug that is or what’s going on.”

Wing Jaykwon Walton started against Vanderbilt despite suffering a foot injury Tuesday versus Virginia. Walton, who scored 4 points while shooting 2-of-10 from the field and 0-of-6 from beyond the arc Saturday, spent most of last week in a walking boot.

“I thought Jaykwon was probably at 80% today,” Hardaway said. “He was limping so badly yesterday. I don’t even know how he played. I don’t know what happened, [or] how he got out there…I know he was feeling that pain.”

No. 19 Memphis, which Hardaway says returns from Christmas break Wednesday, hosts Austin Peay to finish its non-conference slate next Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN+) before beginning American Athletic Conference play at Tulsa on Jan. 4.