Memphis center Jordan Brown will not play at VCU due to illness.

The Tigers will be without their starting center tonight at VCU (6 p.m., ESPNU).

Jordan Brown is out against the Rams due to an illness, sources confirm to Bluff City Media.

Brown did not travel with the team, and fifth-year senior Malcolm Dandridge will start in his place. Dandridge compiled 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 blocks and perhaps a piece of Ole Miss’ Moussa Cisse’s soul in the Tigers’ 80-77 loss in Oxford last Saturday.

Sources say Memphis didn’t want Brown traveling with the rest of the team as to not get others sick. The Tigers are in the midst of their most important stretch of the season with upcoming matchups at VCU tonight, at No. 21 Texas A&M Sunday, versus Clemson (Dec. 16), versus Virginia (Dec. 19) and versus Vanderbilt (Dec. 23).

Brown, a Louisiana transfer, was expected to be a focal point of head coach Penny Hardaway’s team this season, but has fallen well short of those expectations thus far. The 6-foot-11 center won the Lou Henson Award last season. The award annually recognizes college basketball’s best mid-major player. And the fifth-year senior was very-much worth the honor with his averages of 19.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game in 2022-23.

Brown’s been a shell of that player this season, however. He’s now averaging 6.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 13.4 minutes per game after playing 31.9 minutes per contest last season. Brown almost completely disappeared against Ole Miss last Saturday after picking up two fouls in the first 1:23 of the game and playing just seven minutes total. He finished the game with 2 points and 1 rebound, which simply isn’t good enough given the expectations for him heading into this year’s campaign. Hardaway knows the Tigers need more out of Brown moving forward.

“I gotta trust Jordan more. [Seven] minutes is not enough for a guy of that level,” he said Saturday. “We need him to be a double-double guy, but he can’t do it playing [seven] minutes…I have to do a better job because we have to take advantage of Jordan on the offensive end. And we haven’t done that yet.”

In fact, Hardaway thinks Brown might be the key to unlocking the Tigers’ interior presence offensively.

“I think it’s more on Jordan telling the guards, ‘Hey man, trust me. Get me the ball,’” he said. “[Brown] has to be more vocal.”