Memphis Tigers women’s basketball gears up for conference play

In her second season as head coach of the Memphis Tigers women’s basketball team, Katrina Merriweather continues to keep the Lady Tigers on an upward trajectory. After five consecutive losing seasons, Katrina Merriweather has the Tigers on pace to have back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons when they were in the Conference USA.

The Tigers received a huge boost this off-season when fifth-year senior guard and Preseason All-AAC Second Team selection Jamirah Shutes decided to return for her final year. Shutes leads the Tigers with a career high 15.7 points per game and has been the leading scorer for the team for four of her five seasons. 

Following a 16-12 record in her first season coaching, coach Katrina Merriweather decided to beef up the non-conference schedule to help the Tigers prepare for AAC play. They were predicted to finish fifth in the AAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll. 

The Tigers had a streaky non-conference slate as they had a four-game winning streak along with a separate three-game winning streak while also sporting a three-game losing streak. Considering the three-game losing streak all came against teams that are still undefeated at 12-0, the Tigers fared well in this gauntlet.

After losing to a now 10-2 Columbia team at home to open the season, the Tigers won the above-mentioned four games in a row including back-to-back road wins in the Las Vegas Invitational holiday tournament. The Tigers then lost back-to-back hard-fought games to St. John’s and No. 6 Indiana before traveling to Columbia, South Carolina to take on and eventually lose to No. 1 and defending national champion South Carolina.

A key takeaway from that three-game stretch that saw the Tigers play two current top five opponents (Indiana is currently No. 4) is they didn’t shy away from the competition and remained competitive throughout the games. St. John’s defeated Memphis 61-57 and outscored them by eight points in the second quarter, while Indiana defeated them 79-64 and outscored the Tigers by 18 points in the second quarter.

South Carolina outscored the Tigers by 13 points in the first quarter en route to their 79-54 victory. Following the loss, Merriweather stated on Grind City Media’s Rise and Grind that the South Carolina staff said the Tigers were the most physical and aggressive team they had played this season. That’s very high praise considering that was a true road game against the defending national champions.

The Tigers then returned home after five games away from Elma Roane Fieldhouse to defeat North Carolina Central before losing to a now 10-2 Middle Tennessee State team. Currently, the Tigers are on a three-game winning streak as they prepare to travel to Philadelphia to play Temple to open up AAC play Friday.

Finishing 8-5 with that tough non-conference schedule bolds well for the Tigers as they look to compete in the AAC this season. Their five losses came to teams with a combined 54-4 record, and they were very competitive in those contests. With the early season tests, Memphis has a very good chance to be one of the better teams in the conference this season.