Tigers Recap: Silverfield & staff continue recruiting success, basketball narrowly misses AP Top 25

Over the weekend, Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield and the staff reeled in two more commitments. On Sunday, the Tigers received pledges from three-star Chisholm Trail offensive lineman Darion Reed and FCS Freshman All-American linebacker Chandler Martin from East Tennessee State.

Reed was formerly committed to North Texas, and he has very good size at 6-foot-6 and 280 pounds. With the addition of the offensive lineman, Memphis’s 2023 class is now No. 52 overall on 247Sports and No. 50 overall on Rivals.

In his redshirt freshman season at East Tennessee State, Martin finished with 94 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks and was named First Team All-SoCon. Since entering the portal, Martin has received offers from Arkansas State, Buffalo, Liberty and SMU among others.

Following the commitment of Martin, Memphis has now landed two transfers since the portal officially opened. Last week, the Tigers landed former Kentucky and Georgia Tech offensive lineman RJ Adams. Coming out of high school, Adams was ranked as the No. 23 overall guard in the 2020 class.

TIGER BASKETBALL

On Monday, the updated Associated Press Top 25 came out and Memphis barely missed the cut. Miami was the final team ranked, and Memphis had the most votes (74) of teams on the outside looking in. There was some expectation for the Tigers to make it in after defeating Auburn over the weekend, but they’ll have to string together more wins to be among the top 25.

With that being said, Penny Hardaway and the Tigers will have an opportunity for another statement win on Tuesday night. Memphis will match up with No. 4 Alabama, and it was announced on Monday afternoon that UIC transfer Damaria Franklin has been cleared to play.

In other news, Memphis guard Kendric Davis was named American Athletic Conference Player of the Week on Monday. In games against Little Rock and Auburn, Davis averaged 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, five assists and two steals per game. Davis saved his best game for Auburn as he had 27 points, nine rebounds and six assists in the massive win.