Why Penny Hardaway is concerned after Memphis’ uninspiring win over Wichita State

Tyrese Hunter’s filter disappeared when he first saw the box score of Memphis basketball’s 61-53 victory over Wichita State.

“Six assists, 20 turnovers? Goddamn,” he said.

Fourteen of the 20 turnovers Hunter refers to happened in the first half Thursday night. Weak ball security isn’t anything new for Memphis, which averages 14.4 giveaways per game. But reaching that average in one half is undoubtedly frustrating for the No. 24 team in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25—even if the Tigers outscored WSU 38-26 and went down to just 6 turnovers after halftime.

Memphis coach Penny Hardaway is probably more irritated than anyone. The seventh-year headman has spent weeks trying to drill better decision-making into his players’ heads. Whether it be Indian runs, 17s or pushups, Hardaway is putting Memphis through whatever it takes to show that lost possessions are no longer an option.

The Tigers’ showing against Wichita boils his blood that much more.

“It’s always pissing me off. It’s my team. It’s a reflection of me,” Hardaway told reporters postgame. “It’s just getting embarrassing right now, just being so casual with the basketball.”

Hardaway’s right in the sense that many of Memphis’ turnovers are self-inflicted.

PJ Haggerty, who scored a game-high 22 points, logged 5 giveaways that mostly came from over-zealous choices. Same thing with Hunter, who racked up 16 points and 4 turnovers. Dain Dainja, a 6-foot-9 center, committed one of his 5 turnovers while dribbling the ball up the court as a point guard typically would. Moussa Cisse walked on back-to-back possessions. Both of Nick Jourdain’s turnovers were simply bad passes, including one that went straight over Hunter’s head in the first half.

The Tigers ultimately finished the game with 8 bad-pass turnovers, 5 lost-balls and 4 travels, according to StatBroadcast.

“I think it’s just bad habits. They just still have what they had at the teams that they were previously at, how they played the game. Everything that we teach sometimes goes out the window,” Hardaway said. “We know fundamentally what we need to do. Some guys just still have bad habits.”

Memphis (15-4, 5-1 AAC) narrowly avoided what would’ve been a Quad 3 loss to Wichita State, which ranked No. 158 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) before tipoff. The Tigers’ struggles against inferior competition isn’t a new trend either, since they own three other single-digit victories over North Texas, East Carolina and Charlotte this month. The latter two rank outside the top 175 in the NET.

Memphis also lost at Temple last week after allowing 49 rebounds compared to its 25. Twenty-two of the Owls’ boards came from the offensive glass—nearly matching the Tigers’ total rebounding on that end alone.

Hardaway claimed he wasn’t worried about Memphis’ stability after each of those games, even though it’s down to the 40s in advanced metrics like KenPom, the NET and Bart Torvik. Memphis ranked 28th, 32nd and 37th in the respective computers before its 4-point win over East Carolina on Jan. 11.

The Tigers’ ugly showing against WSU, however, is his last straw. Hardaway, who concluded that he’s been coaching Memphis “the wrong way” during his postgame radio interview with Tigers play-by-play man Dave Woloshin, is finally starting to feel a bit weary.

“It’s a concern now, because we went into the game today to be smarter. Some of those passes were awful…That was very embarrassing,” he said. “We definitely have to change that. It’s now—the concern is there.”

Concern isn’t necessarily a bad thing in Hardaway’s eyes, though. It’s not like he’s turning a new leaf on a team that’s earned 10 combined wins in Quads 1 and 2. Memphis still has all its goals in front of it, such as making the NCAA Tournament or winning the American Athletic Conference (AAC) regular-season title.

The Tigers don’t need style points to achieve those things. They simply need to win, as they did Thursday.

“As long you win those games…I’m not gonna look at anything as a negative,” Hardaway said. “This game is gonna help us.”

Hunter, who’s won six NCAA Tournament games in his career, has a brighter outlook too. He’ll take any win Memphis can learn from.

“I think it’s good that we’re learning out of a win. You don’t wanna learn out of an L, just moping around, whatever. Especially with our situation,” he said. “I think it’s a positive for us.”

Memphis hosts UAB on Sunday (noon, ESPN2).