The Memphis basketball team needs help.

The Tigers, who dropped out of both national polls Monday, have lost three straight games. The latest was a 97-88 defeat at the hands of UAB that has Memphis (15-5, 4-3 AAC) sitting in sixth place in the conference standings with 11 regular-season games remaining.

Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said Sunday after the loss to the Blazers that he has spent weeks trying to find the right combination of words to get the Tigers to snap out of their funk.

But he isn't the only one trying to get through to the Tigers.

Kendric Davis, an All-American in his only season at Memphis in 2022-23, stopped by the Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center Saturday morning to visit with Hardaway and others before the UAB game. Davis, a member of the Santa Cruz Warriors (the G League affiliate of the Golden State Warriors), is here to play a pair of games against the Memphis Hustle (the Grizzlies' affiliate).

Davis led the Warriors to a win Saturday with 23 points and 14 assists. Before that, though, he made time to huddle up with Jahvon Quinerly. The Tigers' current point guard has been instrumental in the team's success, but he also has struggled recently. During the three-game losing streak, Quinerly has a 1.0 assist-to-turnover ratio (11 assists and 11 turnovers).

Davis said his talk with Quinerly was straightforward.

"I reached out to JQ today (Saturday). Gave him some pointers about what he needs to do to carry this city and carry this team to where it can be," Davis said. "They've got way more talent than us. More talent means more chemistry. And that's on the point guard.

"It might seem like a lot, but that's what's required at that position. I told him great point guards don't lose two in a row. Especially not three. So I'm trusting him to get it done Sunday (against UAB) and take them deep in March."

Quinerly had 12 points (on 4-of-15 shooting, including 2-for-8 beyond the arc) with three rebounds, three assists, four turnovers and two steals in 31 minutes against UAB.

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Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: What Kendric Davis told Jahvon Quinerly to help Memphis basketball