Memphis basketball vs. Tulsa: Will David Jones play? Score prediction, scouting report

jason munz, memphis commercial appeal

Wed, Jan 3, 2024, 12:05 PM·4 min read

Memphis basketball can't expect respect.

Not if the 15th-ranked Tigers (11-2) continue playing like they have the past two games, according to leading scorer David Jones. Penny Hardaway's team, after ripping off wins against ranked opponents in back-to-back-to-back games, was not nearly as dialed in on Vanderbilt and Austin Peay − both teams with relatively lackluster profiles. That poor focus nearly cost the Tigers dearly against Commodores and kept the Governors within striking distance for far longer than they should have.

Memphis, set to face Tulsa (9-3) on Thursday (7 p.m., ESPN+) at the Donald W. Reynolds Center, must adjust its approach.

"We're still fighting for our respect," Jones said after last week's win over Austin Peay. "What we showed tonight, I don't think (anybody is) gonna respect us. We've just got to come into conference and − (from) the first minutes, (from) the jump − get everybody off the court early so we can start earning our respect."

Here are three things to keep an eye on ahead of the Tigers' American Athletic Conference opener.

Will David Jones, Caleb Mills play?

Whether Jones will be available Thursday remains unclear.

Hardaway said on his weekly radio show Tuesday that neither Jones nor Caleb Mills practiced Monday or Tuesday. Jones has been sick for much of the past week-plus, receiving IV fluids before and after the win over Vanderbilt on Dec. 23. Then, after the win over Austin Peay, Jones said he still had not shaken the bug.

"I feel not too good, though. But I’m fighting through it," said Jones. "I don't know what it is, because I've been like this for like two weeks. I don't feel right. I don't feel myself. (But) I'm gonna still fight through it."

Mills, on the other hand, left the Austin Peay game in the first half with a hip injury, according to Hardaway.

Impacting winning

It's not even up for debate: Jones and Jahvon Quinerly have been the most valuable Tigers so far this season.

Jones is far and away the most efficient player on the team, with an efficiency rating (278) that is 80 points better than the player with the second-best mark. Quinerly, meanwhile, has a plus-minus (a measure of how many points better or worse the team is than its opponent when that player is on the floor) of plus-95, which is 15 points better than Jones.

Not far behind them, though, are Nicholas Jourdain and Malcolm Dandridge. Their plus-minus scores (plus-73 and plus-72, respectively) are third and fourth on the team.

Both Jourdain and Dandridge are putting up points, but rebounding (something Tulsa has not been particularly good at this season) could be an impactful stat line for them Thursday.

Tulsa scouting report

The Golden Hurricane have two separate four-game winning streaks this season. If they can beat Memphis, Eric Konkol's squad will run their current streak to five games.

A big reason for that success is Tulsa's ability to get to and score from the free throw line.

Like Jones for Memphis, freshman guard PJ Haggerty leads Tulsa in scoring (17.2 ppg). Also, like Jones, much of the 6-foot-3 Haggerty's damage has come at the free throw line. Haggerty has scored 67.6% of his total points with free throws.

Haggerty ranks 13th in the country in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (7.6). By comparison, Jones is 35th (6.9). And, when the defense makes a mistake, he makes it pay. Haggerty is shooting 83.5% at the free throw line, which ranks 230th among all Division I players.

Haggerty's ability to get to the line has helped make Tulsa among the nation's best in free throw rate (47%).

Tulsa's defense also has been strong this season.

It employs a highly disruptive brand of basketball, forcing its opponents to turn the ball over on 22.1% of their possessions (the 21st-best clip in the country). Tulsa's 9.5 steals per game (led by Haggerty and Cobe Williams' 2.3 apiece) is tied for 23rd.

On the flip side, the Golden Hurricane have not been very good avoiding their own turnovers, averaging 14.3 per game. That could make Memphis a tough matchup for them, since the Tigers are creating 14.3 turnovers per game.

On top of that, as good as Tulsa's defense has been, it has not seen an offense like Memphis'. The Tigers are 52nd in adjusted offensive efficiency. The best the Golden Hurricane have faced to this point is Oklahoma State (137th), and they lost that game 72-57.

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