GREENVILLE, N.C. — Penny Hardaway couldn’t deny it.

Following the Memphis basketball team’s dominant 82-58 win over East Carolina — the second 24-point victory in the past eight days — Hardaway admitted Thursday outside the visitors’ locker room at Minges Coliseum that simply putting the game away was not the only thing on his mind in the closing minutes.

It can’t be, what with two games left in the regular season. That’s because the Tigers (21-8, 10-6 AAC), who have won three in a row, are still lagging behind considerably in the NCAA’s NET rankings, KenPom ratings and other predictive metrics the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee relies on to inform its March Madness decisions. Memphis scuffled so much in late January and mid-February — losing six out of nine games, including a potentially devastating Quad 4 loss to Rice — that the bottom nearly fell out.

The Tigers entered play Thursday ranked 79th in the NET and 81st via KenPom, which both handsomely reward margin of victory. In other words, teams can make up a lot of ground in a short period of time if they pummel their opponents.

So when Hardaway saw the opportunity to blow the game wide open — even though it may have already been well in hand — he took it.

“You have to (think about the NET), at some point,” he said. “Because that’s what gives teams around the country the respect they get.”

It paid off on the KenPom side, which surged to 72nd after Thursday’s win.

Hardaway’s players think about it, too. Nae’Qwan Tomlin, who helped Kansas State reach the Elite Eight last season, put it out there as plainly as possible and did not hesitate when asked whether the players are aware of the importance of the metrics.

“Yes, sir,” he said after scoring 20 points against ECU. “I think (it’s) just everybody trying to beat everybody by a lot. You know, because it’s going to help us with the NET ranks. You never just want to take your foot off the pedal.”

The Tigers didn't even come close to doing that. After building a 36-24 lead at halftime, the lead ballooned to a 19-point advantage less than four minutes into the second half. Which has not been as rare as their final scores might make it seem. Hardaway said his team has been in positions like that before, only for something to shift, causing Memphis to either win by fewer than it should have or lose the game altogether.

“A lot of games, we didn’t look the part,” he said. “We were just all over the place, disheveled, everything. It was just crazy.”

That didn’t happen with ECU. The Tigers never let up, building its biggest lead of the game with only 27 seconds remaining.

Nicholas Jourdain, who announced after the game his plans to return to the Tigers next season, said whether it benefited the team’s position in the NET or not, that killer instinct was in place before tip-off.

MEMPHIS BASKETBALL: Tigers pound ECU to win third straight. Here are 5 observations

“That’s a shoutout to (Jahvon Quinerly),” Jourdain said. “We’re on the court, we’re talking in warmups and he’s like, ‘Yo, lock in. If we score and get up 16 or 18, they’re gonna fold.’ We’re all in the huddle, me, David (Jones), Jaykwon (Walton), Nae’Qwan, (and) we’re like, ‘All right, bet. Let’s do it.’ ”

Memphis, which meets UAB on Sunday (4:30 p.m., ESPN2) in the final home game of the season, has rediscovered some semblance of swagger since dropping back-to-back games during a road trip through Texas two weeks ago.

“We’re looking the part now,” Hardaway said. “Now we’re looking like the team that should be top 10 in the country.”

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: Penny Hardaway: Memphis basketball is 'looking the part now'