The young NCAA men’s basketball regular season has already delivered strong returns for fans of the Memphis Tigers, as head coach Penny Hardaway has already scored a monumental upset in the team’s Maui Invitational opener against two-time defending champion UConn last Monday.
The Tigers’ 99-97 overtime escape against Dan Hurley and company moved Memphis to 5-0 for the season, adding the Huskies to a list of victories that already included teams like Missouri (83-75), UNLV (80-74) and San Francisco (68-64). Now after Thanksgiving they are 6-1 after another win over Michigan State and a hiccup against Auburn over the holiday weekend.
Those six wins for the Tigers were enough to move Memphis up to 31st in Ken Pomeroy’s latest edition of Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings, upping the American Athletic Conference program’s hope of a deep March Madness run after 15 years of early exits in West Tennessee.
In fact, it’s been 15 years since the Tigers last made it past the opening weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, with three exits in the Round of 32 (2014, 2022 and 2023) being the only trips that Memphis has in the last 10 seasons of basketball in the Bluff City.
Right now, oddsmakers from Fanatics Tennessee are riding high on Memphis’ potential, listing the Tigers as the top team, odds wise, to win the American Athletic Conference, at -125, speaking to the renewed hope that 2025 could be the year for Penny and company.
To get a sense of where this year’s Memphis men’s basketball team stands in its quest to return to the latter rounds of March Madness, BetTennessee.com broke down how the Tigers have fared in recent years and where they stand entering the heart of the college basketball season.
Longest Memphis Sweet 16 Droughts
- 15 seasons: (2008-2009 to 2023-2024)
- 11 years: (1994-95 to 2005-06)
- 7 years: (1985-86 to 1991-92)
Memphis is the favorite to win the AAC at Tennessee betting apps with -135 odds.
Can Hardaway Get Memphis Over Hump?
The Tigers’ current KenPom.com ranking of 31 is well ahead of where Hardaway’s team finished the 2023-24 campaign, when Memphis went 22-10 but finished 76th on the stats wiz’s national rankings. Since 2020, Memphis’ basketball program has posted year-end KenPom.com rankings that range from 20th in the nation in 2022 to 76th at the end of last season, with spots at No. 24 in 2021, No. 31 in 2020 and No. 59 back in 2019.
This year, the Tigers are looking to build on their early season success on the islands with a pair of home games at FedEx Forum on Dec. 4 (vs. Louisiana Tech) and Dec. 8 (vs. Arkansas State), before hitting the road against a pair of ACC foes in Clemson and Virginia on Dec. 14 and 21.
With the right results in those contests, Hardaway’s bunch can get off to the right start as Memphis looks to turn a corner as a program after 15 years in the sport’s wilderness, returning the Tigers to the high ground they stood (on the court) under John Calipari between 2000 and 2010.
Some of the best Tennessee sportsbooks list Duke and Auburn as the favorite to win the NCAA men’s basketball national championship at +1000 odds. While their odds may vary across different betting sites, Houston and Alabama typically follow the Blue Devils and Tigers for the next-shortest March Madness odds on apps like FanDuel Tennessee.
