In a cross-state rivalry matchup, the 16th-ranked University of Memphis basketball team (7-2), a 14-point favorite, lost to Arkansas State (7-3) 85-72.
The Red Wolf contingent traveled well, as many Arkansas State faithful were in attendance.
Arkansas State earned 12/14 of the Sun Belt preseason poll's first-place votes. Red Wolf guard Joseph Pinion was Arkansas State's leading scorer with a career-high 22 points on 5/11 three-point shooting.
PJ Haggerty scored 29 for the Tigers, and Dain Dainja recorded his first double-double since November 2022.
First half: Three minutes into the game, the Tigers subbed out all starters except for Tyrese Hunter, which, by my count, meant Penny Hardaway only had nine players available and 1) wanted to keep fresh legs and 2) was confident his squad is better than Arkansas State.
This bit the Tigers in the butt early as Memphis trailed the middle 10 minutes of the first half by around 13-15 points.
To add more unusuality to an already bizarre game, the officials (Jeb Hartness, Patrick Evans, Tony Chiazza) inserted themselves into the game by calling a technical foul on each team for trash-talking.
Throughout the game, the referees were questionably soft. Not biased, just soft.
With 7:12 left in the opening period, the Tigers trailed the Red Wolves 27-14.
Arkansas State's lead grew to as much as 18 as they led 42-29 at the half.
Second Half: The Tigers opened the second half with full-court pressure, which led to high-leverage plays, putting the game back into single digits.
But Memphis struggled in the half-court defense, meaning when the Red Wolves pushed the ball beyond half-court, they got whatever they wanted.
Memphis made the necessary hustle and momentum plays to get back into the game, but Arkansas State had an answer for almost every Tiger basket.
Basketball is a game of runs, and in the second half, other than its opening burst, Arkansas State held Memphis minimal scoring runs.
The status quo remained the same for most of the second half as Arkansas State toppled the Tigers 85-72. The second-half score was 43-43.
Fallout:
This marks Arkansas State's first top-25 win since '91 and the highest-ranked win ever.
The Tigers' loss to the Red Wolves tells of conference play, where Memphis will be the entire AAC's Super Bowl. In fact, coach Bryan Hodgson took to pumping his own crowd up and jeering the Memphis faithful, asking them, "Where y'all at?" and "I can't hear you" as time winded down."
At the end of the day, if Memphis cannot wake up for their games against other mid-majors, the wins against UConn and Michigan State won't matter.
Coach Penny Hardaway answered many tough questions at his post-game presser, including "That's on me, I didn't have them ready to play."
After Hardaway spoke, we waited for a couple of minutes and were told by a university spokesperson that all players had left the building.
I am not going to speculate why.
Reach Rivals contributor Sam Shoemaker on X @s_shoemaker52 or sjshmker@memphis.edu.
