Tigers to Face Huskies in Hartford

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis Tigers will look to complete the season sweep of the UConn Huskies on Thursday evening when the teams face off in Hartford in an 8 p.m. CT tip-off at the XL Center on ESPN2.

GAME INFORMATION
Memphis (18-8, 8-5 American Athletic Conference) vs. UConn (12-12, 7-5 American Athletic Conference)
When: Thursday, February 16, 2017
Tip-Off: 8:00 p.m. (CT)
Location: Hartford, Connecticult
Arena: XL Center
TV: ESPN2
Adam Amin, play-by-play
Len Elmore, analyst
Radio: Memphis Radio Network / 600 WREC / Rock 103
Dave Woloshin, play-by-play
Matt Dillon, analyst
Forrest Goodman, pregame / postgame host
Live Stats: UConn Gametracker

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES

UConn comes into the game having won five of its last six games, and its last five overall home games, with the last loss at home coming in the season's American Athletic Conference opener against Houston.
    In the team's last game, a 66-63 win at UCF on February 11, Rodney Purvis hit 5-of-6 long-range shots for 18 total points, with the Huskies making 9-of-13 (69.2 percent) for the game. Jalen Adams and Christian Vital each scored 14 points, while Kentan Facey scored a dozen points.
    Amida Brimah pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds, while adding a blocked shot, as the Huskies were out-rebounded 39-to-37. The game saw the Huskies lead by 16 with eight minutes left in the game, before the host Knights began a furious comeback, hitting a lay-up at the buzzer to give the game its three-point final margin.
    This season it is Adams who leads the team in points (14.8 per game) and an American Athletic Conference-leading 155 assists (6.7 per game). Purvis also averages in double-figures with 13.4 points per game. Three others - Facey (8.7), Vital (8.6), and Brimah (8.0) average over 8.0 points per game.
    Facey leads the team in rebounding, pulling down an average of 7.0 per game, with Brimah averaging 6.1 for the Huskies that out-rebound their opponents by an average of 2.1 rebounds per game. Purvis is second on the team with 65 assists, while Brimah leads the team with 69 blocked shots.

BIG WIN, BIG REBOUNDING MARGIN

Earlier this season, in Memphis' nine-point win over UConn, the Tigers were out-rebounded by 21 (49-to-28). That total represents the seventh largest in a win in the country this season. A big thanks to Basketball Sports Reference website for their research function for this and numerous other stats throughout this set of game notes.

	School	Opponent	Result	+ / -
1.	Marquette	Seton Hall	W, 89-86 (ot)	-23
	Stetson	NJIT	W, 82-76	-23
	Fresno State	UT-San Antonio	W, 69-66	-23
4.	Auburn	Alabama	W, 82-77	-22
	UMass-Lowell	Wagner	W, 87-76	-22
	Mt. St. Mary's	Robert Morris	W, 48-47	-22
7.	Memphis	UConn	W, 70-61	-21
	Savannah State	Howard	W, 73-70	-21
9.	Fairleigh Dickinson	Wagner	W, 70-69	-20
	Arizona State	Stanford	W, 75-69	-20
	Georgia Southern	Georgia State	W, 88-65	-20
	St. Joseph's	George Washington	W, 68-63	-20

LAST TIME AGAINST UCONN

In the first game of the 2017 calendar year, the Memphis Tigers never trailed in the second and led by as many as 20 in the second stanza before settling in on the nine-point win. Markel Crawford scored a game-high 19 points, while Jimario Rivers scored 16 points and Dedric Lawson had a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double in which he added six assists and three steals. Memphis added 11 steals, forcing 15 total UConn turnovers, as the Huskies were led by Rodney Purvis and Vance Jackson who each scored 14 points, while making two three-point baskets apiece.

HIGH IN THE CAREER DOUBLE-DOUBLES

University of Memphis sophomore Dedric Lawson's 34 career double-doubles have him standing sixth in career double-doubles among players currently active, and the most among sophomores. Below is the list of the top six career double-double leaders currently active.

Rk.	Student-Athlete	Cl.	School	DD
1.	Josh Hawkinson	Sr.	Washington St.	53
2.	Tim Kempton	Sr.	Lehigh	48
3.	Angel Delgado	Jr.	Seton Hall	42
4.	Alec Peters	Sr.	Valparaiso	37
5.	Ryan Taylor	Sr.	Marshall	35
6.	Dedric Lawson	So.	Memphis	34
7.	Antonio Campbell	Sr.	Ohio	32
	James Thompson IV	So.	Eastern Mich.	32
	Jimmy Hall	Jr.	Hofstra	31

HIGH-QUALITY COMPANY

Through 26 games during the season - and at least six more games left in the regular season and a round of the American Athletic Conference tournament - sophomore Dedric Lawson has season totals of 515 points, 265 rebounds, 88 assists, and 58 blocked shots. Those four totals put Lawson with an elite group of former student-athletes who have put up similar total numbers over the course of an entire season. Joining Lawson with similar numbers is Chris Webber (1992-93), Jerry Stackhouse (1994-95), Tim Duncan (1995-96 and 1996-97) as one of nine players to put up those levels of season totals.

BLOCKING AT A CAREER PACE

UConn senior center Amida Brimah currently leads NCAA Division I in career blocked shots (349 over 124 games), and also has the highest career blocks per game average of any player currently playing who has more than one season with his current school (2.81 per game). His career total has him just 43 away from climbing into the top-25 all-time in NCAA history in career blocked shots.

PLAYING IN THE HOME OF THE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT

The Thursday evening game will be played at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut, which will also be the host site of the 2017 American Athletic Conference Tournament. Since 1991-92, Memphis is 169-28 when playing regular season games in the arena that serves host the conference tournament. That number is greatly misleading, as 167 of the wins and 25 of the losses have come when the tournament was hosted by the Tigers at either the Pyramid (1993, 1996, and 2000) or FedExForum (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2014), and are the Tigers' home records from those seasons.

The Thursday evening game will be just the sixth regular season meeting at the eventual host arena of the conference tournament since 1991-92. The last time the Tigers have played a regular season game at the host arena for a conference tournament (not played in Memphis) was on February 26, 2011 with a loss at UTEP at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas. Memphis got a level of revenge from the regular season loss in that instance, with a 67-66 win over the same Miner team in the Conference USA final game. Prior to that, the most recent meeting was at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, with a Memphis 80-73 win on February 19, 2003.

HITTING THEIR STRIDE FROM DISTANCE

Over its last two games, UConn has lit it up from long range, making 16-of-24 shots from long range against USF on February 8 and 9-of-13 from beyond the arc against UCF on February 11. Those two games, which saw the team shoot a combined 67.6 percent (25-of-37) raised the team's three-point shooting from 33.1 percent (seventh best in the league) on February 7 to its current standing of fourth in the Conference at 35.9 percent. The games against Central and South Florida are the two best long-range shooting games in the American Athletic Conference this season.

CLIMBING THE SCORING LIST

On Tuesday, February 7, Memphis forward Dedric Lawson became the 51st member of Memphis' 1,000-point club. His two-year career total now stands at 1,036, which is tied for 45th-most in a career in school history. Below is where Lawson stands in the career record books, and the five players immediately ahead of the sophomore, and the amount needed to catch each.

Rk.	Rebs	Student-Athlete	Date	Needs
40.	1,112	Baskerville Holmes	1982-86	76
41.	1,072	Omar Sneed	1997-99	36
42.	1,062	Will Barton	2011-12	26
43.	1,054	Darius Washington	1990-93	18
44.	1,040	Billy Smith	1990-93	4
45.	1,036	Dedric Lawson	2015-pres.	-
46.	1,035	Cheyenne Gibson	1987-90

NEARLY ONE OF A KIND

This season, University of Memphis sophomore Dedric Lawson is averaging 19.8 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game. He is just the second player since the 1992-93 season (24 seasons) to average such numbers, joining 2016 NBA top draft pick Ben Simmons of LSU (19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists) in that grouping. Additionally, there are just two players in that same time span to average at least 10.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.0 blocks, and 1.0 steals per game, and is joined by Houston's Bo Outlaw from the 1992-93 season.

CLIMBING THE DOUBLE-DOUBLE LIST...AGAIN

Last season, as a freshman, Dedric Lawson had 17 double-doubles, which set a freshman single-season mark and was tied for the seventh-most in a single season in school history. This season through 26 games he has a matching total of 17 double-doubles, and is re-climbing up that same list. Below is a list of the top single-season double-double totals in University of Memphis history.

Rk.	DD	Student-Athlete	Season
1.	25	Larry Kenon	1972-73
2.	22	Don Holcomb	1971-72
3.	21	Keith Lee	1983-84
4.	20	Keith Lee	1982-83
	20	David Vaughn	1993-94
6.	19	Ronnie Robinson	1971-72
7.	17	Dedric Lawson	2016-17
	17	Dedric Lawson	2015-16
	17	Kelly Wise	2000-01
	17	Keith Lee	1981-82
	17	Marion Hilliard	1975-76
12.	16	Chris Massie	2001-02
	16	Lorenzen Wright	1995-96
	16	Keith Lee	1984-85

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Markel Crawford

Dedric Lawson

Jimario Rivers

University of Memphis Athletics