2016–17 Memphis Tigers men's basketball team

2016–17 Memphis Tigers men's basketball
Conference	American Athletic Conference
2016–17 record	( The American)
Head coach	Tubby Smith (1st year)
Assistant coach	Joe Esposito
Assistant coach	Pooh Williamson
Assistant coach	Saul Smith
Home arena	FedExForum

2016–17 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Cincinnati	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
Connecticut	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
East Carolina	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
Houston	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
Memphis	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
SMU	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
South Florida	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
Temple	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
Tulane	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
Tulsa	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
UCF	0	–	0		–			0	–	0		–
† AAC Tournament Champions
Rankings from AP Poll

The 2016–17 Memphis Tigers men's basketball team represents the University of Memphis in the 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, the 96th season of Tiger basketball and the first under head coach Tubby Smith. The Tigers play their home games at the FedExForum. The 2016–17 season is the fourth season the Tigers have participated in the American Athletic Conference.

Previous season

The 2015–16 Memphis Tigers finished the season with an overall record of 19–15 and 8–10 in AAC play to finish in a tie for fifth place in conference. The Tigers lost in the championship game of the AAC Tournament to UConn. The Tigers did not participate in the 2016 NCAA tournament or NIT, marking the second time in 15 years that the Tigers had missed the post-season entirely. Josh Pastner left Memphis to take the head coaching job at Georgia Tech in April 2016, and Tubby Smith took over as head coach a few days later.

Off-season

Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Notes
Trahson Burrell		F	6' 7"	187	Senior	Albany, NY	Graduated
Shaq Goodwin		F	6' 9"	229	Senior	Atlanta, GA	Graduated
Kedren Johnson		G	6' 4"	210	Senior	Lewisburg, TN	Graduated
Ricky Tarrant		G	6' 2"	184	Senior	Pleasant Grove, AL	Graduated
Avery Woodson		G	6' 2"	189	Junior	Waynesboro, MS	Transfer to Butler
Randall Broddie		G	6' 3"	170	Freshman	Oxon Hill, MD	Transfer

Incoming transfers

Name	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Notes
Christian Kessee	G	6' 2"	180	Senior	Las Vegas, NV	Graduate transfer from Coppin State

Recruiting

Name	Home town	High school / college	Height	Weight	Commit date
Jimario Rivers F	Memphis, TN	Southwest TN CC	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	Oct 8, 2015
	Scout: N/A   Rivals: N/A   247Sports:    ESPN: N/A
Overall recruiting rankings:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources:

Personnel

The Tigers hired coach Tubby Smith to replace Josh Pastner in April 2016. Smith faced his first controversy as Tiger head coach early on. Keelon Lawson, father of Tiger players KJ and Dedric Lawson, had served for two years as an assistant for Pastner, but Smith did not initially want to retain Lawson in that role. This caused Lawson to reenter his son Dedric in the 2016 draft and hint that KJ would be transferring. However, on April 25, 2016, The Commercial Appeal reported that Lawson would be retained on the basketball staff as director of player personnel. Lawson claimed he never intended to indicate that his sons would be leaving the program upon the announcement of his reassignment. Dedric, however, remained entered in the draft and attend the draft combine before withdrawing his name in mid May and returning to Memphis.

Roster

2016–17 Memphis Tigers men's basketball team
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Home town F 1 Dedric Lawson 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 228 lb (103 kg) So Memphis, Tennessee G 5 Markel Crawford 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 205 lb (93 kg) RS Jr Memphis, Tennessee G 10 Jeremiah Martin 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 179 lb (81 kg) So Memphis, Tennessee G 12 Craig Randall 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 173 lb (78 kg) So Phoenix, Arizona G/F 14 K. J. Lawson 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 204 lb (93 kg) So Memphis, Tennessee F 30 Nick Marshall 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 248 lb (112 kg) So Lexington, Tennessee G 23 Sam Craft (W) 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Sr Memphis, Tennessee G/F 42 Jake McDowell (W) 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Sr Memphis, Tennessee	Head coach TBD Assistant coach(es) TBD Keelon Lawson (Union University) TBD Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible (W) Walk-on Injured Current redshirt Roster Last update: 11/6/2015

Schedule

Date Time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
Exhibition
Non-conference regular season
12/13/2016		Monmouth			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
American Athletic Conference regular season
		UCF			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
		at UCF			CFE Arena  Orlando, FL
		Cincinnati			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
		Cincinnati			Fifth Third Arena  Cincinnati, OH
		Connecticut			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
		at Connecticut
		at East Carolina			Williams Arena  Greenville, NC
		East Carolina			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
		at Houston			Hofheinz Pavilion  Houston, TX
		Houston			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
		South Florida			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
		vs. South Florida			USF Sun Dome  Tampa, FL
		SMU			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
		at SMU			Moody Coliseum  Dallas, TX
		at Temple			Liacouras Center  Philadelphia, PA
		Temple			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
		at Tulane			Devlin Fieldhouse  New Orleans, LA
		Tulane			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
		at Tulsa			Reynolds Center  Tulsa, OK
		Tulsa			FedEx Forum  Memphis, TN
American Athletic Conference Tournament
					XL Center  Hartford, CT
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern Time.

Rankings

Main article: 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings