After the Memphis basketball team lost on a buzzer-beater to Wake Forest earlier in the season, the program would go on to win three straight games, though the streak was snapped at the hands of the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday, 99-73. With Memphis basketball head coach Penny Hardaway looking to send a stern message after the defeat, he also holds himself accountable.
In the blowout loss, the Tigers seemed outmatched against the No. 11-ranked team in the nation, but it didn't stop Hardaway from calling the outcome a “terrible one.”
“Obviously, it's a terrible, terrible outcome for us with a week to prepare,” Hardaway said, according to The Commercial Appeal. “Kudos to Louisville. Played a really good game, well-oiled machine. On both ends of the floor, they were the aggressor, and I'll just have to this as a coach and say my team wasn't as prepared as their team was, and we got a bad loss.”
The Tigers kept it relatively close with the Cardinals, but around the last five to six minutes of the game, Louisville turned another corner, gaining a 57-37 advantage.
Memphis basketball's Penny Hardaway takes accountability
While the Memphis basketball team and Hardaway figure out what's missing, there is no doubt that the game showed how outmatched they were against Louisville. Hardaway would express how to put it plainly, the Tigers did not play “good basketball,” even crediting the Cardinals' shooting numbers, as they made 56 percent from the field and 51 percent from three-point range.
“I think Louisville just played really good basketball today, and we didn’t,” Hardaway said, via The Commercial Appeal. “The physicality of their team on offense and defense was superb, and ours wasn’t.”
“They shot the hell out of the ball, to be honest,” Hardaway continued. “Never seen a team really shoot it this well and be as efficient with everybody…It’s a bad-coached game by me. I have to do better.”
At any rate, Memphis looks to get back in the win column as its next game is against No. 15 Vanderbilt on Wednesday.
