Memphis Tigers NCAA Tournament History

The University of Memphis Tigers have a storied basketball history, marked by periods of great success, challenges, and ultimately, resilience. This article delves into the NCAA Tournament history of both the men's and women's programs, highlighting key moments, players, and coaches that have shaped their legacy.

Women's Basketball: Building a Program

The Memphis Tigers women's basketball team represents the University of Memphis in NCAA Division I women's college basketball. The Tigers compete in the American Athletic Conference. They previously competed in Conference USA in which they have won two Conference USA conference tournament championships and, prior to that two Metro Conference tournament championships. The first inter-school game of the Memphis Tigers (then West Tennessee State Normal School) was a 24-0 win over Whitehaven High School in 1914.

NCAA Tournament Appearances

The Memphis women's team has reached the NCAA tournament seven times, six officially, due to them vacating their participation in the 1985 tournament due to violations.

Recent Performances

While the historical data is somewhat limited in the provided text, it's worth noting an incident involving Jamirah Shutes, a senior guard on the 2022-23 Memphis women’s basketball team. She was accused of punching a Bowling Green player in the face following the Memphis Tigers' loss in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) on March 24, 2023, officials confirmed. She later changed her plea and was found guilty, and her sentence included anger management. This event, while not directly related to the NCAA tournament, highlights the intensity and passion surrounding the program.

Men's Basketball: A Legacy of Highs and Lows

The Memphis Tigers men's basketball team represents the University of Memphis in NCAA Division I men's college basketball. The Tigers have competed in the American Conference since 2013. As of 2020, the Tigers had the 26th highest winning percentage in NCAA history.

Early Years and the Move to Prominence

The predecessor of the University of Memphis, West Tennessee State Normal School, first put a basketball team on the court in 1920. Zach Curlin began coaching the team in 1924. The Tigers joined the Mississippi Valley Conference in 1928. The team played its early home games at a local high school gym, a local YMCA, and in a room on campus called the "Normal Cage" which allowed only six inches from the court lines to the walls. Curlin's last season coaching the Tigers was in 1948, by which time the school had been renamed Memphis State College; it would become Memphis State University in 1957. His successor was McCoy Tarry. In 1951, the new $700,000 Fieldhouse gym was opened for Tiger home games. In 1952, John Wallesea became the first Memphis State player to be drafted by the NBA. Forest Arnold became the school's first All-American in 1954. The Tigers made the NCAA tournament for the first time, in 1955, under coach Eugene Lambert. Bob Vanatta became the team's coach in 1956 and took the Tigers to the NIT final. In 1962, Dean Ehlers took over coaching duties. The Tigers began playing its home games at the Mid-South Coliseum in 1964. Moe Iba became the team's coach in 1966, the same year the team joined the Missouri Valley Conference. Iba's four years running the program are considered the low point in the history of Memphis basketball, with the team suffering 19 and 20 loss seasons before Iba's dismissal.

The Bartow Era and the 1973 Final Four

In 1970, Gene Bartow was named head coach. The 1970 season also saw the first games of Larry Finch and Ronnie Robinson, two all-time greats. Larry Finch scored 24 points in his first appearance as a freshman. In 1971, the Tigers led by Finch and Robinson upset conference rival Louisville. At 11-2, they were ranked #19 after not reaching the Top 20 in a decade. Early in the 1971-1972 season, Memphis State fell in a heart breaker to No. 2 Marquette after leading by five points with five minutes to go. After defeating Louisville in Freedom Hall, the Tigers shared the Missouri Valley Conference title in 1972 with Louisville.

During the 1972-73 season, seniors Finch and Robinson led the Tigers to one of their most successful seasons. Memphis State won the MVC outright in 1972 after winning 14 straight games. They went to the NCAA tournament where they handily beat South Carolina and Kansas State after a first round bye to reach the Final Four. After beating Providence, the Tigers went to play for the national championship against the UCLA Bruins led by legendary coach John Wooden and led by star Bill Walton. Keeping it close in the first half, the Tigers were overwhelmed in the second half eventually losing by 21, 87-66. Bartow won the NABC National Coach of the Year award that season and Larry Finch was named a consensus All-American. Also on the Finals team was Larry Kenon who went on to be a 2-time All-Star in the NBA. He remains one of the most successful NBA players in Memphis history.

The Keith Lee Years and Controversy

Wayne Yates took over for Bartow in 1974 when Bartow left for Illinois. Yates led Memphis State to three straight 20-win seasons, including an NCAA Tournament berth in 1976. The Tigers left the Missouri Valley Conference to become one of the inaugural members of the Metro Conference in 1976. In the 1980s, the Tigers made seven NCAA tournaments and won three Metro Conference titles, amassing a record of 230-87 (.726). Keith Lee began playing for the Tigers in 1982, and Memphis was ranked number one in both major national polls for the first time the same year. However, that same night they were knocked off by Virginia Tech 69-56 in Blacksburg. In the 1983 NCAA tournament, the Tigers beat Georgetown led by Patrick Ewing, whom Lee dominated in the paint.

After finishing 24-3 in the regular season, the 1984-1985 season proved to be another memorable one in Tiger history. Lee eventually led the team to another NCAA tournament in 1985. Memphis State beat Penn, UAB, Boston College and Oklahoma to reach the school's second Final Four. They were defeated by eventual champion Villanova and finished the season 31-4. All but one of the 12 players on this team were from the Memphis metro area. Lee was named a consensus All-American for the third time in his four-year career.

Read also: Financial Aid Options at UofM

In 1986, Kirk was forced out after becoming the subject of a criminal investigation. He was also found to have committed many NCAA violations as well. The Tigers were forced to sit out the 1987 NCAA tournament and were stripped of all of their NCAA tournament appearances from 1982 to 1986, including the 1985 Final Four run.

The Finch and Hardaway Era

Kirk's top assistant, Larry Finch, one of the leaders of the fabled 1972-73 team, took over head coaching duties in 1986. One of Finch's first recruits, Elliot Perry, began playing for the team in 1987. Perry led Memphis State to the 1988 and 1989 NCAA Tournaments and was drafted to the NBA where he became a successful player. In 1990, Finch landed the country's highest rated high school recruit, Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway. The Tigers also moved to the Great Midwest Conference and began playing their home games at the new Pyramid Arena (affectionately known as the "Tomb of Doom") in 1991. Stand-out Hardaway led Memphis State to the 1992 NCAA tournament, where the Tigers were defeated in the Elite Eight by rival Cincinnati. The following summer, Hardaway was named All-American and earned a chance to train with the Dream Team before the Barcelona Olympics. During the 1992-93 season, Hardaway earned Memphis State's first triple-double and then the first back-to-back triple-doubles in wins over Georgia State and Vanderbilt. On February 6, 1993, the school achieved its 1,000th all-time basketball victory in an upset over No. 4 Cincinnati. After the season, Penny Hardaway left for the NBA draft where he was selected third overall by the Golden State Warriors. He became the most successful NBA player in history to matriculate from the Memphis basketball program.

In 1995, the Memphis team included future NBA players David Vaughn, Cedric Henderson, and Lorenzen Wright, and they made it to the 1995 NCAA tournament where they lost in the Sweet Sixteen. Memphis joined Conference USA in 1995 as a founding member with long-time rivals Louisville and Cincinnati. Finch stepped down as head coach in 1997 and Tic Price took over thereafter. Price's three years were one of the Tigers' least successful since the 1960s.

The Calipari Era and Vacated Success

John Calipari was named Memphis' head coach in 2000. Under his leadership, the Tigers won the 2002 NIT championship, then made the NCAA tournament in 2003 and 2004. The Tigers left The Pyramid to play home games in the FedExForum in 2004. The 2005-06 Tigers were led by Darius Washington, Shawne Williams and Rodney Carney and set a school record by going 30-3 and reaching a No. 3 ranking during a regular season that was capped by a Conference USA championship. Despite losing their top three scorers from the prior season to the NBA and graduation, the 2006-07 Tigers duplicated the previous year's regular season record of 30-3, were ranked as high as No. 5, and again won the Conference USA championship, going undefeated in conference play. The Tigers earned a number two seed in the 2007 NCAA tournament.

The 2007-08 Memphis Tigers men's basketball team achieved a No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press basketball poll in January 2008, the school's first No. 1 ranking in the poll since 1982, and went on to win their third straight Conference USA title on March 15, 2008. After a month, they lost this ranking when they were defeated by in-state rival and No. 2-ranked Tennessee at home. Led by First-Team All-American Chris Douglas-Roberts and future No. 1 overall pick Derrick Rose, the team received a No. 1 seed in the 2008 NCAA tournament and defeated No. 16 seed Texas-Arlington in round one, No. 8 seed Mississippi State in round two, and No. 5 seed Michigan State in the Sweet Sixteen. Memphis convincingly defeated No. 2 seed Texas in the Elite Eight round to advance to the school's first Final Four since 1985. Following this win, Memphis went on to beat No. 1 seed UCLA on April 5, 2008, advancing to the National Championship game on April 7, 2008.

The 2008-09 Tigers, led by another freshman guard, Tyreke Evans, again went undefeated in Conference USA and earned a two seed in the 2009 NCAA tournament. The Tigers were defeated by the No. 3-seed Missouri Tigers in the Sweet Sixteen. Evans left after one year and was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 2010, the second straight Tiger to do so after Rose.

On March 31, 2009, Calipari resigned to become the head coach at the University of Kentucky. In the months following Calipari's departure, nearly all of the incoming recruits who had committed to play basketball for the University of Memphis decommitted from Memphis and committed to Kentucky or other schools. On May 28, 2009, the NCAA formally accused the Tigers of allowing an ineligible player to participate in their games during the 2007-08 season. On August 20, 2009, the NCAA Committee on Infractions announced that Memphis must vacate all 38 wins for that season as well as their appearance in the NCAA tournament and spend three years on probation. The NCAA alleged that Derrick Rose, a Chicago native, had obtained a fraudulent SAT score when another person took the test for him in Detroit, Michigan and his brother Reggie Rose was provided nearly $1,700 in free travel and lodging with the Memphis team. The University of Memphis was not charged with knowingly fielding an ineligible player given that Rose had originally been cleared by the testing company and the NCAA.

The Pastner and Smith Eras

On April 7, 2009, Josh Pastner was named the team's head coach. Pastner was hired as an assistant at Memphis in 2008 after serving as an assistant coach under Lute Olson at Arizona for six years. Pastner gained a reputation as a strong recruiter during his tenure at Arizona. In his first year as coach at Memphis, Pastner brought in Elliot Williams, a transfer from Duke, who led the team in scoring and was drafted to the NBA. During the 2011-12 season, the Tigers announced they were leaving Conference USA to join the Big East Conference starting in 2013 (later renamed the American Athletic Conference, and now known as the American Conference). They began the season strong, moving as high to No. 13 in the country before falling out of the rankings (a phenomenon which would become a recurrent theme of the Pastner era). In the last game of the season, Josh Pastner's victory over Tulsa gave him 72 career victories, the most by a Memphis head coach over his first three seasons. Memphis made its second straight NCAA Tournament after winning the Conference USA tournament. An 8-seed, the Tigers lost in the first round to 9-seeded Saint Louis. In 2012-13, the Tigers, led by CUSA player of the year Joe Jackson, won the Conference USA regular season and tournament titles in their last season in CUSA. The Tigers began competition in the then newly formed American Athletic Conference in 2013. Smith was fired on March 14, 2018 after failing to reach the NCAA Tournament in both of his two years as head coach.

Overall Tournament Record

The Tigers have appeared in the NCAA Tournament 28 times. Their overall record is 35-27. The Tigers have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) 19 times.

Recent Tournament Performances (since 2014)

2025: Seed: 5, Overall record: 0-1, How far they went: First Round, Who they lost to: No. 12 Colorado State, 78-70
2023: Seed: 8, Overall record: 0-1, How far they went: First Round, Who they lost to: No. 9 Florida Atlantic, 66-65
2022: Seed: 9, Overall record: 1-1, How far they went: Second Round, Who they beat: No. 8 Boise State, Who they lost to: No. 1 Gonzaga, 82-78
2014: Seed: 8, Overall record: 1-1, How far they went: Second Round, Who they beat: No. 9 George Washington, Who they lost to: No.

Legacy and Recognition

The Memphis program has had two coaches inducted into the National College Basketball Hall of Fame (Gene Bartow) and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (John Calipari). The school has yet to produce any players that have been inducted. Memphis has had 10 players chosen as All-Americans by the four sources used by the NCAA to determine consensus teams, the Associated Press, the United States Basketball Writers Association, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and The Sporting News (which replaced the United Press International in 1998). Three players have been unanimous first team selections (Keith Lee, Anfernee Hardaway, and Chris Douglas-Roberts).

Since the NBA draft began in 1947, 52 players from Memphis have been drafted, with an additional nine played after being signed as undrafted free agents. Of the 52 drafted players, 28 played in at least one NBA (or ABA) game. Memphis has produced 14 first-round picks, including 8 top-ten picks and one number-one pick (Derrick Rose). Three former Tigers have been named NBA All-Stars: Larry Kenon (twice), Penny Hardaway (4 times), and Derrick Rose (3 times). Four have gone on to win the NBA Championship: Win Wilfong with the St. Louis Hawks in 1958, William Bedford with the Detroit Pistons in 1990, Earl Barron with the Miami Heat in 2006, and James Wiseman with the Golden State Warriors in 2022. In 2010, Memphis became the second college to produce two consecutive NBA Rookie of the Year winners: Derrick Rose in 2009 and Tyreke Evans in 2010 (the first being North Carolina with winners Walter Davis in 1978 and Phil Ford in 1979). In 2011, Rose became the first former Tiger to be named the NBA Most Valuable Player.

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