Memphis didn’t just lose to UAB. It lost another piece of what this program used to be. The Tigers look like a shell of the group that owned the American Conference last season.
Sunday’s 78-67 loss at FedExForum was a gut punch. It stretched their losing streak to 4 games and dropped them to 12-15 overall and 7-7 in the league. The scoreboard said UAB won by 11. The bigger margin is the gap between who Memphis was and who it is now.
This team is broken. The collapse is not a mystery. It started with the second last year’s championship roster, scattered, and never really stopped.
From Champions To Strangers
Memphis rode continuity, toughness, and star power to an American title last season. That group knew each other. They trusted each other. They had defined roles and a clear pecking order.
Then, all of them are gone.
Graduation, expired eligibility, and the transfer portal gutted the roster. Key scorers, veteran defenders, and emotional leaders all moved on. What should have been a reload turned into an outright evacuation.
Penny Hardaway went back to his usual survival plan. He hit the portal, grabbed as much talent as he could, and tried to piece together another contender. Seven new faces came in. Some had résumés. Some had upside. Few had any history with Memphis.
This is the cost. When you replace almost an entire locker room in one offseason, you don’t just lose points and rebounds. You lose chemistry. You lose trust. You lose the shared scars that win you games in February and March.
UAB Exposes The Cracks
Against UAB, the problems were obvious from the opening tip. Memphis fell behind early, defended in spurts, and let the Blazers dictate pace. The halftime score told the truth: UAB 46, Memphis 30.
Dug McDaniel tried to drag the Tigers back. He scored 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting and attacked the rim with urgency. Memphis ripped off a 12-0 run in the second half and sliced the deficit to three. For a brief stretch, the building woke up.
Then the reality of this roster hit.
Memphis did not make a field goal in the final 4:45. The offense froze. Legs got tight. Spacing disappeared. Possessions turned into over-dribbling, forced drives, and prayers at the buzzer. A team with real continuity finds a way to close that gap. This one folded.
Sincere Parker added 13 points. Julius Thedford posted 12 points and eight rebounds. Curtis Givens III scored 11. Those numbers look fine, but they came inside a broken structure. Memphis finished with only nine assists. That is not a connected offense. That is five guys taking turns.
Meanwhile, UAB looked like the team with a plan. Chance Westry poured in 23. Evan Chatman scored 22 and attacked the glass. The Blazers got what they wanted when they wanted it.
No Retention, No Identity
The lack of roster retention is at the center of everything. This doesn’t feel like a slump. It feels like a team still in training camp while the rest of the league is in playoff mode.
On defense, breakdowns come in waves. Switches are late. Closeouts are lazy. Communication is inconsistent. That’s what happens when you don’t have multiple years together on the floor. Defensive habits take time, and Memphis hasn’t had any.
On offense, it’s even worse. There is no natural flow. No automatic reads. No instinctive cuts or extra passes. When pressure hits, players revert to what they know best: themselves. That is how you end up stuck on the same action for 20 seconds and settling for contested jumpers.
The bench has been equally lifeless. Twenty points from the reserves for the second straight game is not a spark. It’s a warning sign. Depth evaporates when rosters churn every offseason. There is no internal pipeline. Just more new guys trying to adjust.
Penny’s Gamble Is Backfiring
Penny Hardaway built his tenure on talent, splash moves, and portal hits. When it works, you look like a genius. When it doesn’t, you get this.
Memphis didn’t just lose a few pieces from a title team. It lost its core. It lost the backbone that carried it through runs, slumps, and tough road nights. All of that walked out the door. In its place, a collection of talented individuals tried to figure out who they were and what this program meant to them.
You can’t expect to dominate a league on one-year partnerships. You can’t expect to defend a title when almost no one who won it is still around. This is not a tweak. It is a reset.
And the timing could not be worse.
A Season On The Brink
Now, Memphis is staring at a very real possibility: missing the AAC Tournament just a year after winning it. That should be unthinkable for a program of this stature. Instead, it feels disturbingly plausible.
Four games remain. Wichita State comes in next. East Carolina waits on the road. These are not giants. But right now, Memphis is not either. Every team in this league sees the same thing: a wounded brand name with no cohesion and no confidence.
The roster churn, the lack of retention, the constant need to start over, it has all caught up to Memphis. The product on the floor finally reflects the chaos around it.
Unless something changes fast, this season won’t be remembered for a late surge. It will be remembered as the year Memphis went from cutting down nets to searching for itself, and found nothing.
