Takeaways from Memphis’ exhibition loss against Arkansas

Memphis played its second exhibition game on Wednesday in Fayetteville against the Razorbacks. Arkansas will start the season as the No. 12 team in the country, and it rolled to a 93-81 victory.

John Calipari’s team brought in one of the top recruiting classes in the country, and several of them flashed against the Tigers. Freshmen Miikka Muurinen and Jordan Smith Jr. were in the starting lineup, along wth several upperclassmen.

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Smith and Billy Richmond Jr. led the Razorbacks with 17 points. Muurinen added 10 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Memphis shot 49.9 percent from the field and 30 percent from deep, and it turned the ball over 15 times and finished with 14 assists. Luke Almodovar and Nemanja Popović both led the team with 16 points.

Popović is as advertised:

It’s been a very newsy week for Nemanja Popović. Last Friday, fans got to see him for the first time in a game-like setting, earlier in the week he was granted eligibility from the NCAA, and last night he played his second exhibition against the Razorbacks.

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Popović finished with 16 points, six rebounds, three assists and a turnover in 25 minutes of action. He was a force down low and make a handful of ridiculous shots in the game.

The Serbian was easily the best player on the court for the Tigers, but it raised a bigger question for Hardaway’s squad. When he was ruled eligible, the NCAA said he must sit for the first six games of the season.

The reasoning behind this decision stems from Popović’s 2021-2022 season, where he played only six games for Vojvodina due to an injury. Because of the injury costing him basically a season, the NCAA awarded him two years of eligibility after the six-game suspension.

The bigger question will be who replaces Popović if he doesn’t win his appeal. The backup big men, Maxim Logue and Corneilous Williams, combined for 15 minutes, and Logue recorded two points and four rebounds in nine minutes.

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It will be interesting to see what…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/takeaways-memphis-exhibition-loss-against-210924298.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-29 21:09:00

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