MEMPHIS, Tenn โ The Memphis Tigers are back in the NCAA Tournament.
Memphis (26-8) is the No. 8 seed in the East Region and will play No. 9 Seed FAU on Friday in Columbus, OH. The winner of the 8-9 matchup will advance to the Round of 32, where they will likely play No. 1 seed Purdue.
The top-seeded Boilermakers play the No. 16 seed on Friday. The winner of Texas Southern and Farleigh Dickinson will play Purdue in the Round of 64.
The Tigers defeated No. 1 Houston, 75-65 on Sunday to capture their first American Athletic Conference Tournament Championship.
"I'm going to start preparing for FAU today, but I'm going to enjoy this," Penny Hardaway said. "I'm going to enjoy this with the guys. It's hard to win on this level. Championships are meant to be celebrated and we're going to celebrate this."
In their Round of 64 matchup, the Tigers drew FAU (31-3), one of six programs joining the AAC next season. The Owls captured the Conference USA title this weekend, and enter Friday's contest riding a seven-game win streak.
Both the Tigers and Owls are among the Top 30 in the country in scoring offense. The biggest difference between these two teams is the level of competition they faced. Memphis played 20 games that are considered Quad 1 or 2; FAU participated in only nine such contests.
"They're a good team. They play hard," Alex Lomax said of the Owls. "They've been winning games, so they got accustomed to winning this year, and they know their roles there. So it's going to be a good fun matchup, but that's a good program that's been winning a lot of games. They have 30 wins. I don't know how many teams in the country have that. Most definitely going to be prepared, but I know a little bit about them; they're winners this season."
"I'm going to be honest, I don't know anything about them," DeAndre Williams added. "But I know about the NCAA Tournament, and anybody can be beat. After we enjoy today and a win in the championship, we're going to get back to the drawing board and watch film and see how they work."
Memphis vs. FAU is scheduled to tip off at 8:20pm CT on TNT.