Penny Hardaway: Memphis basketball's injury situation still a waiting game
The waiting game continues.
Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway said Wednesday the statuses of the team's injured players – which includes leading scorer DeAndre Williams and last season's leading scorer Landers Nolley II – remains questionable. The Tigers (9-7, 3-3 AAC) are set to face SMU (13-4, 4-1) at 6 p.m. Thursday (ESPN2).
“Guys are still on the sideline, getting better,” Hardaway said. “So, I won’t know until (Thursday’s) shootaround or maybe (right before Thursday’s) game who I’m gonna have.”
Williams has missed the last three games with a back injury he aggravated in a win over Tulsa on Jan. 4. Nolley did not play in last week's loss at ECU due to a knee problem.
Hardaway, however, said guard Alex Lomax has been upgraded to questionable. Lomax has not played since a Dec. 29 at Tulane.
“A-Lo’s questionable, so that’s a good sign,” Hardaway said. “I mean, we’ll see.”
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Hardaway added his son, Jayden (knee), and forward Chandler Lawson (who has not played since Nov. 24 with an ankle injury) are the only Tigers definitely out for Thursday's game. Hardaway said Jayden is "probably gonna need another week" to recover.
Memphis is coming off back-to-back road losses to UCF and ECU, the latest twist in what has been a frustrating season on the court for the Tigers.
“I think, right now, they’re (ticked) off, to be honest with you,” he said. “They know we’ve, like, let some games go – even though, since conference (play) started, we haven’t had our entire team. I can say with the utmost confidence that if we had our entire team – if nobody would’ve ever had COVID – I feel like we’d be undefeated this year still. Because we had momentum after the Alabama game. (But) at the end of the day, no one cares. You lose those games, you’ve got to keep plugging along.”
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Penny Hardaway provides update on Memphis basketball's injury report
