Red Wolves, Tigers set for December hardcourt clash

A-State will head to Memphis for battle between regional rivals

From Arkansas State University

arkansasrazorbacks.com

JONESBORO — One of Arkansas State’s closest rivals will return to the Red Wolves’ schedule in the 2024-25 men’s basketball season.

ASU will play the Memphis Tigers on Sunday, Dec. 8, the team announced Wednesday on social media. The game will be played at FedExForum, the 19,000-seat arena that also serves as the home of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.

The Red Wolves and Tigers have met 61 times, with Memphis holding a 33-28 alltime advantage, but this season’s meeting will be only the seventh in the series in 24 seasons. ASU and Memphis last played during the 2020-21 season.

The Tigers have won the last seven meetings in the series, six of which were played at FedExForum and the other at the Pyramid.

The Red Wolves’ most recent victory in the series, an 84-72 triumph in the 1999-2000 season, also stands as the teams’ most recent meeting in Jonesboro. ASU’s most recent victory on Memphis’ home court was a 58-57 triumph at Mid-South Coliseum in the 1991 National Invitation Tournament.

While the Red Wolves and Tigers did not play last season, ASU head coach Bryan Hodgson said Memphis coach Penny Hardaway was receptive to a resumption of the series. The two coaches built a relationship through coaching and recruiting against each other before Hodgson became ASU’s head coach last year.

“His schedule was full at the time, but moving forward we will definitely be trying to schedule a non-conference game with Memphis each year if we can, and Penny was open to it, so I look forward to that,” Hodgson said last summer.

Memphis posted a 22-10 record last season that included an 11-7 mark in the American Athletic Conference, good for a fifth-place tie in the league. The Tigers finished No. 75 in the NCAA NET rankings.

ASU finished at No. 148 in the NET earlier this year, an improvement of 137 places over the team’s 285 ranking in 2023.

The Red Wolves closed Hodgson’s first season with a 20-17 record, reaching 20 wins for the first time since the 2016-17 season.

They finished fourth in the Sun Belt Conference, reached the Sun Belt tournament final for the first time since 2007 and won two games in the College Basketball Invitational, their first postseason tournament appearance since 1999.

The Memphis game is the second non-conference contest announced by the Red Wolves this week. ASU will travel to Alabama, which is coming off a Final Four appearance, on Friday, Nov. 8.

The Red Wolves will open the season Monday, Nov. 4, at home against Akron, last season’s Mid-American Conference representative in the MAC/SBC challenge. ASU will have a road game in February during the second half of the MAC/SBC Challenge.

The 2024-25 non-conference schedule is also expected to include a game at UAB and a home game against Arkansas-Little Rock, among others.

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