Dec. 21, 2011

Tigers On TV/Radio/Web
Television: ESPN2/Comcast digital channel 24 (Sean McDonough, play-by-play; Bill Raftery, color analyst)
Radio: WREC 600 AM (Dave Woloshin, play-by-play; Matt Dillon, color analyst; Forrest Goodman, studio host)
Web: ESPN3.com

SETTING THE SCENE
• Memphis (6-4) takes to the road for the third time in 16 days, this time traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet Georgetown (9-1) in a non-conference encounter. The game, to be televised on ESPN2, is slated for a 6 p.m. (CT) start.
• The Tigers are in the Also Receiving Votes category of the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll (No. 34), which was released Dec. 19. Memphis is not ranked in the Associated Press poll. Georgetown is ranked No. 16 in both national polls.
• Memphis enters Thursday's encounter after a Dec. 19 home victory over Lipscomb 85-75. The win ended a two-game slide with setbacks to Murray State 76-72 Dec. 11 and No. 4/4 Louisville 95-87. Prior to the two losses, the Tigers had won three-straight with victories over Jackson State 70-45 Nov. 28, Austin Peay 91-60 Dec. 3 and Miami, Fla., 71-54 Dec. 6.
• Memphis returns all five starters and 10 letterwinners from last year's squad.
• The Hoyas are on a seven-game winning streak since their lone loss to Kansas 67-63 in the opening-round of the 2011 EA Sports Maui Invitational.
• Georgetown returns two starters and five letterwinners from last year's team that posted a 21-11 overall record.

WHAT'S UP NEXT...
• Memphis returns to action after the Christmas break on Thursday, Dec. 29 when it hosts Robert Morris at FedExForum. Game time is 6 p.m. (CT).
• The Hoyas opens Big East Conference play after Christmas on Wednesday, Dec. 28 when they travel to Louisville to face the No. 4/4 Cardinals.

WHAT THE HOYAS DID LAST YEAR
• Georgetown posted a 21-11 overall record and a 10-8 Big East Conference mark.
• The Hoyas finished eighth in the Big East Conference regular season standings.
• Georgetown lost in the Big East Conference Tournament opening round to Cincinnati.
• The Hoyas received at at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and dropped a second-round game to eventual NCAA Final Four participant VCU.

SCOUTING THE HOYAS
• Georgetown is 9-1 entering Thursday's game.
• The Hoyas have won seven straight since their lone loss of the season to Kansas in the EA Sports Maui Invitational.
• The trio of Jason Clark (15.5 ppg), Hollis Thompson (14.7 ppg) and Henry Sims (12.6 ppg) paces the Georgetown offense.
• Otto Porter comes off the bench and leads the Hoyas on the glass with a 6.1 rebounding average. Thompson is second at 5.8 rpg.
• Sims is tops on the team with 39 assists (3.9 apg) and 16 blocked shots, while Clark has a team-high 17 steals.
• Georgetown is shooting 49.2 percent from the field, 37 percent from the arc and 74.5 percent from the charity stripe.
• The Hoyas are out-rebounding their foes by an average margin of +6.7 boards per game (36.9-30.2).
• John Thompson III is in his eighth year as head coach at Georgetown and has a 169-74 record at the school.

MEMPHIS VERSUS THE BIG EAST
• The Tigers are 127-142 all-time versus current members of the Big East Conference.
• Memphis has played Cincinnati (31-36), Connecticut (1-0), DePaul (14-12), Georgetown (2-9), Louisville (34-52), Marquette (14-12), Pittsburgh (1-1), Providence (2-3), St. John's (1-1), Seton Hall (3-1), Syracuse (1-3), USF (18-3), Villanova (4-8) and West Virginia (1-1).
• Memphis has played 14 of the 16 Big East schools, leaving Notre Dame and Rutgers as the two league programs the Tigers have not faced.
• Most of the contests versus Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and USF were former league games (Missouri Valley, Metro, Great Midwest, Conference USA).
• Since the start of the 2005-06 campaign (when the Big East realigned), Memphis is 9-6 against teams from the Big East.
• The last time the Tigers played a Big East opponent was five days ago (Dec. 17). Memphis dropped a narrow 95-87 decision to the No. 4/4 Cardinals in Louisville, Ky.

TIGERS LOVE HOLIDAY HOOPS
• The holidays are a time to spread good cheer. Well, the Tigers have done just that for their fans since the 1999-2000 campaign.
• When playing over the holidays (Dec. 22-Jan. 4), Memphis has an impressive 31-7 record (.816 winning percentage) since the 1999-2000 campaign.
• Since 2005-06, the Tigers are 18-3 (.889 winning percentage) in "Holiday Hoops" contests.

A TIGERS PRE-CHRISTMAS GIFT
• The Tigers enjoy this time of the year -- the season of giving. And they enjoy it most when they can give their fans a win right before the Christmas holiday.
• In the last 10 years, Memphis is 8-2 in its final game before Christmas, including an 85-71 victory over Georgetown in 2007-08.

A BARTON HOMECOMING
• For the Barton brothers, Antonio and Will, Thursday's game is a homecoming for them.
• The brothers are Baltimore natives and grew up around 40 miles outside Washington, D.C.
• Prior to playing their final season of high school hoops at different prep schools (2009-10), the brothers played together on the 2008-09 Lake Clifton squad that went 28-0 and won the Maryland state 3A title.

FINAL FOUR "FEEL" ON THURSDAY
• Thursday's contest will have a Final Four "feel," as both Josh Pastner and John Thompson III have been a part of squads that played on the "Big Dance's" largest stage.
• For Pastner, he's made two trips to the NCAA Final Four -- once as a player and once as a staff member -- while at Arizona.
• Pastner was a player on the 1997 Arizona squad that won the NCAA title, and was a member of Lute Olson's staff that advanced to the NCAA championship game in 2001.
• In only his second season at Georgetown, Thompson guided the Hoyas on an NCAA Final Four ride in 2007.
• Tigers assistant coaches Damon Stoudamire and Jack Murphy also have been to an NCAA Final Four. Stoudamire was a player on the 1994 Arizona squad that advanced to the Final Four, while Murphy was a member of Olson's staff that coached in the 2001 Final Four.

HEY, I KNOW THEM!
• One Tiger enters Thursday's game a little more familiar with Georgetown than the rest of his teammates and coaches.
• Junior Ferrakohn Hall, who made his debut for Memphis Dec. 17 against another Big East Conference foe Louisville, was on the 2009-10 Seton Hall squad that dropped an 85-73 decision at Georgetown on Jan. 14, 2010.
• Hall made his first collegiate start against the Hoyas. He had eight points and three rebounds in 18 minutes versus Georgetown.

ODD BUT NOT ABNORMAL
• Memphis will play Georgetown for a second time this season Thursday, making it an odd "two-meetings-in-a-single-season" for non-conference foes.
• The Tigers and Hoyas previously played on Nov. 23 in the 2011 EA Sports Maui Invitational, with Georgetown taking a 91-88 win in overtime.
• Memphis will also play Tennessee Jan. 4 for a second time in 2011-12.
• While it's a rare occurrance to play a non-league foe twice in a season, Memphis has done it three previous times since 2000-01.
• The last time Memphis played a non-conference opponent twice in a season was the 2005-06 campaign. That year, the Tigers played UCLA twice, defeating the Bruins 88-80 in the NIT Season Tip-Off and falling to them 50-45 in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.
• The last time Memphis played a non-league opponent twice within the regular season was in 1994-95. The Tigers split a pair of games with UAB (80-63 away loss; 74-67 home win).
• The following is a history of Memphis playing non-conference foes twice in a season since the Tigers began conference affiliation in 1967-68:

Year	Opponent	Results

2011-12	Georgetown*	88-91, L; --

2005-06	UCLA	88-80, W; 45-50, L

2001-02	Temple	64-54, W; 78-72, W

2000-01	Utah	58-61, L; 71-62, W

1994-95	Arkansas	87-88, L; 91-96, L

	UAB*	63-80, L; 74-67, W

1991-92	Southern Miss*	59-67, L; 80-61, W

	Arkansas	92-88, W; 82-80, W

1990-91	Miami, Fla.*	80-72, W; 83-82, W

1989-90	Tennessee	91-72, W; 71-73, L

1987-88	Arkansas St.*	60-59, W; 47-48, L

1985-86	New Orleans*	68-64, W; 63-52, W

1983-84	Miss. State*	49-50, L; 43-42, W

1981-82	East Tenn. St.*	62-67, L; 91-74, W

1980-81	Southern Miss*	70-65, W; 65-90, L

1979-80	Southern Miss*	54-59, L; 68-85, L
	Oklahoma City*	82-72, W; 69-81, L

1975-76	Southern Miss*	84-70, W; 87-72, W

	Oklahoma City*	87-70, W; 96-72, W

1968-69	Loyola-N.O.*	74-54, W; 80-62, W

1967-68	Loyola-N.O.*	72-64, W; 53-56, L

* both meetings occurred within regular season (no postseason)

MIRROR, MIRROR
• The Tigers and Hoyas have several similarities statistically -- especially on the offensive end -- and the following shows that (respective conference rank follows stat):

	UofM/Rank	Statistic	GU/Rank

	82.1/1st	Score Off	77.6/5th

	69.5/3rd	FT Pct.	74.5/2nd

	48.7/1st	FG Pct.	49.2/3rd

	38.9/2nd	3P FG Pct.	37.0/4th

	14.5/2nd	Assists	15.2/5th

	1.2/2nd	Asst.-TO Ratio	1.3/5th

SHARING THE WEALTH
• For the first time in four years, the Tigers had six players score double figures in a single game.
• In the Dec. 19 victory over Lipscomb, Adonis Thomas scored 18 points, Will Barton 16, Tarik Black 13, Chris Crawford 11, Joe Jackson 10 and Antonio Barton 10.
• The last time the Tigers had six players score double digits in a game was Nov. 27, 2007, in a 104-82 win over Austin Peay.