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Shaq Goodwin hits elbow slam, gets technical, celebrates anyway

For someone who had just been assessed a technical foul, Memphis forward Shaq Goodwin appeared to be awfully pleased with himself.

He chest bumped one teammate and slapped hands with another during a loss to Tulane after channeling Vince Carter on a fast-break dunk.

With Memphis trailing Tulane by three in the final minute of Saturday's first half, Goodwin poked the ball away from T.J. Oliver, found himself alone in the open floor and soared for Carter's trademark elbow dunk. It was a display of remarkable athleticism, but it also earned a technical foul from the referees for hanging on the rim.

Goodwin's dunk will surely make the rounds on social media and all the highlight shows Saturday, but he doesn't deserve those accolades. This was a selfish, ill-advised decision from a senior who should know better.

Memphis (14-10, 5-7) is in the midst of a disappointing season in which it had lost five of its previous seven games to put coach Josh Pastner's job in jeopardy. Worse yet, the Tigers were trailing a Tulane team that entered play Saturday just 2-10 in the American Athletic Conference.

Had Goodwin's technical come with his team up double figures in the final two minute, there would be no complaints. Heck, had Goodwin merely shown contrition, that would have been enough to deflect much of the criticism. But celebrating despite a needless technical foul in a game his team trailed? That's not a winning play.

Tulane's Cameron Reynolds made the technical free throw, and that was significant in a game that every point mattered. The Green Wave forced overtime on a Reynolds 3-pointer with 20 seconds left in regulation and pulled away for a 94-87 victory.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!