Memphis basketball needs to grab the city's attention. Why these Tigers might | Giannotto

The 2023-24 Memphis basketball season was barely 10 seconds old when Jaykwon Walton nearly lived up to his word.

A manager had asked him pregame to dunk on somebody Monday night, and then the ball arrived in Walton’s hands at the top of the key on the opening possession of his Memphis debut. So he pump-faked, went charging toward the rim and rose over Jackson State’s Jordan O’Neal.

“It almost happened the first play of the game,” Walton marveled afterward.

Almost.

He didn’t actually complete the dunk.

He got fouled instead, which seemed appropriate once Memphis emerged with a 94-77 win in an opener that was just scintillating enough to overlook the sloppiness of most of the game.

But the sequence helps explain one of the overarching themes of Penny Hardaway’s sixth season, which began with Hardaway somewhere other than FedExForum and Rick Stansbury acting as coach in his place because of a three-game suspension from the NCAA.

This team’s goal is to take Memphis to places it hasn’t been in too long. It’s chasing a regular-season conference title. Memphis has never done that in the AAC. It’s seeking a better seed come Selection Sunday, to make the path to a Sweet 16 more straightforward. Memphis, as you know, hasn’t advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament since John Calipari left in 2009.

But within all of that is a mission that’s interconnected but complicated. These Tigers are tasked with convincing Memphis fans they can do it. That will take a lot of wins, and perhaps a lot of wins with flair.

There was an announced crowd of 10,912 in the arena Monday, up a couple of hundred from last year’s first home game against VCU. But it’s still more than 2,000 fewer than the first home game of the 2021-22 season, more than 5,000 fewer than the 2019-20 season, and more than 4,000 less than Hardaway’s first regular-season debut in 2018.

Even when accounting for FedExForum turnstile attendance figures — or the number of people who actually attended games — attendance was down by more than 2,400 people per game last season compared to Hardaway’s first year.

Kendric Davis and DeAndre Williams were a great story last season. It also took until the middle of February for the masses to really embrace that team in a manner reminiscent of the program’s heyday. There’s a whole load of factors tied to that beyond the audience — from the effects of the pandemic, to the changing viewing habits coming out of the pandemic, to the schedule. The truth is Memphis still led the AAC in attendance by a wide margin last season.

But it’s also true that, despite the program’s gradual build on the court under Hardaway, the buzz in the city is not what it was those first couple of years he took over.

Maybe this team can change that momentum. There are some promising early signs, even from this first disjointed victory.

“We didn’t really play well,” guard Caleb Mills admitted.

He’s right — and they still nearly scored 100 points.

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This appears to be the best collection of offensive players Hardaway has put together. There might not be one option as good as Davis, but the depth of weapons is impressive. The Tigers have a veteran point guard, more shooters than before and a plethora of big men that every AAC team will be jealous of once conference play rolls around.

The first half Monday belonged to Walton, as he scored 17 of his 19 points before halftime when Jackson State was challenging Memphis. Then the cavalry arrived. The Tigers had a 10-0 run that spanned all of 47 seconds to steady themselves. Then came another one to break the game open before halftime. To start the second half, they came out and produced an early 8-0 run that took just 27 seconds.

It was, despite a spate of turnovers early, a very entertaining brand of basketball.

“This team has some spurtability,” Stansbury said, while noting that might not actually be a word. “You need that kind of firepower.”

Whether all of that firepower is good enough to be a Sweet 16 team, whether it can capture the imagination of the city — whether it’s even good enough to win at Missouri on Friday — is still unclear.

The defense has to get better. The rotation has to be sorted out better. Hardaway has to come back from suspension. There also isn’t a home game of significance until Dec. 16 against Clemson.

By then, we’ll know better if Memphis can finish the dunk that started this season.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on X: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis basketball must grab city's attention again. These Tigers can.