As Memphis Women’s Basketball tips off their 2024-25 season, head coach Alex Simmons, and staff, are eager to get started. Coming off an exciting opening season for Simmons that saw Memphis finish 9-9 in AAC play including winning 8 of their final 13 games, the Tigers are clawing to play ball in 2024.
The Lady Tigers will host Mississippi Valley State Devilletes at Elma Roane Fieldhouse, on Monday, for their ‘Education Day’ scheduled for an 11 am start. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Memphis will host roughly 900 kids from the Campus School and Alcy Elementary to assist in promoting education for all children in the Memphis area.
The Lady Tigers are 23-19 in season openers, which includes wins in 10 of the last 13 seasons.
We will analyze the series’ history, look at some players to watch in the opener and discuss some keys to success for Memphis
Tigers and Devilletes
This series has been brief as Memphis holds a 6-0 all-time advantage over MVSU. This meeting will be the sixth of seven to be played in Memphis with the most recent on December 20, 2019, a 91-54 victory, at Elma Roane Fieldhouse. That game saw then-freshman, Madison Griggs, drop 26 points including what would be a career-high 8 three-pointers in the win.
The Devilletes are led by third-year coach, Kimberly Anderson, and coming off a struggling 2023. Last season, MVSU finished 4-27 including a 3-15 record in SWAC play.
Players To Watch
We will now look at players from each team to keep an eye on not only this game but the remainder of the 2024 season.
MVSU
As the Devilletes enter Memphis to start 2024, coach Anderson will need many players to step up for the upset to happen. MVSU will need more than players to pull this off as they are facing a Memphis team that is talented and historically good at home. With this, Anderson has a pair of players who transferred in from Southern Arkansas Tech University.
Senior guard, Sh’Diamond McKnight, has been vital for MVSU in her time there. The Bossier City, Louisiana native enters this season coming off a 2023 season that saw her average 13 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and shot 33% from the field per game. Memphis will need to limit her touches to keep her under control in this opener. The 5’7 guard will be one to watch closely on Monday morning.
Next, we have another Senior Jaylai Reed. The 5’4 Hot Springs, Arkansas native can’t be slept on. She enters this season after averaging 9 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists while shooting 29% from the field. She, along with McKnight, will be a focus for MVSU this season.
While the Devilletes come in as a massive underdog they are a team that cannot be taken lightly by Memphis.
Memphis
The Memphis roster has talent at numerous positions and will need to prove this on Monday morning. With this, we look at two Tigers to watch in this game and season. We start with the 5th year forward Alasia Smith as she will be a focus of the Tigers in 2024.
The Johnson City, Tennessee native is a jack-of-all-trades as she played in all 30 games for Memphis in 2023. Smith is one of three returners to accomplish this feat. She also sits at the third most career rebounds among active players with 1,067 entering Monday’s game. Smith led the team with 9.5 rebounds per game and second in points with 9.8 in what was the first under coach Simmons. The former Gardner-Webb transfer is one to watch for her milestones and talent in 2024.
Next is Jackson State transfer, Tilly Boler, who will be one to watch. The Meridian, Mississippi native comes to Memphis with experience against MVSU as she faced them with JSU in the SWAC. In that game, Tiler scored 11 points and 4 rebounds on the March 9th contest.
The three-level scorer also made strides defensively as she prioritized this end of the floor to ensure a more well-rounded game. Boler averaged 12 points per game and 4 rebounds per game in her junior and senior seasons in Jackson, Mississippi. In addition to her talents, Boler brings NCAA Tournament experience as the Tigers of JSU faced UConn in round one in 2023. In that game, Boler scored a career-high 25 points.
These players, in addition to many others, will be ones to watch not only in the opener but all of 2024.
Keys To Success For Memphis
In order for Memphis to start on the winning side of 2024 they will need to do things right. With this, we have assigned three keys for the Tigers to have success against MVSU.
Play Your Game
First, Memphis needs to come out and play their game. As we learned last season, Alex Simmons-led teams are fast! To further this point, her teams have been in the top 40 in tempo in all four of her years as a coach, In 2023, Memphis ranked 40th nationally with 72.7 possessions per game. We will watch closely to see how this team runs today to start the season.
Shoot Well
Memphis will need to shoot the ball well. Yes, this seems simple but it’s not so simple. We saw the addition of DeeDee Hagemann, another highly touted transfer, from Michigan State, come to Memphis in the offseason. She ranked 4th in the nation in offensive rating {124.6} in Hi-Major players and fifth among such players in true shooting, with 65.1% behind a 67.4% shooting percentage. Hagemann will not be seen, due to academic eligibility issues, until the December 18th contest against Tennessee.
We will need to see the remainder of the roster take smart shots as they start the season and hopefully, this will continue throughout the season.
Defend Home Turf
Memphis plays their games at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse and they play well there. According to BartTorvik.com, Memphis is projected to be favored in all games played at home in 2024. In addition, the Lady Tigers are projected to finish with an 18-11 record and are favorites in 20 of 29 games.
It starts on Monday with MVSU, can the Memphis Tigers defend their Den?
