Tigers gear up for C-USA tourney

Head coach Josh Pasnter talks to media

about the upcoming Conference USA tournament

 

     Few were on hand to see the open to the public practice of the regular season Conference USA champs - The university of Memphis Tigers basketball team. Though they won't know who they're opponent is until late Wednesday evening, players and coaches seemed to be very loose heading into Thursday's quarterfinal game against the winner of UTEP/Houston.

"We've had good days of practice on Monday and Tuesday and I've really liked our approach," said Josh Pastner, head coach of the Tigers. No matter whom we play, whether its UTEP or Houston, we've got to be ready to play - we just got to keep it going."

There were a couple of reasons why the team seemed to be so happy and looked like they've got that swagger back during the early morning practice - freshman Adonis Thomas and sophomore Antonio Barton. Both were back at practice, and participating in full drills, after it seemed that both had suffered season ending injuries - Antonio's foot and Adonis's ankle. So players are happy to have the team at full strength again.

"Everything's good, I give all the glory to God," Thomas said. "I want to come back better than I was before the injury. I knew I was just getting to where I wanted to be when I went down. My conditioning is good, I can get up and down the court, but defensively I got to pick it up because this is a good defensive team and I got to contribute the way that they are."

The good news didn't stop there. Sophomore guard Will Barton won the conference's Player of the Year award, an award that was his for the taking. . The 6-foot-6 guard led the team and Conference USA in scoring with an 18.7 average is also ranked among the league leaders in rebounding, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, assists, steals and minutes played. He is the only guard ranked in the top-10 of C-USA's rebounding leaders.

He is one of nine players in Tigers history to reach the 1,000-point plateau in only two seasons. The Baltimore, Md., native has 10 double-doubles this season and is one of three players in the nation to average at least 16.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

"I just want to thank the league for making me player of the year," Barton said. "I also want to thank my coaches and teammates as well because it's really a team award even though I won it as an individual. My teammates helped me out by setting me up and getting me the ball, my coaches had faith to run plays for me - so I want to thank the whole Memphis staff, the program and league for making me player of the year."