Tiger Basketball Podcast

Basketball. Actual Memphis basketball.

It's been more than seven months since most of us have seen the Tigers in a game setting against another team. 

But, on Oct. 28, Memphis will face Mississippi State in an exhibition contest at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville. 

On this week's episode of the Tiger Basketball Podcast, Jason Munz and Jonah Dylan highlight the biggest things they'll be looking for when the Tigers and Bulldogs square off. In addition, Munz and Dylan discuss Memphis' closed scrimmage against Jacksonville State and answer some listener-submitted questions (about Nemanja Popovic, Fred Smith, Dylan Jones and more). 

The countdown to the 2026-27 Memphis basketball season is on.

The Tigers have preseason exhibition games coming up in a matter of weeks, then tip off the regular season on Nov. 2. 

Which means it's time. Time to get familiar with the players that coach Penny Hardaway has assembled to get the program back on solid ground. Fair warning, there are a lot of them. Fifteen, in fact. Only two of them were at Memphis last season. And only one of them saw significant playing time. 

Never fear. On this episode of the Tiger Basketball Podcast, Jason Munz and Jonah Dylan break it all down. They will provide a rundown on each and every player (one through 15) to help you get better acquainted with the largely new crop of Tigers and project the roles all 15 will play (starters, rotation players, depth pieces) for Hardaway.

The Memphis basketball team's "ceiling" is 19 wins, a third-place finish in the American Conference and no March Madness appearance, according to ESPN. 

On this week's episode of the Tiger Basketball Podcast, Jason Munz and Jonah Dylan share their unfiltered reactions to such a take and explain why recent history suggests Penny Hardaway and Co. could be in for a far better outcome than that. 

Munz and Dylan also dive into Hardaway's recent comments about the amount of pressure on him going into the 2026-27 season, touch on the eligibility status of Nemanja Popović, and sit down with Memphis assistant coach Sean Mock.

Memphis football is the talk of the town after a buzzworthy defensive performance powered the Tigers to a 27-21 Week 0 win at UNLV.

Charles Huff and Co. hope to hit another high note by christening the newly renovated Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium with a win over Arkansas State on Sept. 5. 

On this week's episode, Tiger football beat writer Jonah Dylan and Tiger basketball beat writer Jason Munz relive some key under-the-radar moments from the victory in Vegas and set up the Group of 6 showdown against the Red Wolves. 

Dylan and Munz also update where things stand with Nemanja Popovic's eligibility and explain why the American Conference's recent ban on professional players returning to college has no bearing on the situation. 

First impressions can be powerful.

So, after catching our first in-person glimpse of the 2026-27 Memphis basketball team, Jason Munz and Jonah Dylan are leaning into them. 

Fresh off observing a portion of the team's summer workouts on July 23, Munz and Dylan parse through their primary takeaways and try to decide whether it was enough to actually convince them of anything. 

Also, on this week's episode of the Tiger Basketball Podcast, Munz and Dylan discuss the latest scheduling news and welcome Bartlett High 4-star guard Dylan Jones for a guest appearance (starting at the 1:13:53 mark of the episode). They also recap Dylan's trip to SEC and American Conference football media days and predict how many conference titles the Tigers will win in 2026-27. 

Kendric Davis recently returned to Memphis for a few days to train with his former coach, Penny Hardaway, and the new Tiger basketball team. 

On the heels of that visit, the Sydney Kings' superstar point guard sat down for an extended interview with Commercial Appeal reporters Jason Munz and Jonah Dylan, which covered a wide range of topics. Including:

• His impressions of the 2026-27 Tigers roster (27:15)
• Becoming "the new standard" for Memphis point guards in the transfer portal era (28:03)
• A previously untold story that speaks to his connection with the city (32:36)
• The NBA opportunity that has so far eluded him (36:32)
• The landmark contract he signed with the Kings earlier this year (38:18)
• The NCAA Tournament loss to FAU (39:35)
• Never being 100% healthy at Memphis (42:14)
• The very real, very intense rivalry with NBL MVP Bryce Cotton (44:06)

On this episode, Munz and Dylan also discuss behind-the-scenes chatter from the Tigers' summer workouts, among several other topics. 

Penny Hardaway is not leaving anything to chance.

Hence the pursuit of 24-year-old Serbian center Nemanja Popović, which yielded a commitment from the All-Polish Basketball League first-team selection. 

All that's left for he and the Tigers is the formal signing. While we await clearance of that final hurdle, Jason Munz and Jonah Dylan dive into what Popović's addition might mean for Memphis. How it might affect the starting lineup. How the rotation might shake out. What it might do for the Tigers' ceiling. And more. 

Also, on this week's edition of the Tiger Basketball Podcast, Munz and Dylan get into the contract that former Memphis star Jalen Duren might soon be signing (and the significance of it) and field some listener-submitted questions on both football and basketball. 

There is a high degree of surface-level significance to University of Memphis athletics' plan to fully fund revenue sharing in 2026-27. 

There are also what feels like a proverbial metric ton of layers to the news that are at least equally significant. Some might argue even more significant. 

On this week's episode of the Tiger Basketball Podcast, Jason Munz and Jonah Dylan recap the announcement Memphis athletic director made regarding revenue sharing, explain the difference between revenue sharing and NIL payments, and unpack the implications associated with the announcement. 

Also, Munz and Dylan field questions from listeners. Among the topics discussed are whether basketball coach Penny Hardaway will fill his final roster spot and the outlook for Tiger football. 

The start of Memphis basketball's 2026-27 season is still more than five months away.

But coach Penny Hardaway already has everything he needs to start making lineup decisions and rotation choices. 

Hardaway likely won't officially settle on anything for a long while. After all, summer workouts don't even begin for another two weeks. But, on this week's episode of the Tiger Basketball Podcast, Jason Munz and Jonah Dylan dig into all the pieces the Tigers have added over the past six weeks.

Munz and Dylan discuss, in-depth, some of the more prominent newcomers (including Tylik Weeks and Jayden Reid), then forecast who is most likely to be Memphis' five starters for the season opener against Iowa State on Nov. 2, and which players figure to be first off the bench. 

Does Memphis basketball have enough money to compete in today's day and age? 

That issue is unequivocally at the forefront of the Tigers' offseason, as coach Penny Hardaway works to retool his roster in hopes of rebounding from a dreadful 13-19 season. 

On this episode of the Tiger Basketball Podcast, Jason Munz and Jonah Dylan unpack that topic and highlight some of Memphis athletic director Ed Scott's comments to Munz during a recent exclusive interview. Also, Commercial Appeal high school beat writer Wendell Shepherd Jr. joins the podcast to break down what the Tigers are getting in Briarcrest stars Fred Smith Jr. and Parker Pounds. Then, Munz and Dylan get into the latest transfer portal news, highlight the job new women's basketball coach Hana Haden is doing to rebuild her roster, and answer a handful of listener-submitted questions.