Memphis lacks the manpower to meet expectations

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- From the arena filled with blue to the national television broadcast, on the surface it felt and looked like any other tilt between Memphis and Tennessee from recent years. But then the game began. And the players started playing. And if there are any remaining Memphis fans holding out hope that somehow, someway, this season isn't going to be the drop-off most anticipated, well, God bless them, because they are the irrational diehards every school needs.

Josh Pastner doesn't have the talent right now, but that may change next season. (AP)

"I think we controlled the game," Bruce Pearl said after his Tennessee Vols recorded a 66-59 victory over Memphis here at FedExForum, and by controlled the game I'm assuming he meant physically overwhelmed an out-manned opponent.

Yes, these are still the Memphis Tigers.

And yes, they will be back.

But what the nation saw Thursday is that John Calipari didn't leave Josh Pastner with much except a lingering NCAA investigation. Truth is, Memphis has just one Memphis-caliber player, and it's a player (Elliot Williams) who transferred from Duke after Calipari had already exited for Kentucky. Guys like Doneal Mack, Roburt Sallie and Willie Kemp are fine. But they should be role players at this level, and there's a reason why Will Coleman is the only prospect from the class Calipari assembled while still at Memphis who actually enrolled at Memphis.

The reason?

Coleman isn't better than Patrick Patterson.

Or DeMarcus Cousins.

Or Daniel Orton.

Calipari didn't need Coleman at Kentucky, you see, so he let Memphis keep him. It was a nice gesture. But it wasn't nearly enough to put the Tigers in a position to succeed this year, which has had Pastner walking a fine line through the first seven weeks of the season. The schedule was built to secure early wins and hopefully build confidence within the team. But what it actually did was create false hope among the fan base that Pastner could bridge the gap between the Calipari era and the future of Memphis basketball without much of a hiccup.

That was never a likely scenario.

The necessary roster just wasn't in place.

You can look at the past two Memphis losses for proof.

In the loss to UMass, freshman D.J. Stephens had the ball in the closing seconds and needed only to hold it to secure a win. But he let it get ripped away, and it landed in the arms of UMass' Terrell Vinson, who then converted an easy layup for the victory. The Memphis loss to Tennessee produced a similar moment when freshman Drew Barham found himself with the ball in the corner and in position to shoot a 3-pointer. If he shoots it and makes it, Memphis is down only two points with about 20 seconds remaining. Instead, Barham hesitated, got tied up and turned the ball over, which effectively ended the Tigers' hope of a comeback.

The point is this: Though Stephens was only getting low-major offers when Pastner decided to take him and Barham was on his way to the Missouri Valley Conference before he opted to walk-on, Pastner has had to insert both into close games late because he has no better options. And he can't really get upset with Stephens or Barham because, honestly, they just aren't equipped to play in those situations.

"We've known since back in August that we were going to have some holes," Pastner said while refusing to take the bait when I kept pressing for the real reason his Tigers shot 31.4 percent from the field and were dominated on the glass by a 47-28 margin.

It's not because of effort or strategy or fundamentals, or at least those aren't the main problems. The main problem is that Pastner inherited an average-at-best roster, and it's starting to show as Memphis enters Sunday's game against Houston Baptist with a 9-3 record devoid of what anybody would call even a decent win.

"Our goals are to hold a team under 40 percent from the field and under 30 percent from 3, which we did," Pastner said. "And we forced them to 16 turnovers. But ... "

But Memphis still lost.

At home.

To a team that recently lost by 22 at Southern California.

The good news for Pastner is that all of this will be solved next season, when the top-ranked recruiting class he signed -- highlighted by Will Barton, Joe Jackson and Jelan Kendrick -- enrolls and pushes Memphis back to the level where it's possible to again run through Conference USA. But the bad news is that there's a lot of games to be played before next season, and there's only so much a man can do when he inherits a roster lacking size, strength and, most of all, talent.