The Memphis basketball team's first 2025 AAC tournament game is Friday. Our experts predict how far Penny Hardaway's team can go in the bracket.

One week from Selection Sunday and there's already March madness (lowercase on purpose) in Memphis. Coach Penny Hardaway and Memphis basketball were less than 24 hours removed from celebrating an outright conference championship by cutting down the nets at FedExForum when ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi killed some of the buzz.

Penny Hardaway and his No. 16 Memphis basketball team still have business to take care of this season. But which Tigers could be back next season?

On its surface, the Memphis basketball team's 75-70 win over UTSA may not mean much from a March Madness standpoint.

But the curse found a way to hurt Memphis anyway, as Penny Hardaway's team − which will go into the AAC tournament as the No. 1 seed − drops to No. 17 in this week's coaches poll, released Monday. It's the 11th consecutive week the Tigers have appeared in the coaches' rankings.