Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Memphis Whips Tennessee in Double-OT Maui Classic; Jerome Maymon Scores 32 for Vols with 20 Boards

College Hoops Player of the Day for Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Maui Invitational is always an entertaining, early-season event, attracting some of the best college teams, but this year's field may be one of the best ever, with Tennessee, Duke, Michigan and Memphis among the power teams at the event.

Fans got their money's worth in the second-round, double-overtime, 99-97, victory by Memphis over Tennessee. The two teams hoisted up 144 shots, 30 from 3-point range, and saw Memphis squander a ten point half time lead only to come back and win it at the end of two extra five minute periods.

Will Barton scored 25 points and had 11 rebounds, but he was not the star of the game. That honor belonged to Tennessee's little-known junior forward, Jeronne Maymon, who poured in 32 points and grabbed 20 rebounds. Maymon, who began his college hoops career at Marquette before transferring to the Vols last season, set career high makrs in scoring and rebounding, recording his third straight double-double for the 2-2 Volunteers.

Maymon has a nice touch for a 6'7", 265-pound power forward. He made 16 of 17 free throws and was eight of 15 from the field. Of his 20 boards, nine were on the offensive end.

Tennessee, which lost both of their games on the tropical island, will play host school Chaminade in a consolation game Wednesday afternoon. The Vols dropped their opening game to Duke, 77-67.

NOTABLE: The Louisville Cardinals improved to 4-0 Tuesday night, but coach Rick Pitino isn't doing any victory laps over their latest win, a horribly-played, 54-27 win over the Arkansas State Red Wolves.

While Pitino's kids shot just 37% for the game and turned the ball over 16 times, the Red Wolves were worse by orders of magnitude, hitting just 10 of 41 shots (24%), including just one of 10 three pointers. They also hit just six of 18 free throws and committed 23 turnovers. It was the lowest point total for Arkansas State since the institution of the shot clock in 1986 and Louisville's best defensive game since 1947.

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