MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In 2024 the Memphis Tigers finished nine games under .500 and missed the American Athletic Conference Tournament.

Now entering his second season, head coach Matt Riser has been busy bolstering his roster from top to bottom.

” We ran out of juice maybe halfway through the year and weren’t able to finish the way we wanted to finish or where we wanted to finish so obviously that was a mission for us through the recruiting process, we wanted to be intentional about three things. We wanted the intangibles, we wanted the most competitive human beings we could have. We wanted the most mature young men that we could find physically and emotionally,” said Riser.

In the off-season, the Tigers added 27 new players with a lot of experience, 14 of which were from the junior college ranks and seven 4-year transfers.

” The whole team hangs out together outside of practice and I feel like I never really had that. At Ole Miss, it was kind of just a few of us, at my juco I did a little bit, but here we’re just all close,” said Northwest CC transfer James Smith IV.

“This team has done a really good job of doing that and trying to build those relationships that’s one of our pillars of our program. They’ve taken the time and effort to get to know each other,” said Riser.

Following his first season as head coach, Riser loved what his team did offensively, but going into this season, one area he wanted to improve was on the mound.

” We had some games where we were ahead eight runs and we were still kind of sweating it out in the dugout. If you can pitch and play defense, you can stay in every single game. If you’re going to be short on one side or the other, you’d rather be short on the offensive side rather than the pitching side of things,” added Riser.

” Our pitchers are amazing this year at the beginning of the fall, the pitchers were dominating and then the hits started putting together hits, so I think that we’re well-rounded,” said Smith.

With Opening Day a week away, Riser wants his group to balance their emotions, knowing there’s a long road ahead for them to reach their goals as conference champions.

” I have everyone ask, the golden question, ” hey, how we going to be?” I’ll tell you in five months how we were. The biggest thing we’re trying to do is take a day-to-day approach and be the best version of ourselves and make sure we fix the things that need to be fixed and strengths are strengths and make them stronger”.