MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Tigers and Jeremiah Martin getting a little more fuel for their fire Wednesday.
Martin was not named the AAC Player of the Year despite leading the league in scoring, being second in steals, and fourth in assists.
Instead it’s Cincinnati’s Jarron Cumberland getting the American’s top honor.
That just makes for more motivation as Jeremiah Martin tries to do the one thing he hasn’t done as a Tiger, and that’s make the NCAA Tournament and lead a U of M team to the big dance for the first time since 2014.
“I feel confident, yeah know. I feel like we play our best basketball at home and we feed off the great crowd that we have. I feel like we are going to win it and shock a lot of people,” Martin said.
“We are doing all the right things now. At the beginning of the year we weren’t really doing the thing we were supposed to be doing on the court. And now we are doing everything the right way. Playing the right way and playing for each other and it’s hard to lose when you are playing that way,” said Raynere Thornton.
“We have put ourselves behind the eight ball kind of, not impossible to win four games in four nights. And I definitely want to add to the banners that are already here,” said coach Penny Hardaway.
The Tigers have to win four games in four days in order to win the conference tournament. And it all starts Thursday against Tulane, the worst team in the AAC. The Green Wave went 0-18 in conference play this year.