Jalen Duren, DeAndre Williams, Landers Nolley out for Memphis basketball vs. Tulsa

TULSA — The Tigers' roster has been depleted by injuries for a long time.

It will be even more so for at least one more game.

Freshman center Jalen Duren will not play Sunday against Tulsa due to a hand injury he suffered after the team's loss to SMU earlier this week, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told The Commercial Appeal.

In addition, Memphis basketball's leading scorer DeAndre Williams and last season's leading scorer Landers Nolley II did not travel with the team for Sunday's contest at Tulsa (2 p.m., ESPN) and will not play. Williams (back) got hurt late in the Tigers' win over Tulsa on Jan. 4 at FedExForum. He has now missed five games because of it. Nolley, sitting out his third game, last played Jan. 12 in a loss at UCF due to a knee problem.

Backup Jayden Hardaway (knee) will also each miss another game, his third straight.

Reserve forward Chandler Lawson, who has not played since Nov. 24 due to an ankle injury is expected to play against the Golden Hurricane.

Memphis (9-8, 3-4 AAC) has been beset by a rash of injuries to both starters and role players for more than a month. Since beating Alabama on Dec. 14, the Tigers have played eight games. In each of those games, at least two players with more than one start this season and one reserve were sidelined. In seven of the eight, three starters and one backup sat out.

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Penny Hardaway's frustration boiled over Thursday following his team's third straight loss and its eighth in the last 12 games. He made national headlines when he delivered a profanity-laced response to a question from a media member about the confidence in the job he's doing.

“Y’all know we don’t have our full roster. So, stop asking me stupid, (expletive) questions about if I feel like I can do something," he said. "We have four freshmen starting (referring to Emoni Bates, Jalen Duren, Josh Minott and Earl Timberlake, a sophomore). Y’all need to act like it. Act like we’ve got 17- and 18- and 19-year-olds out here trying to learn how to play against 22-, 23- and 24-year-old guys. C’mon, man. Stop disrespecting me, bro. Like, don’t do that. I work too (expletive) hard. I work way too hard for that. Y’all write all these (expletive) articles about me and all I do is work. We’ve got young kids on the floor.”

Hardaway later apologized to the University of Memphis, his players and Tiger fans in a video posted on Instagram.

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The prolonged injury situation facing Hardaway and his roster has been weighing on him for some time. In December, the Tigers appeared to have weathered a four-game losing streak by rattling off four wins in five games, including a home victories over then-top 10 Alabama and longtime conference rival Cincinnati. Then, Memphis lost at UCF and Hardaway was asked whether he was worried about losing momentum.

"I'm worried about injuries. We lost the game due to injuries, my man," he said. "You can't go beat these good teams on the road, especially when you're losing bodies during the game. We lost Earl during the game last game (versus Cincinnati). We lost Jayden during the game (versus UCF). I mean, it's too much to overcome. I'm not really worried about the league if we're healthy, you know what I mean? Right now, we're not. We've just got to get healthy."

Nolley, in an interview after the UCF loss, revealed he does not share his coach's take on the injury situation.

"That's just an excuse for the public," he said. "I've got to help us do better. Help us lock in. But (being) short-handed is just an excuse. I've seen teams win ball games with six guys. So I feel like if I elevate us and help us elevate and just help us lock in and do the small things, we win that ball game easily."

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis basketball: Jalen Duren, DeAndre Williams, Landers Nolley out vs. Tulsa