MEMPHIS – Alex Lomax bleeds blue and grey, and this season is bitter sweet for the fifth year senior. As it’s his final ride as Tiger and he’s taking nothing for granted.

” Every day matters. Every day counts. Every day is important to get better,” said Lomax.

” It’ll be some emotion because he’s been terrific for me in my career and also for the city of Memphis,” said Memphis Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway.

Unfortunately injuries have been a constant throughout Alex’s college career, but instead of getting down on himself, he’s learned from it.

” It helps me grow every time I’m hurting to send out as much as it hurt me not being on the court. I’m still finding ways to get better mentally and learning the game from different perspective.

So it’s a it’s a blessing and a curse at the same time. So I’m taking advantage of it”, said Lomax.

The Tigers got a taste of the NCAA Tournament last year and Lomax wanted more. Making the decision to return for a final season, yet there it was again. Aversity. Staring Alex in the face midway through this season. Alex suffered a groin injury in a double overtime loss on the road at Central Florida.

” To come back and have the groin, I was praying like god don’t let it end like this. Let him be able to come back and have an opportunity to play again,” said Hardaway.

” The most discouraging thing about was when I went on the internet. I’ll see that he can have you have 4 to 5 months, 12 to eight weeks and those were the things that were discouraging. So I made sure that I contacted my doctors and trainers to help to do whatever it took to give me back on the court,”said Lomax.

After missing 10 games and five weeks of action, he’s still not 100 percent, but against rival Cincinnati there he was, vintage ‘A-Lo’.

In the first half Lomax came up with back to back steals, as the Tigers held of the Bear Cats for a three point win.

” That was my welcome back ‘A-Lo’ moment,” said Hardaway. “His body’s not allowing him to do everything that he can do,

but he understands when to take opportunities and he did”.

” I’ve been through this four years out of my five years of having a span where I’m having to sit out because of an injury. So this time is approach that I knew how to take. I knew how to stay engaged with my teammates, do two-a-days and get my work done and still try to be effective when I get back,”said Lomax.

Though his final season hasn’t been exactly what he thought, he wouldn’t change a thing.

“At the end of the day is still everything that I expected. I wanted to come back to a winning program. Everything is going according

to plan, because I had only one goal and that was to make it to ‘ The Dance’ and do something special”.