Last Sunday Memphis beat UAB 84-72 in the AAC tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Tigers have now had a winning season for 25 straight years and are heading back to the NCAA tourney for the 3rd time in 4 years. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Memphis pom team member Bailey Rollins about winning the conference tourney and making the NCAA tourney.
You are from Nashville, TN: what made you choose Memphis? I knew the coach (Carol Lloyd) and had some other friends who enjoyed their experiences up here. I attended a couple clinics and loved the vibe so it drew me in.
You are majoring in exercise sport and movement sciences and minoring in psychology and medical assisting: how did you choose those subjects? When I arrived on campus I was planning to attend nursing school so I did all my prerequisites for that, applied to nursing school, and got accepted…but it is impossible to do both at the same time so I chose to dance on the team for 2 more years. I thought about becoming a Physical Therapist/Physician Assistant, but now I will use my medical assisting minor to go to nursing school at Vanderbilt in August.
You are a senior: what is the post-graduate school plan? Nursing school is an accelerated masters program that will last 4 straight semesters. After that I hope to get a job at a hospital, get some experience, and then possibly do some travel nursing.
1 of your hobbies is cooking: what is your specialty? I just love to cook anything in general. I cook almost all my meals after growing up watching my parents/Nana cook.
Last Sunday in the AAC tourney title game the Tigers had a win over UAB to clinch the title: what was the reaction like after the final buzzer went off, and how excited is everyone on campus this week? It was amazing! The whole pom and cheer teams were yelling and it was good to have such a live experience. The energy throughout the arena was crazy and is also good on campus.
Your team has won 20 of its past 22 games: has it reached a point where everyone expects the team to win every time that they step onto the court? We do not “know” they will win…but we do “expect” them to win. They have held their own against the toughest teams and been clutch when needed.
Your basketball team missed the NCAA tourney last year but made it in 2022/2023: did you make it to either of those 2 tourneys? I went to the 1 in 2023, which was very fun. I was not as excited back then because this year the team has a different aspect that makes everything so much more dynamic. I am excited that we have already made it this far.
How does your school decide who gets to go to the NCAA tourney, and what will it mean to you to see your group doing its thing in front of a national TV audience? We took all of our seniors on pom/cheer. We have 6 seniors on pom so that worked out perfectly. It will be a great experience, and to share our talent while supporting the basketball team means the world to me. I would not trade it for anything and it has been 1 of the best experiences of my life.
Does your squad have anything extra-special planned for this week? We will do a send-off tomorrow with our team members who are not going. After we arrive we are attending a couple of special events to support the team. I am sure we will do send-offs every day if we continue to win and we will be their biggest fans on the court.
Any predictions for you game on Friday vs. Colorado State in Seattle? I predict that we will win. It will be tough, as Colorado State has won 10 in a row, but if we play hard then I see no reason why we will not pull it off.
