Jackson State (0-3) at Memphis (0-0)

It’d be hard to top the season Memphis experienced in 2005-06.

With their top three scorers gone from last season, the 13th-ranked Tigers look to build a new rotation Thursday when they host Jackson State in their regular-season opener.

The game figures to be little more than a tune-up for Memphis, which heads to Hawaii on Monday to face Oklahoma in the first round of the Maui Invitational.

The Tigers won a school-record 33 games last season, earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time. But the Tigers came up short of the Final Four with a stinging 50-45 defeat to UCLA in the school’s first regional final since 1992.

Senior Rodney Carney graduated, while Shawne Williams and Darius Washington declared for the NBA draft, leaving the Tigers with a scoring void. A team that averaged 80 points last season will rely heavily on four sophomores and a junior in 2006-07.

Sophomores Chris Douglas-Roberts, Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier all played key roles last season, as did junior Joey Dorsey. They’re the main reason Memphis was picked to repeat as Conference USA champions.

Calipari is counting on Douglas-Roberts—Memphis’ leading returner scorer at 8.3 points per game—Anderson and Dozier to carry the scoring load.

“I don’t know if they’re all going to be scorers, but those are the three who will play probably as many minutes as they can play, that meaning probably 26 to 27 minutes,” Calipari said. “And if some of them can play a few more minutes, then they will. But the way we play, it’s hard to play more than that.”

Douglas-Roberts and Dorsey were selected to the preseason all-Conference USA team, but Calipari believes Dozier, who averaged 5.6 points and 5.5 rebounds in his first year, could have the biggest impact.

“The guy who will maybe be the difference between us being good and real good is Robert Dozier, the kind of year he has,” Calipari said. “If he’s real good, we’re probably be real good. If he’s just good, we’ll probably be good.”

Also back is senior Jeremy Hunt, who averaged 9.5 points in 2004-05 but was suspended last season after he was charged with kicking and slapping a fomer girlfriend.

The Tigers have challenging games at No. 25 Tennessee and No. 15 Arizona in December in addition to a strong Maui field that also includes potential opponents No. 6 UCLA and No. 22 Kentucky, but they are the only currently ranked team in C-USA. And with a solid freshmen class to support the returnees, Memphis is expected to make the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in Calipari’s seven seasons at the school.

Memphis beat Jackson State 97-70 last season and has won 11 of the 12 meetings between the schools, all in Memphis.

Thursday’s game continues the brutal non-conference schedule for Jackson State (0-3), which will have played three ranked teams in one week, having lost 96-65 to No. 11 Alabama in their season opener Friday and 100-70 to No. 23 Georgia Tech on Monday.

Jackson State lost 76-56 to Illinois on Wednesday night and has nine road games to open the season.

The Tigers don’t play a home game until Dec. 18 against Tougaloo.

Jackson State is 0-18 against Top 25 opponents since 1996, losing by an average of 31 points.