The Memphis basketball team's sharp drop in the national rankings came Monday.

Less than 24 hours after a Quad 3 overtime road loss to Wichita State , the Tigers (21-5, 11-2 AAC) sank from No. 14 to No. 19 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. It is the first time in four weeks Penny Hardaway's team has gone backward in that poll.

Memphis plummeted further in the Associated Press Top 25. The Tigers went from 14th last week to No. 22 on Monday. It is the most precipitous drop of any team still in the poll. Memphis is slotted between No. 21 Mississippi State and 22nd-ranked Kansas.

The loss at Charles Koch Arena snapped Memphis' eight-game winning streak and marks just the second true road loss of the season. The team's only other loss in conference came at Temple on Jan. 16.

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Hardaway has consistently stressed the sentiment that the Tigers are in an unenviable position every time they step on the court against another AAC team. Since Memphis has been (and will likely continue to be) favored in every game, opponents are more motivated to take them down.

"This is not a chill conference, it's a will conference," Hardaway told Tigers play-by-play man Dave Woloshin during a postgame radio interview after Sunday's game. "You've got to be ready to fight every single night. We're going to get every team's best shot. We know that already. We just have to be ready to play.

"It was just too many people who weren't ready to play."

Hardaway later said he hoped to remain in the national rankings.

"But you never know. You never know about us," he said. "That's why we have to take care of our own business and not worry about what everybody else has to do for us. We've got to bounce back."

If Memphis is to bounce back, it will happen Sunday (1 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU) when it welcomes FAU (15-10, 8-4) to FedExForum. The Tigers lead the AAC − 1.5 games ahead of North Texas and UAB, and 2.5 games ahead of FAU.