Memphis Tiger Baskeball – Memphis Flyer

Embarrassing.

That was the trigger word. Last Thursday, a reporter asked Penny Hardaway if he was embarrassed after his Memphis Tigers’ latest disappointment, an eight-point loss to SMU that left the team — once ranked 9th in the country — 9-8 for the season. The fourth-year basketball coach forgot about the lights, cameras, and recorders, and let it be known how he felt.

“Stop asking me stupid f*****g questions about if I feel like I can do something. … I’m coaching really hard, my boys are playing really hard. I’m not embarrassed about nothing.”

It was hard to witness, knowing Hardaway’s stature in this town. Since taking the job in March 2018, Hardaway has brought dignity and composure to almost every public appearance. He’s been angry, frustrated, impatient. His teams, to date, have under-performed. But he’s kept himself together under a spotlight no other Memphian would welcome. That composure cracked last Thursday. [Hardaway apologized via Instagram on Friday, at least “to my school, to the players and to our fans.” No mention of “this media” that stirred him so the night before.]

Consider the word embarrassing and its association to Hardaway in the context of basketball. This is a man who, as a player, performed in the NBA Finals, All-Star games, the Olympics. Rarely was he embarrassed in sneakers and shorts on a basketball court. He took up coaching a decade ago and did nothing but win at the middle school and high school levels. There was nothing embarrassing about winning three state championships at East High School. (The James Wiseman controversy surfaced later. Depending on your view, that qualifies as embarrassing for either Hardaway or the NCAA.)

A revealing detail about Hardaway’s angry reaction to the “embarrassing” question: It came after he said this: “Right now, we aren’t fighting hard enough. This isn’t a Memphis team.” This isn’t a Memphis team. Those five words are the equivalent of … embarrassment. One standard (Hardaway’s personal success, now connected to the historical success of the Memphis program) exceeds the current standard, enough for the coach to disassociate his current players with the very brand (the University of Memphis) they represent. If Hardaway isn’t embarrassed, he wouldn’t want to acknowledge the other emotion his comments suggest: shame. “My boys are playing really hard” … but against SMU, at least, they aren’t a Memphis team?

A Memphis team showed up at Tulsa Sunday, the Tigers erasing a 13-point halftime deficit to win their first game on the Golden Hurricane’s floor since 2012. Memphis played shorthanded again, with DeAndre Williams, Landers Nolley, and Jalen Duren all nursing injuries. Star turns from Tyler Harris and Josh Minott off the bench were enough to beat the American Athletic Conference’s cellar dweller. Hardaway could, metaphorically speaking, catch his breath and say all the right things about a road victory.

The coach’s job will likely grow heavier, because the current team (now 10-8 and 4-4 in the AAC) is a long shot for the NCAA tournament. Missing the Big Dance would make it eight years in a row, half of those on Hardaway’s watch. His comments last Thursday night were Hardaway’s first confession that he understands and feels the pressure of history on his beloved alma mater. It was the rare chance for those who watch, analyze, and discuss a hometown hero to see and hear what that hometown hero thinks from his own perspective.

Athletes — and coaches — are rarely their best in front of cameras after a loss. Penny Hardaway will surely have better moments (and better press conferences) in the days to come. The best athletes are able to forget poor outings and regain peak performance. An embarrassing press conference? Coaches and communities as attached as Hardaway and Memphis forget those, too.

I’m going with James Wiseman as the incredible Hulk. Then D.J. Jeffries as Iron Man. We’ll find a shield for Lester Quinones and call him Captain America (Captain Memphis?). And Malcolm Dandridge has the arms to play Thor. At least for now. At Penny Hardaway’s current pace, the casting for the 2019-20 Memphis Tiger basketball team is hardly complete.

Hardaway’s second recruiting class has become an Avengers movie. And if you have trouble focusing during an all-in Marvel battle at the multiplex, just wait for upcoming winter nights at FedExForum. If Hardaway’s second class of freshmen lives up to its ranking and signing-day reactions across the country, Tiger basketball and the NIT won’t again be mentioned in the same sentence.
Larry Kuzniewski

Does this man own an eye patch?

By now, we know a single Avenger can make a blockbuster. (Iron Man proved this three times.) Had Hardaway merely signed Wiseman — the top-ranked recruit in the country, a five-star center who starred for Hardaway at East High School — the Memphis program would find itself in new territory come November, one where teams well beyond the American Athletic Conference must now consider Penny power in the national recruiting race. But Wiseman now represents the centerpiece in a collection of NBA-bound talent, a group unlike any seen in these parts in over a decade. (And I’m not convinced any of John Calipari’s classes topped this one.)

Let’s review the new arrivals. In addition to Wiseman, Hardaway — as Nick Fury, minus the eye patch — has landed two other top-50 recruits (according to Rivals): Quinones (48) and Olive Branch star D.J. Jeffries (50). Guard Damion Baugh (ranked 84th by Rivals) and Dandridge (123rd) give the class no fewer than four four-star members to surround the five-star Wiseman. With two scholarships still on the table, Hardaway’s pursuing a trio of five-stars: New York forward Precious Achiuwa (a pal of Quinones’), Alabama forward Trendon Watford, and Texas guard R.J. Hampton. Yet another blue chip, guard Boogie Ellis, was on the U of M campus last week, deciding if Memphis might be a better fit than his original destination: Duke. Consider that: A prize recruit is deciding if Memphis basketball is more attractive than Duke.

For the first time in a quarter century, the Tigers will open their season without a single starter from the previous campaign. (Hardaway himself was part of the 1992-93 starting five that departed together.) And it’s a good thing those starters are gone, for there are still only 200 player minutes to distribute in a college basketball game. It’s little wonder three members (all reserves) from last year’s team have decided to transfer. There would not be room in next year’s rotation for Antwann Jones, Victor Enoh, or David Wingett. When you boil things down — remember, two scholarships left — there’s only room for two of three more five-star recruits on the Memphis radar.

Recruiting rankings go only so far. No banner will be hung at FedExForum for Hardaway-as-Fury landing a top-five class. Ultron (Houston?) is out there, standing between Memphis and its first AAC championship. For the ultimate goal — a national championship — to be attained, Hardaway and his recruits will have to topple Thanos in one form or another (Kentucky? please??). But here’s the thing: You don’t topple Kentucky without the star recruits. Thus the spring euphoria around the U of M program.

By the time you read this, Achiuwa (Hawkeye?) may be posing for pics in blue and gray with Quinones. Perhaps Ellis will sweep back into town (Falcon?) to make Memphis the envy of Duke fans far and wide. However Hardaway’s roster is completed, the 2019-20 season can’t get here soon enough. Marvel fans had to wait an entire year between Infinity War and Endgame. It’s only six months until this Tiger blockbuster premiers at FedExForum.