Penny Hardaway’s seventh season as coach of the Memphis Tigers began with a bang(!) Monday in Maui. A roster that’s all but entirely new battled the second-ranked Connecticut Huskies into overtime and, thanks to nine points (six free throws) from someone named P.J. Carter, upset the two-time defending national champions, 99-97. Wait, you say, Memphis entered the game with four wins in four games. Began?
The nature of college basketball in 2024 is, in a word, flux. Players come and go with the frequency of fickle middle-school crushes. Last year’s Tiger star, David Jones, played one season in blue and gray (and won the American Athletic Conference scoring title). The Tigers’ star in 2022-23, Kendric Davis, played one season in blue and gray (and won the American Athletic Conference scoring title). These were veteran players that Hardaway essentially borrowed for a one-winter run. Cutting to the present, the 2024-25 Tigers are measuring the star power of their new roster, knowing full well most of the players we see in uniform in Maui will not be here twelve months from now. And those first four games didn’t tell us much, other than this group plays better after halftime than before.
Then came the opening game of the Maui Invitational. A team that struggled after the tip in its first four contests hit 56 percent of its shots (and five of ten three-point attempts) in going toe to toe with the mighty Huskies, the score knotted, 40 each, at halftime. Those twenty minutes would have been a win for Memphis, coming so early in the season against such a formidable foe. But the Tigers played even better (that developing trend) after the break. They again hit five of ten long-distance shots, matched UConn in rebounding, and led by 13 points with under five minutes to play. But the Huskies played like the champions they are, tying the game on a nothing-but-net three-pointer by Solo Ball with a second left on the clock. Those 40 minutes would have been a win for Memphis.
But the Tigers played even better in overtime, and without their primary scoring threat, P.J. Haggerty, who fouled out late in regulation. Enter P.J. Carter. The Atlanta native is playing his fifth college season. He spent two years at Campbell University (4.3 minutes per game), a year at Georgia Highlands College, and last season at UTSA, where he started 10 games and averaged 9.5 points per game. With six clutch free throws and a three pointer in the overtime period on Monday, Carter is now a Memphis Tiger for life. That’s how big the Tigers’ Hawaiian punch felt at the final buzzer.
Hardaway needs this team to get to the NCAA tournament . . . and win a couple of games in the Big Dance. Year Seven is long enough to wait for the hometown legend to return some glory to a long-proud program. Honestly, Hardaway has produced more national controversies as coach of the Tigers than he has NCAA tournament victories (one). And this is why the upset of UConn felt like a beginning. (For some perspective, the last time Memphis beat the second-ranked team in the country was an upset of Louisville at the Mid-South Coliseum on March 2, 1972, four months before Hardaway’s first birthday.) A team most of us didn’t know two weeks ago now has familiar faces (Tyrese Hunter!) who seem capable of beating, yes, anybody in the country.
It would be nice if Memphis beats Michigan State on Tuesday and goes on to win the Maui Invitational. But even with a loss to the Spartans, the 2024-25 Tigers have created a permanent memory: Remember Maui! That is exceedingly hard in modern college basketball, and next to impossible without a lengthy tournament run in March. A new season, a new roster, and, it appears, a new life for coach Penny Hardaway. Many journey to the islands to make a dream come true. Perhaps these Tigers’ truth is creating new dreams.
Memphis Tiger football would not be where it is today — and Ryan Silverfield would not be in charge of the program — were it not for Mike Norvell. The Tigers travel to Tallahassee this week for a Saturday confrontation with Norvell’s current team, the Florida State Seminoles. It’s hard to imagine a more poignant game against a former coach in the history of the Memphis program.
Should your memory be unusually short, Norvell arrived in Memphis as a rookie head coach before the 2016 season (with Ryan Silverfield a member of his staff). If you were familiar with the 35-year-old Arizona State assistant then, you frankly spent too much time on college football. But in just four years, Norvell won 38 games, led the Tigers to three appearances in the American Athletic Conference championship game (winning in 2019), and earned the most prestigious bowl berth (the 2019 Cotton Bowl) in Tigers history. That’s how you get the Florida State gig before your 40th birthday. Last season, Norvell’s fourth at FSU, the Seminoles went 13-0 but were somehow left out of the four-team College Football Playoff. (After several players opted out of the Orange Bowl, Florida State was crushed by Georgia.)
Florida State will not go 13-0 this season, having lost its first two games, to Georgia Tech and Boston College. Memphis will not be facing a Top-10 team this weekend, a disappointment for a program favored to win a “Group of 5” league but thirsty for an early-season attention grabber. Blowout wins over North Alabama and Troy go only so far.
Last July, I asked Silverfield about facing his former boss early in the 2024 schedule. “I’m gonna treat it like any other game,” he said. “I’ll see some of my closest friends down there. I’m from Jacksonville. If I didn’t get this job, I might still be sitting next to Mike, coaching his offensive line. But once training camp starts, I won’t give that game a single thought until the Sunday [before].”
To translate, it will be an emotional game for those with fond memories of Mike Norvell in Memphis (read: anyone who saw a game from 2016 to 2019). But for Ryan Silverfield and the current Memphis Tigers, the contest has to be treated like a step — among 12 games on the schedule — toward a higher goal. And the only way to stack wins toward a conference championship (and playoff contention) is going 1-0, week after week. Thus Florida State is “any other game.”
The Seminoles will play better than the 0-2 team they are. The Tigers will likely fall short of the standard they’ve set by outscoring two teams 78-17. But quarterback Seth Henigan is climbing the Tiger and AAC record charts with every contest and the Memphis ground game seems to be in the capable hands of Mario Anderson (125 yards on 17 carries against Troy). This Saturday’s showdown in Tallahassee will be a fun and, yes, sentimental showcase for a Memphis team still rising.
• As for the U of M basketball program, coach Penny Hardaway is once again surrounded by smoke. (Didn’t he ask for this upon taking the job six years ago?) An anonymous letter to the NCAA alleges both financial and academic misdeeds on Hardaway’s watch. You can safely ignore the padding of recruits’ wallets. (See the $20 million it has reportedly cost Ohio State to build its current football roster.) But if academic fraud involving Malcolm Dandridge can be traced to Hardaway, it will be a sad and awkward exit for a local legend. That’s a big “if,” of course. Here’s to a day we can again discuss Tiger basketball without a cloud of scrutiny growing thicker and darker.
This is arguably the greatest week of the year for Memphis sports. Seventy of the finest golfers on the planet arrive in the Bluff City for the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first of three playoff tournaments to decide the winner of this year’s FedEx Cup. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler will be here. Xander Schauffele — winner of the PGA Championship and the British Open — will be here. So will Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Justin Thomas. Memphis is the center of the golf universe for a precious, if humid, weekend.
I always think of Phil Cannon when the FESJC rolls around. We lost the longtime tournament director much too soon (in 2016), but Phil’s imprint on the event lives on, and in ways that go beyond any plaque or statue. The hundreds of volunteers who make you feel like the tournament belongs to you, personally? That’s Phil Cannon’s influence. A media center equipped with every tool a reporter might need to best share a story? That’s Phil Cannon’s influence. And the ongoing bonds between our tournament and both St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and FedEx? That’s Phil Cannon’s priority list, living and breathing, making the FESJC distinct from any other golf tournament in the world.
Phil was the primary source for my very first feature in Memphis Magazine, way back in June 1994. He treated me like a veteran scribe in town for Sports Illustrated. I have little doubt every writer who crossed his path would tell you the same thing. Phil Cannon was a Memphis treasure. When the FESJC makes sports headlines every summer, I’m reminded that he still is.
• The Memphis Redbirds unveiled a new sign on the outfield wall at AutoZone Park last Saturday, a tribute to the 1938 Negro American League champion Memphis Red Sox. It made for a glorious night at the ballpark, Memphis beating Gwinnett, 8-2, while wearing uniforms commemorating the city’s Negro League team of days gone by.
It’s a good start for a franchise and facility that desperately needs to better embrace the history we’ve seen over the ballpark’s first quarter-century. That lone red chair on the right-field bluff? That’s where Albert Pujols (yes, that guy) hit a baseball to win the 2000 Pacific Coast League championship for Memphis. But there’s no plaque to tell a new fan why September 15, 2000, is an important date in Memphis sports history. Just an oddly placed red seat.
And how about a reminder (poster?) that Yadier Molina played here, and actually caught his first game with Adam Wainwright on the mound at AutoZone Park? (The two broke the major-league record for starts by a battery in 2022.) You might recognize highlights of David Freese from the 2011 World Series. Did you know Freese hit game-winning home runs in the 2009 PCL playoffs, helping Memphis to its second championship? A visual reminder would make AutoZone Park a better, happier place.
• The U.S. Olympic basketball teams (men and women) both brought home gold medals from the Paris Games. Salute to LeBron James, Breanna Stewart, and the many future Hall of Famers who handled the uncomfortable role of heavy favorite and made it to the podium. It makes for a good time to remind voters for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame that Memphis legend Penny Hardaway is the only member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team — also gold medalists — not currently enshrined. The only one. Mitch Richmond is in the Hall of Fame, for crying out loud, but not Penny Hardaway. Let’s get this corrected.
Follow the Facebook group called Through the Eyes of Black Memphis for some cool history and fun photos. Top contributor Don Johnson posted the photo above of Penny Hardaway stopping by the Nike store on Shelby Drive in the 1990s.
The city invited everyone to stay positive about, well, the city last week. An Instagram Reel features Memphis Mayor Paul Young, Al Kapone, Greater Memphis Chamber president and CEO Ted Townsend, and more sharing what they love most about Memphis.
If you need a shot of positivity, search #MemphisProud, #PositiveMemphis, and #CelebrateMemphis.
@Memphis
Posted to X by Memphis Depay
After years of saying we wouldn’t feature him just because of his name, here we are. Dutch footballer Memphis Depay, owner of the @Memphis X handle, helped push the Netherlands to the Euro 2024 semifinals with a win over Turkey last week.
I’m appreciative of the people who have stood by us through these hard times. You can pinpoint a lot of things, but the one thing I do know: God doesn’t make mistakes. All of the negativity through this entire thing … these are still kids. They can have a bad day, a bad game, a bad week. That doesn’t mean there’s a disconnect between coach and players because you’re losing. Everything gets heightened here in Memphis. I was chosen to do this, not by the University of Memphis but by God, honestly. I took this job when it was at its lowest moment. I only want to do well for the city. I’m going to be hardest on myself. It guts me, because I want our city to be known for something other than what it’s known for. These are some tough times. Everybody has an opinion. But I know God has a plan, and there’s a plan for this team. I’m happy that I’m coaching this team. — University of Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway, after the Tigers ended a four-game losing streak with a win over Wichita State
On February 3rd at FedExForum, the Memphis Tigers found themselves down 14 points with less than 10 minutes to play against the supposedly inferior Wichita State Shockers. A loss would give a proud program not only its first five-game losing streak in six seasons under coach Penny Hardaway, but the program’s first five-game losing streak in 24 years.
Point guard Jahvon Quinerly — a senior transfer from Alabama — came to the rescue with a three-pointer to give Memphis its first lead of the game with 44 seconds on the clock. (It was the only field goal Quinerly made on an otherwise forgettable afternoon.) After the Shockers evened the score with a free throw, David Jones — a senior transfer from St. John’s — buried a short jumper from the left wing to snatch a Tiger win, as they say, from the jaws of ugly defeat. Losing streak over. A season that found the Tigers ranked 10th in the country merely three weeks earlier had been somewhat saved. At least until the next tip-off. The season has seen dreadfully ugly losses (at SMU) and the kinds of wins that seem to lift an entire region (the “get-back” over FAU in late February).
Like any decent Hollywood production, a college basketball season has a setup (nonconference play), a confrontation (league competition), and a resolution (postseason). This winter’s Tiger flick has, at times, made the popcorn tasty and, at others, forced fans to hurl the bucket in disgust. All with a resolution yet to come.
Point guard Jahvon Quinerly leads the Tigers in assists. (Photo: Wes Hale)
THE SETUP
In over a century of Tiger basketball, never had Memphis run a nonconference gauntlet like the one Hardaway scheduled for last fall. Seven teams from power conferences (ACC, SEC, and Big 10) plus a showdown with Villanova (national champions in 2016 and 2018) in the championship of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Making the challenge even greater, four of these teams took the floor against Memphis ranked among the country’s top 25. (For perspective, nonconference foes in 2017-18 — Tubby Smith’s final season as coach — included Northern Kentucky, Mercer, Samford, Bryant, and Albany.)
The Tigers beat 20th-ranked Arkansas in the Bahamas. They beat 21st-ranked Texas A & M. They beat 13th-ranked Clemson. They beat 22nd-ranked Virginia. They handled Michigan, Missouri, and Vanderbilt. Before the year turned, Hardaway and his team seemed to have grabbed a national microphone and collectively screamed, Look at us!
“I love winning close games,” said Hardaway after a two-point victory against Vanderbilt at FedExForum, the fifth in what would become a 10-game winning streak. “They make you tougher.” And the Tigers were masters of the nail-biter early this season: four points better than Michigan, five better than Arkansas, two better than Clemson, overtime escapes against VCU and UTSA. Quinerly drilled game-winning three-pointers near the buzzer in consecutive wins over Tulsa and SMU. Jones earned some national spotlight with 36 points against Arkansas, a performance that launched him onto the short list for the Julius Erving Award, given to the top small forward in the country.
“We never said it was going to be easy,” stressed Hardaway after the SMU win on January 7th. “The rest of the nation thinks it’s going to be easy in this conference. I have so much respect [for the American Athletic Conference]. These kids are capable. They read the clippings about us and [league favorite] FAU. It’s more than a two-bid league. Adversity is okay; you can learn from it.”
On January 15th, a day after the Tigers eviscerated Wichita State in Kansas for their tenth straight win, the Associated Press released its weekly poll and there was Memphis at number 10 in the entire country, the program’s highest ranking so late in a season since 2009, when one John Calipari stomped the sidelines. The nine programs above Memphis? If you pay attention to college hoops, they’re familiar: UConn, Purdue, Kansas, North Carolina, Houston, Tennessee, Duke, Kentucky, and Baylor. (Six of these programs have won at least one national title since 2012.) If the Memphis program was indeed screaming into that proverbial national microphone, the right folks were listening.
Nae’Qwan Tomlin has provided an energy boost at both ends of the floor. (Photo: Wes Hale)
THE CONFRONTATION(S)
Then came the freeze. The Tigers took the floor against USF on January 18th in a virtually empty FedExForum. That week’s winter storm had left Memphis streets so icy that the U of M actually released a statement advising fans to stay home (in which case ticket-holders could exchange for a later game). The Tigers raced out to a 20-point lead … before the team from South Florida made things that much colder, earning a 74-73 upset with a late-game comeback.
Three days later in New Orleans, another supposedly undermanned squad knocked off Memphis when Tulane won, 81-79. A week later in Birmingham, old rival UAB beat the Tigers, and rather easily (97-88). But the three losses that knocked the Tigers out of the Top 25 were merely prelude to January 28th, when the Rice Owls — 7-13 at tip-off, and 1-6 in the AAC — beat Memphis on its home floor.
For 17 games, the Tigers had played with a swagger, if not quite the flash, that reflected their coach’s All-NBA playing days with the Orlando Magic. They won 15 of those games. Then suddenly, shortly after the year turned, shoulders seemed to collectively slump, and Hardaway alluded to discontent between players. When asked about his team’s precipitous drop in confidence after the Rice loss, Hardaway had this to say: “That’s player-led. I’m trying my best, going to games, going to practice, talking about the pride we need to have, to have more fun playing defense, to communicate. It just seems like there’s a huge disconnect with this group right now. I can’t put my finger on it. You can tell in our play. When the game starts, the energy isn’t there.”
Following their second win over Wichita State (and the end to that four-game losing streak), Quinerly shared some perspective on what he hoped was a team-culture shift. “We didn’t have any player meetings,” he noted, “but you could tell the communication and the focus was different at our practices and film sessions. You could feel the tension in the air. Guys were super locked-in. It showed. We guarded the ball better [against the Shockers].”
Victories over Temple and Tulane followed, but then came a mid-February trip to the Lone Star State and double-digit losses to both North Texas and SMU (the latter a 106-79 mockery of the Tigers’ win over the Mustangs at FedExForum in early January). On February 24th, the university announced an inquiry involving fifth-year senior Malcolm Dandridge, sidelining an important member of the Tiger rotation entering the most important stage of the season. Memphis partially avenged its 2023 NCAA tournament loss to FAU the very next day. Ups and downs. Downs and ups.
How and why did a team mentioned as a Final Four contender in mid-January fall so precipitously, and so fast? You might start with a pair of hideous defensive measures. Through the end of the regular season, Memphis ranks 348th in three-pointers allowed: 9.1 per game. (This is according to College Basketball Reference, which tracks 362 teams in Division I.) And the Tigers rank 359th in offensive-rebounds allowed: 12.8 per game. These are effort stats. Bottom line: The Tigers haven’t guarded the perimeter and they haven’t hit the glass. In other words, they do a lot of standing and watching on defense. It’s murder on a team’s Final Four chances.
And there’s luck. Had Quinerly not hit those buzzer-beaters against Tulsa and SMU, there may not have been a 10-game winning streak or Top-10 ranking. Right player, right time, right moment … until the same player often looked like the wrong player, in the wrong time and moment. If you’re looking for a mercurial personification of a mercurial team, sadly, it’s Jahvon Quinerly.
Not to be discounted in the Tigers’ plight is the loss of Caleb Mills, yet another senior transfer (from Florida State and, before that, Houston) who suffered a catastrophic left-knee injury at Tulsa on January 4th. The team’s best perimeter defender and cultural “glue guy,” Mills embraced a role off the bench and contributed mightily in the Tigers’ four upsets of ranked teams. “I didn’t know Caleb’s magnitude until he went down,” said Hardaway in early February. The Tigers were 12-2 with Mills on the floor and have gone 10-7 without him.
If the loss of Mills exposed a susceptible Tiger rotation, the addition of Nae’Qwan Tomlin — a 6’10” midseason transfer from Kansas State — may have rescued that rotation’s integrity. (Mills and Tomlin only played three games together.) Tomlin’s ability to impose himself on both ends of the floor while providing visible, emotional energy has called to mind the play of former Tiger DeAndre Williams, the all-conference forward who completed his eligibility with the 2022-23 season. He earned Player of the Week honors from the AAC for his impact in wins over Charlotte and FAU in late February. Furthermore, Tomlin has a strong March track record, having helped the Wildcats to the Elite Eight of last year’s NCAA tournament. “He’s a big part of what we’re doing, moving forward,” emphasizes Hardaway. “We need his scoring ability, his rebounding ability, and his shot-blocking.”
However the Tigers’ postseason unfolds, Jones will leave a historic mark on the program. He’s the second consecutive Tiger (after Kendric Davis) to lead the AAC in scoring and earned first-team All-AAC recognition. He’s the only player in the country to average 21.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists and with 26 more points will become only the seventh Memphis player to score 700 in a single season. Jones is among five finalists for the Julius Erving Award, given to the nation’s top small forward.
THE RESOLUTION?
How does this four-month movie — to this point, a tragidrama — conclude before the credits roll? The happiest scenario has the Tigers banding together around their star trio (Jones, Quinerly, and Tomlin) and winning four games in four days at the AAC tournament this week in Fort Worth for an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Once in the field, a rocky regular season would be forgotten in exchange for hopes of a glass slipper that leads to the Sweet 16 (at least). Hardaway teams have done this before, both last year when the Tigers knocked off top-ranked Houston to win the AAC crown and in 2021 when Memphis won a scaled-down NIT in North Texas.
A more likely scenario is a win or two this weekend and a return to the NIT, college basketball’s sock hop for those without prom tickets. Not the kind of consolation anyone near the Memphis basketball program will embrace. “God has a plan for this team,” said Hardaway after the Tigers erased a 22-point deficit and beat UAB by 19 on March 3rd. “For all we’ve gone through, I never gave up. … We have a better resume than all these teams: first four out, next four out. I don’t understand why our name isn’t up there. We’ve won enough big games for us to be in the conversation. We have some great wins.”
Remain in your seats, Tiger fans. However this season ends, it’s become clear we don’t want to miss it.
David Jones (Photo: Wes Hale)
The 700 Club
David Jones hopes to become only the seventh Tiger to score 700 points in a single season.
The MEMernet was aghast this weekend over a viral TikTok that allegedly showed “a minor performing a wax on a nude female,” according to Memphis Police Department (MPD).
According to Memphis Reddit users, the video showed a 7-year-old that performed 24 Brazilian waxes on women in one day at a local salon.
MPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was made aware of the images and an investigation is now underway. Police said, “DO NOT screen save or forward these images to law enforcement or anyone. Please do not download or upload these images in any way.”
File further complaints on the incident to The Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 or Cyber Tip Report.
Penny
Posted to X by @willgtg901
A fake statement announcing Penny Hardaway’s split with the University of Memphis started circulating on X earlier this week. It came after a blowout loss to Southern Methodist University last Sunday that had a frustrated Penny ripping apart his players.
Are the Memphis Tigers a legitimate Top-10 team, Final Four contenders? Or are they the biggest teasers east of the Dallas Cowboys? Nineteen games into the 2023-24 season, it seems the answer to one of these questions will ultimately be in the affirmative.
Sunday’s loss at Tulane — the Green Wave’s first upset of a Top-25 team since the Clinton presidency — changed the Tigers’ season, and compounded last Thursday’s loss at home to USF. A team that started the week undefeated in a less-than-respected American Athletic Conference now has a two-game losing streak and, worse, merely 12 regular-season games left to improve its resume for those who hand out seeds for the NCAA tournament. Memphis, you might note, has never reached the Sweet 16 seeded lower than sixth.
Last Thursday night at FedExForum could have been an anomalous nadir. With the arena virtually empty — the university publicly urged fans to stay home and off the icy roads — Memphis looked all of its number-10 ranking in taking a 20-point lead into the second half. Then they seemed to hit black ice as a unit and allowed USF to storm back, tie the game with less than a minute to play, and win the contest on a Kasean Pryor free throw with five seconds to play. (There’s brutal irony in a team from South Florida knocking off the Tigers while fans were home dripping their faucets.) The Tigers’ late-game hero Jahvon Quinerly committed a turnover in the game’s closing seconds and missed a desperation three-point attempt at the buzzer. If empty seats could boo, they would have.
The loss was especially bizarre, as it came four days after Memphis looked like their predecessors from 2008 or 1985, both Final Four years. The Tigers scored 112 points in beating Wichita State, the most on the road for this program in 69 years. Against USF, they couldn’t crack 80. The Tigers drained 19 three-pointers in overwhelming the Shockers, a program record. Against the Bulls, they missed 22 of their 28 shots from long range. Memphis lost despite outscoring USF 42-18 in the paint and 21-2(!) on fast breaks. The numbers don’t make sense, but the loss is permanent and will cost Memphis its spot in that hallowed Top 10.
As long as Quinerly and David Jones remain healthy, the Tigers will enter March with an arsenal most teams — “power conference” or otherwise — would envy. Jones (21.7 points per game) is the leading candidate for AAC Player of the Year. Right behind him may well be Quinerly (14.0 points, 4.7 assists). Were it not for Quinerly’s game-winning treys against Tulsa and SMU, the Tigers might have a losing record in league play. Jones took a three-point shot that could have won Sunday’s game at Tulane. He missed, as stars sometimes do. How will the Tigers process two straight gut punches as they wait a week before returning to play (Sunday at UAB)?
Following the Tigers’ narrow escape against SMU on January 7th, Hardaway emphasized the joy he took in seeing his team improve while winning. Beats the “learn from our losses” track every day of the week. And the Tigers are certainly better for their recent 10-game winning streak. But Hardaway also suggested this group of veteran transfers may actually be too confident, that they feel like any obstacle or deficit can be overcome, and this can sometimes compromise group effort. A home loss to a team with a NET rating of 146, you gotta believe, might help reduce that overconfidence intangible.
Another intangible to track with these Tigers: team chemistry. Following the USF loss, Hardaway suggested internal strife was impacting who he could put on the floor and when. If this is the case (more than two months into the season), the likelihood of a full recovery — let alone a Final Four run — seems remote. The sixth-year coach may have the greatest challenge of his career on his hands: Getting the most out of a talented team before the players on that team sabotage the mission. That would be a cruel tease, indeed.
The Basketball Hall of Fame will announce its 2023 class this weekend in Houston, part of the festivities at what is certainly the least likely Final Four in the sport’s history. Among the finalists for induction, Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade are first-ballot locks. And if Tony Parker and Pau Gasol don’t get in this year, they will be Hall of Famers soon.
I’ve got a question for you. On their best days as basketball players — or best months, or best season — were Parker and Gasol better than Anfernee Hardaway? Any living person who saw the three players in their primes would answer this question with a resounding … no. Yet Parker and Gasol will stroll into the Hall of Fame, while Hardaway has yet to even be named a finalist. It’s a glaring omission for basketball’s shrine to greatness, for Penny Hardaway should be a Hall of Famer.
Here we are, more than 15 years since the pride of Treadwell High School played his last NBA game (December 3, 2007) and Hardaway cannot be found among the greatest to play the sport he commanded for an all-too-brief professional career. And that’s the catch for Hardaway: However great he may have been, we’re tortured by the question of what he could have been, perhaps what he should have been with stronger knees. (Note: Hardaway played in more NBA games than Pete Maravich, and the Pistol was inducted without pause.)
There’s actually an advantage Hardaway holds as a former basketball great. His sport’s Hall of Fame has a significantly lower standard for induction than baseball’s Hall, and even lower than pro football’s. Unless your name is Sandy Koufax, a career abbreviated by injury eliminates you from consideration for Cooperstown. You have to have played ten seasons just to reach baseball’s ballot, and most inductees enjoyed careers of at least 15 years. As for football, Kurt Warner and Terrell Davis have been inducted, joining Gale Sayers among gridiron greats who starred brightly enough during brief careers to earn enshrinement.
Then there’s the hoop Hall. Here’s a look at four recent inductees to factor into the equation of Penny Hardaway’s qualifications:
• Maurice Cheeks (inducted in 2018) — Four-time All-Star. Never named to an All-NBA team. Played a supporting role (to Julius Erving and Moses Malone) on one of the greatest teams in NBA history, the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers. Played 15 years in the NBA.
• Sarunas Marciulionis (2014) — The face of Lithuanian basketball (particularly at the 1992 Olympics). Played seven seasons in the NBA. Never an All-Star.
• Jamaal Wilkes (2012) —Three-time All-Star. 1974-75 NBA Rookie of the Year. Played supporting role (to Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) for three L.A. Laker championship teams. Never named to an All-NBA team.
• Satch Sanders (2011) — Played supporting role (to Bill Russell and John Havlicek) for eight Boston Celtic championship teams. Never an All-Star and never named to an All-NBA team. Never averaged more than 12.6 points in a season.
Sorry, but these four players don’t so much as approximate the star power of Penny Hardaway in his professional prime. Let’s consider 50 games a “full” season for an NBA player. Penny played nine such seasons, so it’s not as though he went down after five or six no-look passes and a reverse dunk. He was named All-NBA three times, and twice first-team (after the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons). Consider his company on the 1996 All-NBA team: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, and David Robinson (all members of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team). Hardaway was a four-time All-Star and averaged more than 20 points per game three times.
Let’s forget the stats and accolades, though. Basketball doesn’t have a significant counting number — 3,000 hits or 10,000 rushing yards — that introduces a player into discussions about Hall of Fame status. In nearly every case, it’s an eye test. Did the player do things on a basketball court we don’t see many (if any) others do? This is where Penny Hardaway’s creative, artistic case becomes lock-down secure. Beyond Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, who can fill — to this day — a two-minute highlight reel like Hardaway? (Hardaway is on my Rushmore of basketball passers, along with Maravich, Magic, and Jason Kidd. He saw the court differently from others.)
Hardaway was the national high school player of the year (according to Parade magazine) in 1990. He was named first-team All-America as a junior at Memphis State in 1993. And he remains an unforgettable performer at basketball’s highest level, an Olympic gold medalist and a member of the only team to beat Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the playoffs between 1991 and 1998 (the 1995 Orlando Magic). Get this: Every member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team is a member of the Hall of Fame . . . except Penny Hardaway.
In 2018, SLAM magazine published an issue ranking the 100 greatest players of all time, and Hardaway checks in at 92. None of the Hall of Famers mentioned above made the cut. I’m convinced the Naismith selection committee will someday get this right. But make no mistake: the Basketball Hall of Fame is incomplete without Penny Hardaway.
The University of Memphis basketball program has had its share of “one-and-done” sensations since the turn of the century. In his lone year as a Tiger (2001-02), Dajuan Wagner led Memphis to its first NIT title. In 2008, Derrick Rose famously (some would say infamously) took the Tigers to the cusp of a national championship. A year later, filling Rose’s void nicely, Tyreke Evans was the star of another 30-win team. In 2020, playing in the vapor trail of the James Wiseman controversy, Precious Achiuwa became the first Tiger to be named American Athletic Conference Player of the Year. And just last season, Jalen Duren was the centerpiece for a Tiger team that returned to the NCAA tournament after eight long years.
But Kendric Davis is a different breed of the one-and-done species. His most obvious distinction from the five players mentioned above: Davis is not a freshman, but a fifth-year senior. Memphis is the third college program he’s represented. He turns 24 in May (Davis is three months older than the Grizzlies’ Ja Morant) and is a father. When Davis all but surely wins this year’s AAC Player of the Year trophy, it will be his second, having earned the award in his final of three seasons at SMU last year. Having led the AAC in both scoring (21.5 points per game) and assists (5.6), Davis will leave a permanent imprint on Memphis basketball history, and in a span of time that feels as brief as the point guard’s head-bob crossover.
“It’s been fun,” says Davis. “I wish I had more than a year.”
Kendric Davis broke the AAC’s career scoring record while leading the league in both points and assists. (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
Why is Davis a Memphis Tiger for this one — perhaps historic — year? You might call it the value of a Penny. When Davis entered the transfer portal after the 2021-22 season, he fielded calls from the likes of Kentucky and Kansas, blue-blooded institutions where most college players would offer a kidney to play one season. But as his phone was blowing up with calls and texts, three numbers caught Davis’ eye: 901. “I didn’t know the number,” reflects Davis, “but I knew 901 was Memphis, and I knew Memphis was Penny Hardaway.”
Davis first got to know Hardaway as an opponent, more familiar with the former NBA star’s line of Nike shoes (and One Cent brand) than the rising coach of a conference rival. And when Davis struggled against the Tigers during the 2020-21 season (he shot a combined 5-for-27 in two games against Memphis), he actually approached Hardaway after one of the games to find out the coach’s secret for shackling his performance. Before granting a photo request from Davis, Hardaway advised him to look more for his own shot within the flow of an offensive possession. At that time a pass-first point guard, Davis became predictable when double-teamed or cornered with the basketball. The advice came back to bite Hardaway a year later, when SMU beat the Tigers twice and Davis averaged 23.5 points in the Mustang victories. Look for his own shot, he did. And when the opportunity surfaced for Davis to play for Hardaway instead of against him, he pounced.
Coach Penny Hardaway became a father figure to Davis while plotting a course for a second straight NCAA tournament. (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
“Memphis has exceeded my expectations,” says Davis. “The city. The love. Great teammates. Coach Penny has been unbelievable to me, helping me grow on and off the floor, building a bond that’s probably going to last my whole life. Putting on that Tiger jersey is an honor.”
Davis’ father John went missing in the fall of 2021, shortly after an October visit with his son in Dallas. (A truck driver, John’s rig was discovered in November, but with no sign of its owner.) Davis acknowledges Hardaway filling a void in his life, one he didn’t anticipate or ask for, but one the Memphis coach has occupied beyond a basketball relationship.
“We clicked from the first phone call,” says Davis. “I was ecstatic. My parents, their friends, they used to wear his Orlando Magic jersey. He was before my time. I looked him up, and he was like a 6’7” Kyrie Irving. If he didn’t get hurt, he might have gone down as a top-five point guard. His game could exist in this era. And he’s taken my game to another level.”
Davis is a father himself, now. (Kendric Jr. will turn 2 this fall.) So there’s a multigenerational component to leaning on Hardaway as a role model, a standard for success beyond the hardwood. “I’ve struggled a long time,” he says, “finding that father figure you need. I have a son, and I need someone to teach me how to be a daddy. Penny’s someone you can look up to; I want to be like that someday. We can relate. Similar backgrounds. What he wanted in life, I want in life. His attitude, his passion for the game. Lots of people want things from you, and it can be challenging, balancing it all. I’ve learned more from him than anybody else. I wish I had two or three years [to play for him].”
Are the current Tigers built for March basketball, all the madness of win-or-go-home conditions? Davis nods emphatically when posed the question: “You look at teams that are successful in March: veterans, great guard play, and you’ve got a great four-man. Oral Roberts went to the Sweet 16 with that [in 2021], and we’ve got way more talent. We took Alabama [to the wire] at their house and lost by three points. That tells you how good we are. I guarantee you, in March Madness, teams won’t want to play Memphis.”
DeAndre Williams has averaged 17.0 points and 7.6 rebounds on his way to all-conference honors. (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
Davis points to a certain partner in crime in establishing expectations for the Tigers in the weeks ahead. That great “four-man” — or power forward — is DeAndre Williams, the 26-year-old fifth-year senior who may well join Davis on the AAC’s all-conference first team. Having struggled with a propensity for foul trouble his first two seasons as a Tiger, Williams has found a balance between defending aggressively and sloppily, with the result of one of the best seasons by a Memphis forward in the last decade. Averaging 17.0 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, Williams reeled off 26 consecutive games with at least 10 points. On February 12th against Temple, he scored 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds on his way to earning AAC Player of the Week honors. If that DeAndre Williams shows up, Memphis is a stiff test.
“I’m locked in,” says Williams, “on whatever it takes for us to win. Getting to the [NCAA] tournament is tough. We gotta put our hard hats on and just grind out wins. I wouldn’t think my last year would be my best year, but that’s how it’s gone. I’m happy. It’s a testament to my teammates and coaches, helping me succeed. I’m loving the ride, every moment. I want to leave my mark, on the team and the city.” On February 19th, Williams scored his 1000th point in a Memphis uniform, the first Tiger to reach that milestone in more than four years. So consider one significant mark already left.
There’s been an urgency this winter we don’t always see with the Tiger program. The roster is built almost entirely around seniors, six of them fifth-year players clinging to an extra year of eligibility granted in the aftermath of a Covid-restricted 2020-21 season. Davis has never played in the NCAA tournament. He has a fire in his belly, having been snubbed last season at SMU despite the Mustangs winning 24 games and finishing second in the AAC (ahead of Memphis, and the Tigers made the field). Keonte Kennedy (currently sidelined with a broken hand) and Elijah McCadden haven’t played in an NCAA tournament, each of them critical role players who transferred to Memphis to be part of one last attempt at the effervescent “madness” that can make a good season unforgettable.
Says Davis, “I remind my teammates all the time: We don’t have any redos. Whatever you’ve got, give it all. If there’s something you have left, it’s not gonna help this summer. Give it all. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. We’re in desperation mode now. Coach tells us we have family depending on this. Our lives are depending on this. I’ve got my son. I feel like I shine the brightest in the biggest games, and March Madness is all big games. I’m due. I feel like the nation needs that. I owe the [selection] committee one.”
At this point, the 2022-23 Tigers may enter the history books as the best Memphis team to go an entire season without being ranked among the nation’s top 25. And it doesn’t match the eye test. Just last Sunday at FedExForum, the country’s top-ranked team — the Houston Cougars — needed a buzzer-beating shot by Jamal Shead to win its 11th straight game. With a 23-8 record and second-place finish in the AAC, the Tigers will play in the NCAA tournament. First comes the AAC tournament in Fort Worth this week. If the Tigers are to win the event for the first time, they’ll likely have to beat a pair of teams (Tulane and Houston) that have already beaten them twice this season. Would Davis like to play the Cougars a third time? “Bad,” he says. “It’s on my mind.”
When asked about a factor that will determine the Tigers’ fate in the coming weeks, Davis goes back to his reason for wearing blue and gray to finish his college career. “Just listen to Coach Penny’s game plan. He spends hours and hours, studying habits of players, what teams like to do, what they don’t like to do, what you can expect out of time-outs. When we follow his game plan, we usually win.
“And also, taking it game by game. We can’t control what the committee thinks. If we keep stacking wins, that’s all that matters. We had one of the best nonconference schedules in the country. It’s prepared us. It’s built us. We’re ready for March. Coach always tells me, ‘It’s your time now.’”
Following last Thursday’s win over Wichita State at FedExForum — with a road game at Cincinnati looming three days later — University of Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway mentioned the Bearcats having been a “thorn in my side” for quite some time. I asked the 1993 All-America if he talks to his players about 1992 and the origin of that thorny relationship. “No,” he said. “I never talk about my time against Cincinnati. It’s a rivalry that’s been here forever. The motivation [for them] is here. They know the importance, for sure.”
In case you need a 30-year refresher, Cincinnati — coached by Bob Huggins at the time and led on the floor by Nick Van Exel — beat Hardaway’s Tigers four times in the 1991-92 season: twice in the regular season, again in the Great Midwest Conference championship game, then most painfully (and by 31 points) in the NCAA tournament’s Midwest Regional final, leaving Hardaway and the Tigers one victory short of a Final Four appearance. (Hardaway led the Tigers in scoring that day, but with merely 12 points.)
If the 51-year-old Hardaway resists mentioning his playing days — particularly the disappointments when he was not quite 21 — as a motivation tool, good for him. Coaches with decorated playing careers often stumble when they expect the same level of performance (and motivation) from current players that they knew in uniform “back in the day.” And a crushing defeat — or four of them — 31 years ago had nothing to do with Sunday’s big win at snowy Cincinnati.
But with Hardaway now merely one win shy of his 100th as Memphis coach, connecting the dots between the man’s current role in blue and gray and the one many Memphians still celebrate from his playing days is a pleasant exercise. Only six other coaches have reached the 100-win plateau with Memphis, and the only one among those six who also starred as a player for the Tigers — Larry Finch — now has a statue on the university’s south campus. Hardaway is still finding his legs as a head coach, and doing so in an atmosphere quite different from most of his predecessors. But he occupies that atmosphere as a hometown hero, which makes all of this worth watching. And celebrating.
“I haven’t had a chance to think about the milestone,” said Hardaway last Thursday. “I’m blessed to be the coach here. I haven’t lost that feeling of wanting to win for the city and for this university. My wins [total] is great, but I’m a team player. It wouldn’t happen without all the great players and staff. When [the 100th win] comes, I’m sure I’ll be excited.”
• Sunday’s game against Cincinnati was the 85th meeting between the Tigers and Bearcats (Cincy leads, 47-38). The only two programs Memphis has faced more frequently are no longer conference foes: Louisville and Southern Miss. The Tigers will host Cincinnati at FedExForum on February 26th, and the teams could meet again in the AAC tournament. Then it appears that will be it for this rivalry, as the Bearcats depart for the Big 12 (with UCF and Houston) next season.
There’s no positive spin in losing Cincinnati on the Tiger schedule and gaining the likes of North Texas, Charlotte, and Rice. So Hardaway will be tasked with finding rivalry games for the nonconference lineup. He’s mentioned a desire to add the likes of Louisville and Arkansas back to the mix. Here’s hoping Cincinnati gets a phone call, too.
