Tag: Penny Hardaway

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Sports Tiger Blue

Familiar Foes

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The single most memorable Tiger basketball game at FedExForum since the building opened (in 2004) is the Tennessee game played on February 23, 2008. That Saturday night, downtown Memphis was the center of the college basketball universe as top-ranked  and undefeated Memphis — led by freshman sensation Derrick Rose — faced the second-ranked Vols, a program surging at the time under third-year coach Bruce Pearl. Alas, the visitors snuck away with a win (66-62), though the outcome wasn’t decided until the final minute. The four-year-old Forum almost blew its lid.

Penny Hardaway’s Tigers will host the Vols this Saturday, the first time in almost six years the cross-state sometimes-rivals have played. It will be the first time in almost seven years that the Big Orange — basketball chapter — has taken the floor in Memphis, and only the third time since that one-two tussle of 2008. Ranked third in the country and slayers last weekend of top-ranked Gonzaga, the Vols make the 2018-19 Tiger season stronger merely by being on the schedule. Should the Tigers pull off an upset Saturday, the game could be a definitive snapshot from Hardaway’s rookie season as coach.
Larry Kuzniewski

The Bartow Bash

So why aren’t the Vols on the Tigers’ schedule every year? And what about UAB? (Memphis beat the Blazers last Saturday at FedExForum.) The UAB program is a Memphis cousin, having been founded by the great Gene Bartow, the coach who led the Tigers to the brink of a national championship in 1973. As fellow members, first, of the Great Midwest Conference (Hardaway remembers those days well) and later Conference USA, Memphis and UAB played each other every season from 1990-91 through 2012-13, usually twice and, now and then, three times (when they met in a league tourney). This wasn’t 1980s Memphis State-Louisville, but it was a familiar foe, a regional rival, and it felt good to beat the Blazers, painful to lose to them.


Memphis has 13 nonconference games on its schedule this season. Three are determined somewhat by the luck (up or down) of a holiday tournament. This means Hardaway and Memphis athletic director Tom Bowen have 10 chances to make the kind of mark that 1) helps the Tiger program grow and 2) sells the Tiger program to the regional — better yet, national — market Memphis craves. Kentucky has been tossed around in casual conversation as a future Tiger opponent, and let’s hope that happens while John Calipari is still wearing Lexington blue. But gazing further ahead, Memphis needs to secure annual meetings that feed both the program and its fan base.

The Tigers should play Tennessee every year, just as Kentucky faces Louisville. I’ve yet to hear a counterpoint to this argument that holds water. Former Memphis coach Josh Pastner was said to fear losing recruits to Knoxville if the Tigers played the Vols. If Memphis becomes second-fiddle to the University of Tennessee in basketball, far more has been lost than a five-star forward.

In addition to Tennessee, Memphis should schedule two of the following three programs annually: UAB, Arkansas, and Ole Miss. The Bluff City centers a tri-state region and should build on its scattered history with the Razorbacks and Rebels. And UAB belongs in the mix for the Bartow connection alone. It’s a legacy worth keeping and cultivating. Call this annual meeting the “Bartow Bash” and two programs would be better for it.

Hardaway acknowledges the importance of familiar foes in college basketball. “It’s great for the city of Memphis,” he said after the UAB win. “To have UAB, Tennessee, and we can probably try to get Louisville back. We’re gonna have Ole Miss next year. It’s a beautiful thing. It gives siblings, family members, and friends bragging rights for the year. I’m really going to enjoy those games.”

You know that contempt bred by familiarity? It happens to also be an adrenaline booster, fuel for a Memphis program on the rise, but still climbing.

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Sports Tiger Blue

#20 Texas Tech 78, Tigers 67

Rookie coaches learn a lot over the course of a college basketball season. Penny Hardaway will now learn how to cope with a losing streak. The 20th-ranked Red Raiders of Texas Tech erased an 12-point second-half deficit to beat Memphis at the Hoophall Invitational in Miami. The loss drops the Tigers to 3-4 for the season while Texas Tech improves to 7-0.

Jarrett Culver led the Red Raiders with 20 points. Tariq Owens added 13 points, 11 rebounds, and eight blocked shots.

Freshman guard Tyler Harris led the Tigers with 17 points and senior forward Kyvon Davenport added 13 off the bench. Senior guard Jeremiah Martin continues to search for his game, missing 10 of 12 shots Saturday afternoon (and all five of his three-point attempts). Memphis shot 35 percent from the field while Texas Tech hit 49 percent from the floor.

The game was the first between these programs since early in the 1985-86 season.

The Tigers’ next seven games will be played at FedExForum, starting Tuesday night when South Dakota State visits. Memphis will then face a pair of regional rivals on consecutive Saturdays: UAB (December 8th) and Tennessee (December 15th).

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From My Seat Sports

Gameday Gratitude

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

I like to give thanks this time of year for the little (and big) treasures from the local sports scene that have enriched life in Memphis.

• I’m grateful for two years of Stubby Clapp-led baseball teams at AutoZone Park. The Memphis Redbirds’ 2017 championship club — 13-0 in extra-inning games — felt over the top at times. The winning came so steadily, so “easily.” Then 2018 happened and the Redbirds did it again. More than 60 players but one hugely popular manager with a clubhouse touch apparently borrowed from Casey Stengel. The back-to-back Pacific Coast League championships will forever be attached to the height-restricted back-to-back PCL Manager of the Year. Clapp is moving on to St. Louis, where he’ll coach first base for the Cardinals. He managed to transform Memphis baseball both as a player and a manager, a total of three championships left behind in the record book.
Larry Kuzniewski

Jaren Jackson Jr.

• I’m grateful for Jaren Jackson Jr. The day will come — I know it’s hard to stomach — when the remaining members of the Memphis Grizzlies’ Fab Four (Mike Conley and Marc Gasol) are no longer sprinting the floor at FedExForum. A franchise can fall into a post-superstar hangover in which roster comings-and-goings matter little to a fan base. (See the post-Kevin Garnett years in Minnesota.) “Triple J” (or “Trey J”?) may be the bridge to the next era for our NBA outfit. I’ve seen nothing not to like about the 19-year-old forward over the first month of his pro career. Here’s hoping we get to see a playoff run (or two) with Conley, Gasol, and Jackson.

• I’m grateful for Darrell Henderson on first down. And second and third. The numbers for the Memphis Tigers’ junior tailback are silly: 1,521 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns with at least two games left to play. There will never be another DeAngelo Williams, but let it be said Henderson has been a nice reminder.

• I’m grateful for Coach Penny Hardaway. It’s been a unique view. I’m of Hardaway’s generation (two years older), so I’ve witnessed his rise to greatness as a player, his dormant years of early retirement, and now this year’s resurrection as a city’s cultural icon, all the while passing through my own life stages, however distant they are from the limelight. So I feel young whenever Hardaway is described as a new or rookie coach and I feel “seasoned” when I remember he’s older today than Larry Finch was when Finch coached his final Tiger game. Most of all, I’m grateful to again be on a ride driven by Penny Hardaway. He’s yet to disappoint.


• I’m grateful for plans to erect a statue of the great Larry Finch. This was overdue, but many of life’s happiest developments are just so. Memphis recently endured a period of conflict over statues that divided segments of the community. We will soon be able to visit a statue (and park!) that I’m convinced will unify Memphians. For such a bronze idol we should all be grateful.

• I’m grateful to be married to an exceptional athlete. My beloved wife, Sharon, will run her first marathon on December 1st, not quite four months after her 50th birthday. She has become a local running star, whether she’ll admit it or not. (She won the 2018 Race for the Cure women’s division, all age groups.) I’ve witnessed her devotion to the cause, her daily training (well beyond my reach), and the joy she’s taken through the agony of a last mile. You spend your working life admiring athletes from different circles, then find yourself cheering loudest for the person across the dinner table.


• As always, I’m grateful for Flyer readers. I hear from you year-round, appreciate your perspectives, counterpoints, and especially your passion for Memphis sports. The title of this column originated from my own devotion to fandom, to being part of the crowd that makes a sporting event — large or small — worthwhile. Thanks for keeping it alive these 17 years.
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Cover Feature News

Penny’s Worth

Anfernee Hardaway is home again. As if he ever left.

On a rainy March afternoon, inside the brand-new Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center on the University of Memphis’ south campus, Tiger athletic director Tom Bowen introduced the greatest living Tiger of them all as the program’s new basketball coach.

First gaining legend status at Treadwell High School, then later as a Tiger and an All-NBA guard with the Orlando Magic, Penny Hardaway approached the podium, and a region-wide family reunion ensued. “It’s great to see so many familiar faces from when I played, the people who have been so supportive,” said Hardaway who, at 47, is older today than his own college coach, Larry Finch, was when he coached his last Tiger game. “I want to see the Memphis flags waving from cars, see the T-shirts and hats.”

Those shirts and hats had grown scarce at FedExForum, where attendance hit a half-century low in 2017-18, despite Tubby Smith’s second team putting up a 21-13 record and junior point guard Jeremiah Martin nearly winning the American Athletic Conference scoring title. For the better part of those two years — since Josh Pastner left for Georgia Tech — community support for Hardaway taking over at his alma mater had grown — at first gentle rumbling, then later, outright public appeals. Hardaway’s ultimate hiring became the worst-kept secret in the Mid-South, with reports leaking before Smith had the chance to coach the Tigers in the AAC tournament (where they would lose in the semifinals).

Within 30 days of his hiring, Hardaway managed to convince the top two local recruits — Alex Lomax (who helped Hardaway win three state titles at East High School) and Tyler Harris (Cordova High) — to sign with Memphis. Hardaway announced Tennessee had been added to the schedule (the Tigers will host the Vols on December 15th) with the likes of Kentucky and Arkansas on the new coach’s radar. The reaction of ticket-buyers and sponsors has, in basketball terms, lit up the Memphis scoreboard ever since. Having sunk to a 48-year low in attendance last winter, the Tiger program may well set new highs in 2018-19, the program’s 15th season at FedExForum.

Guard Tyler Harris

Sharpshooter David Wingett (who scored more than 2,000 points as a prep player in Nebraska) joined the recruiting class to help fill an outside-scoring void the program has suffered for four seasons. The rookies will join Martin and four other holdovers — guard Kareem Brewton and forwards Kyvon Davenport, Raynere Thornton, and Mike Parks — to write the first chapter in a new volume of Hardaway history.

“Losing is not an option in my mind,” said Hardaway at that opening press conference. “I want to hit the ground running. People are telling me to be patient, do this or that first. But I’m not built that way. I’ll go for it all or none at all.”

Tigers Coach Penny Hardaway leads from the sidelines.

Even with a recruiting class that jumped into the nation’s top 30 when Lomax and Harris signed, the Tigers have been picked to finish as low as eighth in the 12-team American Athletic Conference. (AAC coaches picked Memphis to finish fourth — behind UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston — in their preseason poll.) This doesn’t sit well with the rookie coach, who needs extra motivation like he needed extra vertical leap as a player, which is to say — not! “It’s realistic that we will not finish eighth,” he says. “They were thinking the freshmen can’t carry us, and they’re really not respecting the staff or the guys coming back from last year, when they finished fifth.”

What — beyond himself — can Penny sell a Tiger fan-base that all but disappeared last winter? Hardaway suggests we’ll see a different brand of basketball from the season’s opening tip-off. “I think I’m a little more up-tempo than Coach [Smith],” he says. “We really want to run, fast break. There won’t be a lot of half-court [offense]. We want to get it out. Defensively, we might press more. We’ll be a high-energy team on defense, as well. I like to speed teams up, keep them off-balance. I want it to be a blur. By the first timeout, I want teams playing us to be gassed.”

For any team to accelerate pace as Hardaway envisions, guard play — and guard depth — will be critical. The new coach sees as many as five players who can handle point-guard duty, though in this era of “positionless” basketball (see the Golden State Warriors and count their trophies), the primary value a guard brings the Tigers will be his versatility.

Forward Kyvon Davenport

“You only go as far as your guards,” says Martin, a preseason all-conference selection who will be playing for his third coach in four years. The Mitchell High School alum averaged 18.9 points and 3.8 assists last season, though he missed the Tigers’ final six games with a fracture in his right foot. Martin had hernia surgery in August, but appears to be in game shape for a season of leadership. “I was never in bad spirits about my injury,” he says. “Everything happens for a reason. The team’s not just about me. It’s a process, but I sat out so long, now that I’m back, I’ve got to get back right. I’m gonna keep working hard to get there.”

Martin is prepared to attack with the ball in his hands or from the wing when the likes of Brewton (a fellow senior), Lomax, or Harris is handling the ball. If Hardaway’s vision is realized, the ball won’t be in anyone’s hands very long. “My whole life, I’ve been on the ball some, and off the ball,” stresses Martin. “I’m just a basketball player, to be honest.”

Lomax and Harris grew up as friendly rivals, Lomax playing for Hardaway with Team Penny on the AAU circuit while Harris developed with Team Thad. (Hardaway acknowledges that he tried to persuade Harris to join his team, but to no avail. Until now.) Harris is small (5’9″ and 150 pounds), but can light up a scoreboard. He averaged 30.3 points as a senior and was named Class AAA Mr. Basketball after becoming just the 12th Memphis high school player to score 2,500 career points. Lomax took home the Mr. Basketball award after both his sophomore and junior seasons at East. In his four years as a Mustang, the team went 122-18. Having played for Hardaway since he was in 5th grade, Lomax is more than comfortable in his role as a freshman, and he’s ready to join forces with Harris.

Guard Jeremiah Martin

“Coach teaches an NBA style, so it’s not all that different,” says Lomax. “He knows what it takes; he’s been through it. He relays the message, and it’s our job to go out and put it on the court. Playing with Tyler may be one of the best things that ever happened to me. We offset each other well. He does a lot of things I don’t do. If he’s open 10 times, I’ll find him 10 times. It’s a new friendship; we talk every day now.” If you doubt Hardaway’s influence on Lomax, ask him what he’d like to contribute as a freshman: “I hope I can make an impact defensively, and I just want to win games.”

Not to be lost in the guard shuffle are Brewton and another freshman, Antwann Jones. Brewton averaged 9.1 points as a junior and part-time starter last season. He was second only to Martin in assists and steals. “Everybody wants to play and get buckets,” notes Brewton, “but how are you gonna get buckets? You gotta play defense.” Already preaching the Hardaway philosophy, Brewton has embraced the program’s new culture. “There’s a lot of energy,” he stresses. “It’s a family atmosphere.”

Brewton and Hardaway each see something of themselves in Jones, the 6’6″ guard from Orlando and a third top-100 recruit Hardaway was able to capture. For Brewton, it’s Jones’ ability to score, his aggressiveness with the ball, even as a rookie. As for the comparisons with Hardaway the player, consider those a means of motivation for a player aiming to seize minutes on the floor.

A slimmed-down Mike Parks (he lost 20 pounds over the offseason) and Raynere Thornton will be counted on for muscle this season. The two combined for 8.4 rebounds per game last year, a number that needs to grow if the Tigers are to minimize opponent possessions. Junior transfer Isaiah Maurice brings additional size (he’s 6’10”) and athleticism to the Tigers’ frontcourt. With Parks sidelined by a back ailment, Maurice started the exhibition game against LeMoyne-Owen and contributed 18 points and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes.

Among Tiger big men, though, track the progress of Davenport. The Georgia native averaged 13.3 points and led the Tigers with 6.1 rebounds per game last season. He’ll be a focal point this winter, according to Hardaway. “We expect a lot from Kyvon,” says Hardaway. “There are going to be some wrinkles where we get shots specifically for him. Last year, he did it off the glass, didn’t get a lot of plays run for him. We’re going to have to get him the ball; we need him to score.”

Davenport’s length and ability to run the floor are ingredients for a difference-making finisher, one who can follow a break, receive and deliver lobs, or clean up missed shots. “[Coach Hardaway] lets everyone play their own game,” emphasizes Davenport. “It’s better for everybody. You’re gonna play your role, but you’re free. No restrictions.”

And Davenport loves the pace. “We’ve been killing ourselves in practice,” he says. “When we get to a game, it’s going to be easier for us, with the timeouts.” Davenport recognizes a sense of immediacy this season, his last as a Tiger. And he wants to make the kind of impression that lasts beyond his days in Memphis. “I want to be remembered as a great teammate,” he says, “one who helped develop the freshmen and led this team somewhere special.”

And what are we to expect from a rookie coach more famous than most of the seasoned counterparts he’ll confront? “For the most part,” says Hardaway, “coaching is understanding who you have on your team, understanding yourself, understanding situations.” As aggressively as he attacked defenders during his playing days, it shouldn’t surprise that Hardaway isn’t timid when it comes to the new gig. “My biggest strength is in-game adjustments,” he says. “We’ll have our team prepared. But every game doesn’t go as planned, and you may have to adjust. That’s where my strength comes into play. The culture we’re trying to build around here is multiple efforts, toughness, playing hard when you’re on the floor.”

If anything, Hardaway will have to resist the urge to don a game uniform when the lights are turned on and 17,000 fans pack FedExForum for a show we haven’t seen in these parts in some time. “I’m ready to get into the arena,” says the coach a fan base will continue to call by his famous nickname. “I’ve always prepared well, so practice is great. But to get into the arena . . . I want to feel the jitters. I’m anxious to get there.”

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Sports Tiger Blue

Penny Hardaway: Hall of Famer?

(Credit: U of M Athletics)

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame recently inducted their 2018 classes, Chipper Jones, Vlad Guerrero, Randy Moss, and Brian Urlacher, among others, joining their respective sport’s pantheon of immortals. Which has me thinking about the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the shrine in Springfield, Massachusetts, devoted to honoring and celebrating legends of the hardwood. In particular, the recent ceremonies in Cooperstown and Canton have me thinking of this city’s most popular living sports figure, and his place in basketball history.

(Credit: U of M Athletics)

Anfernee Hardaway is a Hall of Famer. Or at least he should be.

Here we are, almost 11 years since the pride of Treadwell High School played his last NBA game (December 3, 2007), and Penny 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.

But there’s an advantage Hardaway holds as a former basketball great. The Basketball Hall of Fame has a significantly lower standard for induction than baseball’s Hall, and even lower than 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 recently 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 (will be inducted this year) — 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 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 Hall of Fame case becomes lock-down secure. Beyond Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, who can fill — to this day — a 60-second highlight reel like Hardaway?

He 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. (Get this: Every member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame . . . except Penny Hardaway.) The good folks at SLAM magazine recently 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.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Penny Speaks, We Listen

Anfernee Hardaway hosted his first formal press conference as head coach of the University of Memphis basketball team last week. The pride of Treadwell High School spoke to more than 30 reporters for 30 minutes about his first 30 days on the job. He exuded a comfort with the position most rookie coaches would envy. He appeared to feel at home in the shiny new Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center. And he said a few things we’ll remember when his first college team takes the floor in November.

“We got into the [recruiting] game really late, and to assemble the talent we did is a blessing.”
However Hardaway’s career as Tiger coach unfolds, his first month will be part of his legacy. With most of the nation’s top 2018 recruits having long signed with other programs, Hardaway managed to land a pair of elite local talents — East guard Alex Lomax and Cordova guard Tyler Harris — when either one would have been a blessing, of sorts, for the departed Tubby Smith. Add a third four-star prize (shooting guard Antwann Jones from Tampa) and Memphis has a class that would have earned plaudits even if it had not been an 11th-hour fix for the 2018-19 season. Quite a fix, indeed.


“Our message was, ‘We’re gonna teach you, develop you, get you better.’ That’s what the parents wanted to hear, outside the education piece, which is most important. Most of these kids want to go to the NBA. Who better to get them there than me and Mike [Miller].”
Hardaway has preached the importance of returning the Tiger program to its glory days, connecting the current program with teams older fans remember cheering when Larry Finch, Keith Lee, and Hardaway himself wore blue and gray deep into the NCAA tournament. But the future of the Tiger program is more about three letters: N, B, and A. Whether or not the professional league’s “one-and-done” mandate remains in place for draft eligibility, elite basketball players are drawn to college programs that will clear a path to professional riches. Hardaway’s Tiger past is a nice, sentimental coating to the story he’ll craft as a college coach in his hometown. But it’s his NBA pedigree that attracts the likes of Lomax and Harris. Add Mike Miller (with his own AAU connections) and Memphis has a recruiting tandem — a combined 1,736 games in The League — unlike any other in the country.

“I want to play the big boys. That’s how you measure yourself, especially early.”
Tennessee is back on the schedule. (The Vols will start the 2018-19 season among the nation’s Top 20.) Hardaway is pursuing a home-and-home series with Kentucky. (He drew laughter when he mentioned John Calipari asking for a neutral site.) Over an 11-day period last December, Memphis hosted the following four teams: Mercer, Samford, Bryant, and Albany. And people wonder why all the empty seats at FedExForum? The training wheels must be removed from the Tigers’ nonconference schedule. Hardaway seems intent on doing so.

“Everybody’s buying in. And that’s what we wanted, to get people excited about Tiger basketball again.”
Hardaway mentioned the standing ovations (plural) he’s received since being named head coach and the gratitude Tiger fans have shown for him being willing to “help us.” I can’t speak for the new coach, but this transition feels as much like a rescue mission as it does merely the return of a native son to a position of prominence. Furthermore, with Larry Finch dead and Keith Lee a recluse, there’s only one person on the planet who could spearhead such a rescue. The community feels this and Penny Hardaway is starting to feel it.

“First it’s compliance, then Tony [Madlock] who I call every day.”
Hardaway and Madlock made for a special backcourt the one season they played together, taking the Tigers to the 1992 Elite Eight. Madlock will now serve as Hardaway’s assistant with the most experience in the college game. Whatever value Miller brings as a recruiter, Hardaway will need some guidance when it comes to game management, coordinating a rotation, and simply communicating with each of his players. Madlock will be big in these areas. [Longtime NBA coach Sam Mitchell is expected to be the final assistant added to Hardaway’s staff.]

“The smallest thing is a no-no on this level. I’m very careful.”
Hardaway wasn’t allowed to join a celebration of East High’s recent state championship . . . and he coached that Mustang team. Such is life for a modern college basketball coach, maneuvering daily within (hopefully) the rules and regs of a governing body that sometimes seems unable to define its own legislating. The rookie coach is attentive to this new job structure and appears willing to take the necessary steps to ensure a clean program on his watch.

“We want to win a national championship. It’s not far-fetched.”
Hardaway mentioned Loyola-Chicago’s story, that no one picked the Ramblers to reach the 2018 Final Four. He doesn’t expect his Tigers to be placed in the category of Kentucky, Duke, or Kansas merely by his presence on the sideline. But Hardaway does expect such a standard to be the aim of his players and coaching staff. He’s not shying from the sport’s highest bar. “With the right mindset and the right coaches pushing you, anything’s possible.”

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tubby Smith Out as Tiger Basketball Coach

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Tubby Smith has been dismissed as University of Memphis men’s basketball coach. His departure comes with three years and more than $9 million remaining on his contract. (Terms of his buyout will be updated when made available.) Smith announced he is no longer the Tiger head coach after a brief meeting Wednesday morning with U of M president David Rudd.

A brief statement from the university was released after Wednesday’s meeting: “After considerable deliberations and in the best financial interests of the University of Memphis, an agreement of separation with head men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith has been reached.”
Larry Kuzniewski

Smith posted an overall record of 40-26 over his two seasons at the Memphis helm, but failed to get the Tigers to the postseason (NCAA tournament or NIT), extending a drought that now measures four years. A significant portion of his roster at the end of the 2016-17 season — most notably brothers Dedric and K.J. Lawson — chose to transfer with eligibility remaining. This forced Smith and his staff to replenish the program with junior-college transfers like Kyvon Davenport, Kareem Brewton, and Mike Parks. Smith was unable to land prize recruits, including local talent like East High’s Alex Lomax or Cordova’s Tyler Harris. Worst of all for Smith, attendance at FedExForum plummeted to an average of 6,225 in 2017-18, the lowest figure since the Tigers played at the Mid-South Coliseum in 1969-70 (the year before Larry Finch first suited up for Memphis State).

Memphis is the first of six career stops on Smith’s head-coaching resume where he failed to take a team to the NCAA tournament. He has taken teams to the Sweet Sixteen nine times (but not since 2005) and won the 1998 national championship with Kentucky. He leaves Memphis with a career record of 597-302.

Rumors have been swirling for weeks that former Tiger and NBA star Penny Hardaway will be hired to succeed Smith. Hardaway is currently coaching the East High Mustangs, a team favored to win its third straight state title this week in Murfreesboro. The Tiger job would be the first college gig for Hardaway who happens to be a few months older than Finch was when he was fired by the university after the 1996-97 season.

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From My Seat Sports

Memphis Stars: Penny, DeAngelo, and … Christabel?

I’ve called Memphis home for 22 years now, so I’ve seen my share of University of Memphis athletes, from lithe (volleyball players at Elma Roane Fieldhouse) to large (football players at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium). Among the hundreds of student-athletes I’ve seen play live, exactly three seemed to be playing a game unfamiliar to their teammates and opponents — a level above you might say. The first was Penny Hardaway, the All-America basketball player who electrified fans at The Pyramid from 1991 to 1993. The second was DeAngelo Williams, the All-America tailback who became the fourth Division I college football player to rush for 6,000 yards during his days as a Tiger (2002-05).

Christabel Oduro (facing camera)

My third stop-what-you’re-doing-and-watch Tiger athlete can still be seen (four more home games) at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex. She’s the remarkable Christabel Oduro.

First, the numbers. Having scored 39 career goals, Oduro is four shy of Kylie Hayes’s Tiger record of 43. Oduro’s 100 career points has her within two of Hayes’s record (a soccer player earns two points for a goal, one for an assist). She scored 16 goals as a sophomore for the best team Memphis has yet put together, a club that went 22-1-1 and didn’t lose until the second round of the NCAA tournament. Oduro was named Conference USA’s Offensive Player of the Year in both 2011 and 2012, the Memphis program’s last two seasons in the league before moving this year to the American Athletic Conference. And the best Oduro numbers of all? The Tigers are 54-17-5 since she first took the field for the U of M. Her ink in the Memphis record book is quite permanent.

But the numbers merely suggest the impression Oduro makes on the soccer pitch. “She’s made a tremendous impact on this program,” says Tiger coach Brooks Monaghan. “She’s a player with special traits, extremely athletic and quick. Christabel has grown not only as a player, but also as a person. She’s a game-changer. At any time, she can score. She can create changes on her own. Her ability to beat players one-on-one, and her finishing has improved over time. We like her to play wide, to isolate herself. She’s realized that playing her position the right way creates more opportunities.”

Oduro has played college soccer a long way from home, having grown up in Brampton, Ontario (west of Toronto). She was a four-sport athlete in high school, also playing basketball (point guard), volleyball, and running cross-country at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School. But don’t think soccer — or any of the other high school sports — were at the top of her childhood list. “I didn’t actually like soccer, initially,” she says with a smile. “Thought it was kind of lame. I wanted to play hockey, like all the little kids in Canada. But my parents said it was way too expensive. My older brother played soccer, so they put me in a program [at age 7]. I was terrible. The next year, I moved to outdoor soccer and something clicked. I loved the game.”

Oduro has had a scorer’s finishing touch as long as she can remember, but recognized in high school that she had to move to the U.S. if she wanted to take significant strides as a player. As for her decision to come to Memphis, it came down to her recruiter and a style of play. “I wanted a scholarship,” she notes, “to get school paid for. Coach [Monaghan] recruited me late, but the style of play really got me. It was possession-based, fun to watch. I thought it was a team I could possibly make better by the time I leave. At the end of the day, that’s what I want to be known for.”

Known casually as “Dro” by teammates and friends, Oduro’s stamp on the Memphis soccer program is evident without a score sheet. “She wears her emotions on her sleeve,” says Monaghan, “which can sometimes get you in trouble. She’s the first to challenge a referee. But she’s gotten better with that. Our players feed off her emotion. She’s a winner, extremely competitive. And you need those kind of players on a team.”

Her time in Memphis has flown by, almost as quickly as an Oduro shot from the top of the box. “It’s been a whirlwind,” she says. “I came in, unsure about things, nervous, wanting the seniors to like me. And now … I’m a senior, and I know how the freshmen feel. It can be hard coming in.”

In reflecting on the goals she’s scored, Oduro is fond of one this year against Alabama, where she split a defender’s legs with the ball before hitting the net. But her favorite memory is a larger picture, that of the 2011 season (her sophomore year), where all seemed right with her soccer world. “That was a great group of girls,” she says. “Every game, we came out like, ‘We’re gonna win this.’ If we were down, we fought back. If you have all 11 starters on the same page, you’ll have the synergy for success.”

As for the future, Oduro feels like an NCAA tournament run remains on her path. And she hopes to play in the new National Women’s Soccer League (the 8-team circuit that began play last spring). And then there’s the 2015 Women’s World Cup, to be played in, yes, Canada. Oduro is among a pool of players vying for roster spots on the Canadian national team. “I don’t consider myself a member of the team [yet],” she says. “I get called to camps. But that is my goal.”

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Sports Sports Feature

Top 15 Tigers

CREDIT: photograph by Rgbe | Dreamstime.com

Tiger coach Josh Pastner loves D.J. Stephens and has enjoyed teasing the media by proclaiming Stephens one of the “top five Tigers” of all time. He’ll acknowledge three other top-fives (Larry Finch, Keith Lee, and Penny Hardaway), then leave one slot open for us keyboard-tappers to consider.

The cold truth, of course, is that Stephens isn’t even among the top 15 Memphis Tigers of all time. Below is one man’s ranking of the top three Tigers at each of basketball’s traditional positions. It’s in no way a rebuke of all Stephens has given the 2012-13 Tiger team but more a commentary on the historic strength of the program.

My one qualifier for this ranking is that a player had to have suited up for at least two seasons with the Tigers. The “one-and-dones” were fun to watch, players like Larry Kenon, Dajuan Wagner, Derrick Rose, and Tyreke Evans. But they don’t belong here.

POINT GUARD — 1) Elliot Perry (1987-91): One of only two Tigers to score 2,000 career points (2,209), Socks led the Tigers in assists and steals for four seasons and led the team in scoring his last three seasons. He’s second in career steals (304) and fifth in career assists (546). 2) Andre Turner (1982-86): The Little General was the team’s pulse for a glorious four-year period that included a trip to the Final Four in 1985. Holds the Tiger record for assists in a game (15), season (262), and career (763). 3) Alvin Wright (1974-78): Wright led Memphis in assists all four seasons he played but is one of only two Tigers to average more than five assists in three different seasons. His 1,319 career points rank 15th in Tiger history.

SHOOTING GUARD — 1) Larry Finch (1970-73): Now and forever, the greatest Tiger of them all. Freshmen didn’t play in Finch’s day, but he still scored 1,869 career points and remains the face of the fabled 1972-73 team that reached the NCAA championship game. There should be a statue of Finch somewhere in Memphis. 2) Penny Hardaway (1991-93): The 1993 first-team All-American averaged 20.0 points per game over his two seasons while delivering the kind of passes we’ve seen only from the likes of Magic Johnson and Jason Kidd. Twice MVP of the Great Midwest Conference, Penny owns two of the program’s three triple-doubles. 3) Antonio Anderson (2005-09): It’s fitting that Anderson has the other triple-double in Memphis history. The “glue guy” for a remarkable period that saw a trip to the national championship game in 2008 and two Elite Eight appearances, Anderson is the only Tiger with 1,000 career points, 500 rebounds, and 500 assists.

SMALL FORWARD — 1) Rodney Carney (2002-06): A second-team All-American in 2006, Carney combined high-flying dunks and three-point marksmanship unlike any Tiger before or since. Holds the school record of 287 career treys. His 1,901 career points are third in Memphis history. 2) Win Wilfong (1955-57): A 6’2″ swingman, Wilfong played only two seasons with the Tigers but averaged 22.1 and 21.0 points, leading Memphis to the 1957 NIT championship game. He was the program’s first All-American. 3) Chris Douglas-Roberts (2005-08): CDR is one of three Tigers to earn first-team All-American status. Averaged 18.1 points per game for the 2007-08 squad, which went 38-2. His 724 points that season are the third-highest in Tiger history.

POWER FORWARD — 1) Ronnie Robinson (1970-73): Finch’s running mate averaged 14.2 rebounds a game as a sophomore, then 13.3 as a junior. Fifth in Tiger history with 1,066 career rebounds and averaged 13.9 points over his three seasons. 2) Forest Arnold (1952-56): Arnold was the all-time leading scorer at Memphis (1,854 points) until Finch came along. He’s one of only four Tigers to score 1,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds and starred for the Tigers’ first NCAA tournament team in 1955. 3) David Vaughn (1991-95): Vaughn was an integral member of Tiger teams that reached the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight (1992) and Sweet 16 (1995). Despite being limited to three seasons by a knee injury, Vaughn ranks seventh in rebounds (903) and third in blocks (235).

CENTER — 1) Keith Lee (1981-85): Lee was the star of four Tiger teams that reached at least the NCAA’s Sweet 16. A four-time AP All-American, Lee is U of M’s top all-time scorer (2,408 points), rebounder (1,336), and shot blocker (320). 2) Lorenzen Wright (1994-96): Wright scored 1,026 points and averaged more than 10 rebounds over his two seasons. Chosen seventh by the Clippers in the 1996 draft and played in more NBA games (779) than any other Tiger. 3) Joey Dorsey (2004-08): Twice named C-USA’s Defensive Player of the Year. Second only to Lee in career rebounds (1,209) and blocked shots (264). Dorsey is arguably the most popular Tiger of this century. At least until D.J. Stephens arrived.

As for my top five? Forget the order: Finch, Hardaway, Lee, Perry, Robinson.

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News

Memphis Tigers’ Homegrown Talent

Frank Murtaugh reflects on the Memphis Tigers homegrown players, past and present.