How Penny Hardaway’s changed ‘Memphis mentality’ led the Tigers to their first AAC regular-season championship

Penny Hardaway endured the coldest, harshest winter in recent Memphis basketball history a year ago. The summer that followed was just as bitter for the Tigers’ head coach.

After last season’s team unfathomably imploded and missed the NCAA Tournament for fourth time in Hardaway’s first six years, the 901’s favorite son took more heat than ever before from his fellow Memphians. He initially viewed the criticism as personal, unwarranted attacks, telling reporters in March 2024 that he laughs at fans who call for his firing. He then targeted local media members who either criticized or published negative stories about him, simply dismissing them as “haters” during a June 2024 radio interview.

But one random look in the mirror helped Hardaway see the light.

“Last summer, it was such an eerie feeling for me walking around the city…I felt like I was the most hated. I had to check myself and my Memphis mentality at the door and go, ‘Hey man, these people just wanna win,’” he said on 92.9 FM ESPN’s “Jason & John” show Wednesday. “Being the native son, it was like I had to always fight for myself or be approached by a question of negativity or a negative comment for the first time in my career here…I just had to take that on the chin and go, ‘I know I can do better, I will do better and I wanna do better for us.’”

Hardaway’s seventh season is currently on track to not just be better than his sixth, but perhaps his best one yet. Memphis (25-5, 15-2 AAC) owns 11 combined wins in Quads 1 and 2, is led by All-American candidate PJ Haggerty (21.3 points per game, No. 6 in Division I) and has been ranked in 10 consecutive Associated Press (AP) Top 25 polls (No. 16 this week).

The Tigers entered this year with three overarching goals—win the American Athletic Conference (AAC) regular-season championship, win the AAC Tournament and advance to the Final Four. They clinched the top seed in next week’s conference tourney and a share of the regular-season crown with Tuesday night’s win at UTSA, and can secure the title outright by beating South Florida at home Friday (8 p.m., ESPN2). Either way, Hardaway’s first box is checked, giving Memphis its first regular-season conference championship since 2012-13.

“It’s a great feeling for me, because I’ve done something for the City of Memphis and for the university,” he said. “Last summer, when I looked at the wall coming in after last season and we failed epically, I saw [our] last conference regular-season title was 2013. The first thing I said to myself is, ‘That needs to be 2025.’”

Hardaway changed more than just his mentality to get there. He also ran his program much differently than in previous seasons.

He stopped letting players violate his non-negotiables, an example being when star center Dain Dainja came off the bench for two month because of a “disciplinary” issue. He hired proven commodities like Nolan Smith and Mike Davis to headline his staff instead of bringing in “yes-men” as assistant coaches. He turned Memphis into a “program of development” too, mostly abandoning the flash and glamour that constantly let him down.

The 53-year-old is finally shaping the program he first envisioned in March 2018. Since then, he’s watched the likes of Kelvin Sampson (Houston), Frank Haith (Tulsa), Issac Brown (Wichita State) and the late Amir Abdur-Rahim (South Florida) receive their flowers as AAC Coach of the Year. Hardaway now feels it’s his turn.

“The Coach of the Year [award] would mean a lot to me, because it would validate what I already know I am. It would validate what I’ve worked so hard for,” he said. “They gave me the title of being a good recruiter, but I’ve never had the title of being a good coach.

“I know a lot comes along with that, because the X’s and O’s—I can do that in my sleep. But it was about the culture, being a leader, having accountability and then having growth. I’ve grown in all those areas.”