Memphis basketball to hire Nolan Smith as assistant coach

Penny Hardaway is adding a blue-chip prospect to his coaching staff.

Sources tell Bluff City Media that Memphis basketball is expected to hire Nolan Smith to fill one of its assistant coach vacancies left by Andy Borman, Rick Stansbury and Faragi Phillips this offseason.

The 35-year-old joins Mike Davis on the Tigers’ bench. Jermaine Johnson, who first joined Memphis as an assistant in 2020-21, is currently expected to fill Memphis’ final assistant coach slot.

Hardaway, who originally tried to hire Smith in 2022, also brought in Tigers legend Andre Turner as the director of player/alumni relations in May.

“Nolan is a grit and grind guy and is one of the brightest young coaches in college basketball. He works hard and has a passion for the game that is unmatched,” Hardaway said in a statement via Memphis Athletics on Sept. 18. “He brings a championship mindset to our team after not only having won a national championship as a player, but also by learning from one of the all-time greats in Mike Krzyzewski. Our players are going to love being in the gym with Nolan and we are excited to have him and his family as part of Tiger Nation.”

Smith first popped on the scene as a player when he was named a McDonald’s All-American in 2007. The 6-foot-4 guard spent four seasons under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, where he won a National Championship in 2010 and became a consensus first-team All-American and the ACC Player of the Year in 2011. He was then selected 21st overall in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers, but he only played in the league for two seasons before retiring altogether in 2015.

Smith quickly shifted his focus to coaching, however, joining Krzyzewski‘s staff at Duke in 2016. He later got promoted to director of basketball operations and player development in 2018, and again to assistant coach in 2021.

The former Blue Devil spent the past two seasons as Kenny Payne’s lead assistant at Louisville, where his late father, Derek, won a National Championship in 1980. Payne was fired after leading the Cardinals to an abysmal 12-52 record, and Smith wasn’t retained by new coach Pat Kelsey.

Smith, who’s partially assembled eight top-6 recruiting classes in his career (according to 247Sports), now looks to help Memphis rebound from a dreadful 2023-24 campaign that saw the Tigers miss the NCAA Tournament despite starting the season 15-2 and ranked as high as No. 10 in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25.

Memphis has put together a robust transfer portal class featuring like star guards like PJ Haggerty, Tyrese Hunter and Colby Rogers.

The Tigers have also added to their frontcourt with Dain Dainja, Moussa Cisse and Tyreek Smith to go along with George Mason guard Baraka Okojie, UTSA wing PJ Carter, Gillette forward Bouna Kebe, Vincennes forward Damarien Yates and Lane College guard Ragi Phillips. Forward Nick Jourdain is Memphis’ only returning scholarship player, and freshman guard Jared Harris will also join Hardaway’s club next season.

Haggerty (6-foot-3) averaged 21.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game for Tulsa last year, which helped him earn the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Freshman of the Year award.

Hunter (6-foot) averaged 11.1 points and 4.1 assists for Texas in 2023-24. He also won the Big 12 Freshman of the Year award at Iowa State in 2021-22, and is 6-3 in NCAA Tournament games.

Rogers (6-foot-4) scored 16.4 points per contest while shooting 40.9% from 3-point range (7.1 attempts per game) for Wichita State. Carter (6-foot-5) averaged 9.5 points and 2.4 rebounds while shooting 41.5% from the field and 40.3% from 3-point range in 31 appearances for UTSA.

Cisse (7-foot) and Smith (6-foot-8) averaged a combined 3.1 blocks per game last year for Ole Miss and SMU respectively. Jourdain (6-foot-9) started 25 of 32 games for the Tigers in 2023-24, and put up 6.5 points and 4 rebounds per contest. Dainja (6-foot-9) averaged 6.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in limited minutes for an Illinois team that made the Elite Eight last season.

Memphis—currently the No. 32 team on barttorvik.com—still has two open scholarships remaining headed into next season.