Penny Hardaway addresses recent coaching changes, NCAA accusations

Penny Hardaway has broken his silence following an eventful week for Memphis basketball.

The Tigers’ seventh-year head coach participated in a Q&A session with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein Saturday, where he addressed Memphis’ recent controversies and expectations for the 2024-25 season.

Hardaway announced the departures of assistant coaches Rick Stansbury, Faragi Phillips and Jamie Rosser, as well as special advisor Demetrius Dyson, in a statement on Wednesday morning. Memphis had already parted ways with five other staffers earlier this offseason.

Hardaway declined to answer when asked why he made the changes he did.

He did, however, sound off on the widespread criticism thrown towards him regarding the constant turnover his coaching staff has experienced throughout his tenure. Hardaway has brought in 13 assistant coaches since his hiring in March 2018.

”At the end of the day, this is who I am. I’m not traditional so stop trying to put me with the guys that are,” he said. “The coaches who have left have went on to get bigger and better jobs and better positions. No one has really just been fired. There’s been multiple things that have happened mutually and I still talk to everyone who was in the program because it’s a tree.

”For everyone else, it’s a coaching tree and for me, it’s turnover. So if you want to understand what the turnover is, it’s a group of young men and men who went on to do better. I might not have had a coaching position for them so they went on to get a coaching position. Or they had a coaching position and they may have felt that another coaching position may have projected them better with a bigger role. I don’t understand why this is unheard of for you guys who have been in the business for a long time.”

Hardaway found himself in even more hot water when the University of Memphis acknowledged an anonymous letter accusing him and his program of committing major NCAA violations on Wednesday night. The letter, which Bluff City Media obtained a copy of, has officially been turned over to the NCAA.

It first alleges Hardaway’s personal involvement in major recruiting violations—a $30,000 payment to former Tiger DeAndre Williams for his commitment to Memphis in 2020 and a $60,000 payment along with apartment arrangements for then-Boise State-transfer Emmanuel Akot for his commitment to Memphis in 2022. Akot, though he signed with Memphis, never enrolled at the school and instead played for Western Kentucky in 2022-23.

”There’s always going to be a microscope and a target. I’m my harshest critic,” Hardaway said. “I know how things work from being in the NBA. I understand that when you come to this job what comes along with it—whether it’s good or bad.”

The letter also claims that Hardaway was aware of the alleged academic fraud violations involving former Tiger Malcolm Dandridge that took place during the 2023-24 season, which Bluff City Media reported on Feb. 23. Dandridge was suspended for Memphis’ final five games of the campaign once his alleged involvement in the scandal became apparent.

Memphis also fired former athletic academic advisor Leslie Brooks shortly after it began investigating the allegations. The letter claims that she and her sister were paid to complete academic work for Dandridge and three other players.

Memphis self-reported its findings from the investigation to the NCAA in April. The NCAA has since visited Memphis’ campus in May to further investigate the case. Memphis now awaits the NCAA’s ruling and potential punishments regarding the matter.

Despite this, or Memphis’ disappointing end to last season that saw it miss the NCAA Tournament after a 15-2 start, Hardaway adamantly rebuffed some fans’ concerns of his program’s current momentum.

”What have I done to not have momentum? I was ascending until we had injuries and went from No. 10 in the nation to being out of the Top 25. It happens. It happens to a lot of coaches, but if it happens to me then it’s the worst thing in the world,” he said. “I know what needs to be done. I want to win — that’s why I’m still in the job. I don’t have to have a job. I’m still here because I really want to do something good. I don’t need the money. I don’t need anything. I could go and retire right now and be great…I don’t have to tell the Memphis fans anything.”

Hardaway’s program has already been involved in two other NCAA investigations in his six-year tenure. The first was in 2019 when Memphis played 5-star freshman James Wiseman despite being advised not to by the NCAA due to eligibility concerns. This triggered an investigation of the entire program, which was later charged with four Level I violations in March 2022, including a Lack of Institutional Control charge against Hardaway. The now-defunct Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP), however, opted to soften Memphis’ penalties in October 2022. The Tigers ultimately received three years of probation and no postseason ban.

The program later earned a fourth year of probation after Hardaway was suspended for three games last season season due to a recruiting violation, which was triggered after he and a former assistant illegally visited a Texas high school recruit in 2022.

But Hardaway, who’s made just two NCAA Tournaments in six seasons, has no regrets and says he wouldn’t change a thing about his run as Memphis’ coach thus far.

”To me, it’s the bumps and bruises. My bumps and bruises in this business can get louder than anyone else’s bumps and bruises,” he said. “I’m being judged harsher than an average coach that just came in. It is what it is. I’m not above criticism, but I know that I’m being judged harsher. I have thick skin, but if we’re talking about facts and you’ve been in the business longer than I have, about someone being in their first six years — from someone who you respect who’s the best in the business to the worst in the business — if those guys were given up on after their fifth or sixth season, they wouldn’t have become who they became. That’s what is so funny to me.

”Is it harsher because I came from the NBA? I came in with the quote, ‘We want all the smoke,’ which everybody except for a few people understood that meant that we’d play anyone anywhere. And we have played anyone anywhere. It’s gotten misconstrued. To me, it’s just weird being in this space. I came back to do something. I don’t need the money. I came back to the school to teach young men and to try and help my city out and my school out and it’s like I’ve been under some microscope that’s unbelievable. It’s just really weird going through this space because good guys finish last and good guys really finish last at this level.”

Memphis begins its 2024-25 campaign against Missouri on Nov. 4, meaning that Hardaway is now less than two months away from what is arguably his most important season yet.

If Memphis falls short of expectations once again, or misses the Big Dance for the second year in a row, that on top of all the program’s off-the-court drama could spell the end of Hardaway’s tenure.

Memphis will trout eight new scholarship players and yet another revamped coaching staff, but Hardaway believes the Tigers’ path to success is quite simple.

”If we stay together and stay healthy, we’ll be ok. Those are my expectations,” he said. “All I need them to do is just stay healthy and stay together and we’ll be good.”