Rick Stansbury’s presence looms large. His voice echoes throughout every room. But he still says his contribution to Memphis’ success is minimal.

Rick Stansbury won 442 games as a Division 1 men’s basketball head coach. He lost just 255.

That equates to a 63.4% all-time winning percentage for his career. Two hundred ninety three of those wins came during a 14-year tenure at Mississippi State, one of the most successful in school history. In those 14 seasons, Stansbury led the Bulldogs to six NCAA Tournament appearances, five SEC East division championships, two SEC Tournament wins and an SEC regular season title in 2004.

And though he never made the NCAA Tournament during his seven years with Western Kentucky, he still helped turn the Hilltoppers into a respectable program. Under Stansbury, Western Kentucky made the NIT twice, won at least 20 games in four consecutive seasons (2017-2021) and earned a Conference USA regular season championship in 2021.

Despite just arriving to Memphis this Spring, Stansbury—a highly-renowned recruiter—is largely credited with revitalizing the Tigers’ NIL situation and helping Memphis land some of its star-studded transfer portal class. After Stansbury joined the staff, Memphis landed the likes of David Jones (St. John’s), Jordan Brown (Louisiana), Jahvon Quinerly (Alabama) and Jaykwon Walton (Wichita State). The only significant transfers Memphis landed prior were Caleb Mills (Florida State), Nick Jourdain (Temple) and Teafale Lenard (MTSU), who later de-committed from the Tigers to instead pursue a career in the NBA G-League. He was picked second overall in the G-League Draft in September and will be eligible for the NBA Draft in 2024.

If that isn’t enough, Stansbury is now filling in as the Tigers’ acting head coach for the first three games of the 2023-24 season while Penny Hardaway serves his suspension levied by the NCAA on June 21. He led the Tigers to a 94-77 win over Jackson State in the season opener Monday night.

Granted, the Tigers weren’t perfect in that game. They turned the ball over 16 times, 10 in the first half. They also trailed JSU for 4:44 in the first 20 minutes of play. But they later regained their composure, took control of the game and earned a convincing victory. That means a lot on a night where Oklahoma State fell to lowly Abilene-Christian and No. 4 Michigan State lost an overtime thriller to James Madison in East Lansing.

Yet, despite the impact he’s made in such a short time at Memphis, or his extensive D-1 coaching pedigree that spans more than 20 years, Stansbury wants to take as little credit as possible for the Tigers’ recent success.

“Coach [Hardaway] deserves all the credit,” he said Monday night. “He’s got this team ready to play and I’m just a little piece of it. The assistant coaches [deserve] more credit than I get. Those guys work hard. They’re very important in putting gameplans together. So, my role is very minimized.”

Stansbury even insisted that the Tigers were still playing for Hardaway, and not him.

“That’s the whole key,” he said.

He wasn’t the only one who expressed this sentiment, though. Walton, who scored 19 points on 7-11 shooting from the field and 3-4 from 3-point range, also prefers to credit the Tigers’ entire staff as opposed to just one guy.

“We got a great coaching staff, plus we’re player-led. So, it [doesn’t] really matter who’s coaching us. We gotta go out there and play at the end of the day,” Walton said.

Walton in general seems like a very straight forward person. He calls things as he sees them.

The Tigers will make a huge leap in competition when they travel to Colombia, Mo. to take on an SEC foe in Missouri on Friday night. All they’ve faced so far are two Division II opponents and a SWAC school. Stansbury acknowledges the magnitude of Friday’s game. He calls Missouri—ranked No. 55 at KenPom—a “really good team” and its home venue—Mizzou Arena—a “very difficult environment.”

As for Walton, the upcoming Tiger-clash is just another game.

“To me, it [doesn’t] matter. [Missouri is] another basketball team,” he said. “They gotta come out [on the floor] and put on their uniform just like we do. It [doesn’t] matter.”