Penny Hardaway has been an OK basketball coach by six seasons with the Memphis Tigers, however his program is nationally related solely in its capacity to generate embarrassing headlines.
The middling hoops product now not justifies the off-court turmoil — the newest of which incorporates 4 members of Hardaway’s employees dismissed simply earlier than the beginning of preseason apply and the college confirming the existence of an nameless letter alleging main violations, which has been turned over to the NCAA.
The following coach of this program could not be capable to rally the followers, usher in top-notch gamers or attain 20 wins the best way beloved Memphian and NBA legend Hardaway has. But it surely’s about time to search out out. It’s not a Holy Grail quest to discover a coach who can approximate Hardaway’s backside line — two NCAA Event bids and one win in these six seasons — whereas additionally not protecting the lights on at NCAA Enforcement.
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Memphis submits letter alleging potential violations to NCAA
This program has a championship heritage with legendary gamers and groups within the not-so-distant previous. Scandal is a part of that heritage, too, however that was again when individuals cared about NCAA scandals. It typically looks like Hardaway is making an attempt to create optimum situations for a sequel to “Blue Chips,” the delightfully cheesy 1994 film that includes Nick Nolte as a compromised hoops coach, Hardaway as a purchased recruit and Ed “Al Bundy” O’Neill as an investigative reporter.
It’s been a gentle stream of investigations, eligibility questions and suspensions for Memphis since Hardaway changed Tubby Smith, whose two-season common of 20.0 wins wasn’t far behind Hardaway’s (22.2), and whose integrity was by no means a problem in his 31-year head teaching profession.
Tutorial improprieties are the worst of what has been alleged. On this period of participant empowerment and funding, applications that attempt to shortcut training are declaring they see these “student-athletes” as nothing greater than a method to an finish.
Even with all of the participant motion happening, and with NIL giving them an authorized monetary minimize, emphasizing and fostering tutorial pursuits ought to be as essential as ever for school athletics applications. People who don’t conduct enterprise as such ought to be referred to as on it.
Some will name that naïve. Nobody can argue NIL {and professional} sports activities cash will probably be lifetime cash for greater than a fraction of school athletes.
Tutorial violations involving a number of Memphis gamers are alleged within the nameless letter, which has been considered by The Athletic. The Memphis Business Attraction reported in February that Malcolm Dandridge was withheld from 5 video games due to tutorial circumstances. The paper reported in March that males’s basketball tutorial advisor Leslie Brooks was fired the day earlier than the varsity introduced Dandridge would miss video games.
It’s all the time potential a scenario like this, if true, occurs independently of the individuals who oversee a program. However that doesn’t absolve them of all duty.
And that is simply the newest of many points for Hardaway’s program, relationship again to an 18-month investigation into the recruitment of James Wiseman. There’s been nothing terribly damning outdoors of the lecturers allegations. However the sample is fairly clear at this level for a program that has employed at the very least 41 individuals — 17 in teaching or operations — since Hardaway was employed in 2018, based on The Day by day Memphian.
The allegations within the letter embrace two improper funds. A type of, for $60,000 to a prospect, was alleged to have occurred in 2022. Is it potential Hardaway didn’t understand that at that time you would take just a few easy steps and legally pay a prospect by a 3rd social gathering? The general sloppiness right here, whatever the veracity of that specific allegation, brings one other main Tennessee sports activities coach to thoughts.
Jeremy Pruitt presumably discovered easy methods to conduct under-the-table enterprise discreetly and professionally at numerous elite faculty soccer applications, then obtained to Tennessee and did all however hand out a whole bunch with stickers of his face on them. Pruitt, who would have been defended in any respect prices by UT if he had been successful huge, was as an alternative fired for trigger in 2021. As Memphis begins a brand new period with Ed Scott as athletic director, Pruitt’s demise involves thoughts.
Hardaway, whose contract runs by 2027-28, has been an OK coach. He’ll all the time be a Memphis legend. Possibly his seventh workforce, with a nearly all-new roster and training employees, might discover the magic for a 3rd NCAA bid.
However it might be higher for Memphis if that is another person’s first workforce, even when meaning an interim somebody. The Tennessee administration turned a multitude into a possibility, and it labored out fairly properly for them.
(Picture: Aric Becker/ISI Pictures/Getty Photos)