Penny Hardaway has been an OK basketball coach via six seasons with the Memphis Tigers, however his program is nationally related solely in its capability to generate embarrassing headlines.
The middling hoops product now not justifies the off-court turmoil — the most recent of which incorporates 4 members of Hardaway’s workers dismissed simply earlier than the beginning of preseason follow and the college confirming the existence of an nameless letter alleging main violations, which has been turned over to the NCAA.
The subsequent coach of this program might not be capable to rally the followers, herald top-notch gamers or attain 20 wins the way in which beloved Memphian and NBA legend Hardaway has. However it’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 folks cared about NCAA scandals. It typically appears like Hardaway is attempting to create optimum circumstances 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 gradual 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 difficulty 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 way to an finish.
Even with all of the participant motion happening, and with NIL giving them an authorized monetary minimize, emphasizing and fostering educational pursuits needs to be as necessary as ever for school athletics applications. People who don’t conduct enterprise as such needs to be known as on it.
Some will name that naïve. Nobody can argue NIL {and professional} sports activities cash can be lifetime cash for greater than a fraction of faculty 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 Enchantment reported in February that Malcolm Dandridge was withheld from 5 video games due to educational circumstances. The paper reported in March that males’s basketball educational advisor Leslie Brooks was fired the day earlier than the college 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 most recent of many points for Hardaway’s program, courting 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 not less than 41 folks — 17 in teaching or operations — since Hardaway was employed in 2018, based on The Day by day Memphian.
The allegations within the letter embody 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 might take a couple of easy steps and legally pay a prospect via a 3rd get together? 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 the way to conduct under-the-table enterprise discreetly and professionally at numerous elite school soccer applications, then acquired to Tennessee and did all however hand out tons of with stickers of his face on them. Pruitt, who would have been defended in any respect prices by UT if he had been successful massive, was as a substitute 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 via 2027-28, has been an OK coach. He’ll all the time be a Memphis legend. Possibly his seventh crew, with a just about all-new roster and training workers, may discover the magic for a 3rd NCAA bid.
However it will be higher for Memphis if that is another person’s first crew, even when which means an interim somebody. The Tennessee administration turned a large number into a possibility, and it labored out fairly nicely for them.
(Photograph: Aric Becker/ISI Photographs/Getty Pictures)
