Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway, a former NBA player, was hired as the head coach of the Memphis Tigers basketball team in 2018, despite having no prior coaching experience outside of high school.
Hardaway has gotten several quality recruits in his first four years, but he hasn’t generated the type of winning record one would anticipate, given his background.
Since winning the NIT title in 2021, Memphis has failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament and has started the season 9-8.
On Thursday, Hardaway was asked if he thinks he’ll ever get the job done after losing to SMU 70-62. He retaliated by going on a minute-long rant against the media.
“I think the one thing I can say to this media because this media gets kind of f–ked up sometimes when it comes to me – we don’t have our full roster,” Hardaway said. “Y’all know we don’t have our full roster. Stop asking me stupid f–king questions about if I feel like I can do something. If I had my roster as they did, then I feel like I could do whatever I want to do.”
He continued, “I’m coaching really hard. My boys are playing really hard. I’m not embarrassed about nothing. We have four freshmen starting. Y’all need to act like it. Act like we have 17 and 18-year olds trying to learn how to play against 22, 23, and 24-year-old guys. Stop disrespecting me, bro. Don’t do that. I work way too f–king hard.”
That would be fine if Hardaway didn’t sign both Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren, two of the top recruits in the 2022 class, with the idea of winning right away then losing them to the NBA.
Penny Hardaway's answer to if he can get the job done at Memphis.
"Stop asking me stupid f***ing questions about if I feel like I can do something. If I had my roster like they did, then I feel like I can do whatever I want to do." pic.twitter.com/WA79u6Y7bc
— Cassie Carlson (@CassieCarlsonTV) January 21, 2022
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