Hardaway has confidence to aim high
Forty-nine seconds. That’s how long it took Penny Hardaway to mention the words “national championship.”
He said them again less than a minute later. Then a couple other times before his press conference wrapped up.
“I keep saying that, ultimately, I
want to win a national championship, and it’s not farfetched,” he said. “If you have the right team, the right mindset, and the right coaches pushing you, anything is possible.”
With infectious optimism like that, it just might be.
Hardaway spoke to the media throng — and, yes, it has suddenly become a throng — for a good 20 minutes Thursday afternoon.
It was his first official press event since assembling his first class of recruits.
Hardaway talked about the strengths of each of the players in his top 30 class. He talked about his goals for the recruiting season that is to come.
But the most striking aspect of the event was Hardaway’s easy confidence. His absolute faith that he is going to get the job done.
It’s not an in-your-face or self-inflated claim to superiority. It’s a matter-offact belief in the program, in his staff and in himself.
“It’s just the way that I’m built,” he said. “I’m not trying to be cocky or brag or anything.”
But if you had lived the life that Hardaway has lived — if you had accomplished the things that Hardaway has accomplished — wouldn’t you figure you’d succeed at the next challenge, too?
This emerged in nearly every subject that came up Thursday. Hardaway is aiming high.
Here’s Hardaway on scheduling: “It’s going to get better and better every year.”
Here’s Hardaway on this year's Memphis Madness: “We have to make this thing amazing.”
Here’s Hardaway on Tyler Harris: “There’s nobody like him on this team, there’s nobody like him in this conference.”
Here’s Hardaway on his offense: “We want to spread the floor, kind of like Villanova did, kind of like the Houston Rockets play.” You getting the general idea? But the clearest example of Hardaway’s confidence may have been his thoughts on recruiting. For starters, he flat-out admitted that he lost two players to Kentucky this year. Coaches never do that. They always say they got the class they wanted to get.
Hardaway assembled a top 30 class in a matter of weeks but still said there were a couple players who got away.
Then he said that won’t stop him from going head-to-head with Kentucky in the future, and from getting the players next time around.
“Now we feel like the playing field is even,” he said. “We started so late, they already had a jump on us. I feel like we can compete with anyone now going forward.
“We do understand the history of the Dukes, the Carolinas, the Kentuckys, the Kansases. But we’re here to put Memphis on the map. Back on the map.”
To be clear: Memphis fans should not expect Hardaway to routinely wrest five-star kids away from Duke and Kentucky. Nor should they consider the Hardaway era a disappointment if he doesn’t deliver a national championship.
But the optimism is exactly what the program needs at the moment. The belief in what is possible at Memphis is a refreshing contrast to the last couple years.
“You’re supposed to shoot for the sky,” is how Hardaway put it.
Who knows what the man might hit?