Tigers get to know Penny in workouts
The memory stuck out in Memphis senior Jeremiah Martin’s mind because he isn’t participating in the men’s basketball team’s offseason workouts due to a foot injury, and new coach Penny Hardaway almost always seems so cool and collected in front of his players.
But there Hardaway was recently, screaming at the Tigers over one of the fundamental principles he wants to instill before the 2018-19 season begins.
“He said he can’t be wasting his voice yelling at us about playing hard,” Martin explained Tuesday. “It just has to be natural.”
Reporters got another glimpse into Hardaway’s approach as a college coach Tuesday when the program made selected players available for interviews for the first time since his introductory press conference in March.
The team is in the midst of weekly workouts with Hardaway and his assistant coaches, and they’re all progressively getting to know one another.
There are four seniors, who were also the Tigers top four scorers from a year ago, as well as one returning sophomore (forward Victor Enoh) and eight new players Hardaway brought to campus as part of his initial recruiting class.
“He’s trying to put everything together with the veterans and the new guys, trying to become one as a family,” guard Kareem Brewton Jr. said.
What became clear Tuesday is that Hardaway’s relatability will be his biggest asset as he attempts to accomplish this task and build the culture he wants for this program.
Brewton, for instance, didn’t know much about Hardaway beyond his rep-
utation within the city of Memphis and his star turn in the 1994 movie, “Blue Chips.” But the 6-foot-2 guard admires how the coach delivers orders, and yet “still wants our input on everything.”
Other players emphasized a similar sentiment.
“He gets after it. He don’t play around. He knows his stuff. I’ve been impressed with how he’s handling this,” freshman David Wingett said. “He’s not going to let you be out there not knowing what you’re doing … He knows what to say.”
“It’s just like talking to a teammate with him,” added forward Kyvon Davenport. “He understands what you’re talking about because he’s been there and done most of it, so it’s a laid back conversation. It’s no stress or no sweat. It’s just cool.”
Freshman Tyler Harris noted that the temperament of the staff is already emerging in these workouts. Former NBA player Mike Miller is more easy going offering instruction, while former NBA coach Sam Mitchell is “the more yelling type of coach,” he said.
But Harris emphasized the dynamic has proven productive and useful, and doesn't extend off the court. Hardaway, meanwhile, appears to realize not everything he relied on at the high school or grassroot basketball levels will work now that he’s a first-time college coach.
Freshman Alex Lomax, who played under Hardaway the past seven years, notices his coach morphing before his eyes.
“He’s the same but he’s also different,” Lomax said. “He has the same demeanor, the same type of mindset. But he’s different in that he’s getting better as a coach. He’s also still learning. He learns new things every day and he teaches us new things every day.”
The one constant, however, appears to be competitiveness. With a full set of scholarship players in the fold, the struggle to secure playing time once the season begins is underway.
As Martin noted, having both a large senior class and a large incoming recruiting class created an atmosphere in which every practice or pick-up game becomes a test of wills.
The new players want to show they belong, while the returning veterans know they must hold their own or risk falling behind. It is, in essence, exactly the sort of environment Hardaway hoped to inspire.
“We get to battling and I feel like everyone gets mentally stronger, physically stronger,” Davenport said. “We fight. We fight for rebounds. We fight for everything. We trying to prove ourselves and we’re trying to push our teammates to make each other better day-by-day. The only way to do that is just try to kill each other now, so when it goes to game time it’ll be easy.”