Memphis’ Madlock named head coach at SC State
South Carolina State announced Memphis assistant Tony Madlock as its basketball coach Thursday.
Madlock, 51, has spent three seasons with the Tigers. He was the last remaining member of coach Penny Hardaway’s original staff. Madlock, whose son, T.J., is a guard at Houston High in Memphis, was a teammate of Hardaway at Memphis State.
“During this process we were able to look at a number of potential candidates,” South Carolina State athletic director Stacy L. Danley said in a school release. “Tony Madlock, who I have had the opportunity to know and evaluate as a person and coach for over 10 years, is everything we were looking for: winning with integrity, amazing pedigree, incredible understanding of what it takes to win, and experience as the architect of several national ranked recruiting classes. He is a teacher, evaluator, recruiter and first class coach. He is the kind of coach that I would want my son to play for.”
Madlock will finish out the season for Memphis in the National Invitation Tournament. “Anytime you get in the profession, being a college basketball coach, from day one you have dreams and goals of being a head coach and being able to run your own program,” Madlock told Jeff Brightwell during a radio interview before Thursday’s game. “And, in these times we’ve got going on now, being able to go to an HBCU and help young, Black basketball players around the country, it’s a calling for me.”
Prior to being hired by Hardaway at Memphis, Madlock spent time on coaching staffs at Auburn, UTEP, Arkansas State and Ole Miss – where he also spent time as interim head coach during the 2017-18 season.
“I’m very proud of him,” Hardaway told reporters after Thursday’s win over Boise State in the NIT quarterfinals. “This is something he’s wanted. It’s something we talked about when he first became my assistant. All my assistants always talk about being head coaches. And to be able to coach his son in the process, I couldn’t have thought of a better guy to be in a position to be able to do that. I’m just happy for him.”