Memphis made history by hiring Merriweather
Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch was planning to call Penny Hardaway in the morning about being part of the university's search for a new women's basketball coach.
Hardaway, the men's basketball coach, beat him to it. He called Veatch the night before.
So perhaps, on the day when a new era of Lady Tigers basketball was finally ushered in with the hiring of Katrina Merriweather – the program's first Black coach – it's best to view the significance of the moment through the greatest basketball product this city has ever produced.
Hardaway knew, like anyone who cared about Memphis women's basketball and watched the program go from irrelevant to bad to worse under former coach Melissa Mcferrin, that it shouldn't be like this in a basketballmad town like Memphis.
“I have a real love for women's basketball. When I was in school, we came to all the games,” Hardaway said Tuesday following Merriweather's introductory press conference.
“We've had a lot of talent in this town and for whatever reason the talent hasn't stayed home. That's what I'm more about – to try to get the talent in here to help our city, to help our school. I think we're headed in the right direction. No knock on Coach Mcferrin at all. It's just now I understand that with a new coach, the city is buzzing, the players around the town are buzzing, the players here are excited. I think some great things are about to happen.”
Memphis believes Merriweather is the reset button its women's basketball program has needed for years and, at least on paper, the school's hunch appears to be justified.
Merriweather, 41, spent 11 years turning around Wright State's program, including the past five seasons as the head coach. She was the Horizon League's Coach of the Year three times, and just led the 13th-seed Raiders to an
upset over No. 4 seed Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament.
She played college basketball at Cincinnati and her father is a longtime grassroots basketball coach in the Indianapolis area. She grew up around highlevel women's basketball and can use those recruiting connections to her advantage.
Her résumé isn't spotless. As an assistant coach at Purdue, Merriweather received a three-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA when she helped a player with a term paper and made impermissible phone calls to two recruits.
Even that, though, feels like the sort of overbearing NCAA decision Memphis fans will find relatable. This should be, in theory, a great match.
“She knows what it's like to have the power of a city team behind you,” Veatch said. “This is going to be a remarkable fit. She fits our place. She fits our city. She fits our culture.”
That last part, about culture, is the tricky part since the culture surrounding Memphis women's basketball became toxic in recent years.
Did the Lady Tigers have a lack of success because they were neglected, or were they neglected because of their lack of success?
It's worth considering the answer as Memphis welcomes in a coach with credentials that suggest the job is viewed as one with unfulfilled potential.
It's not worth rehashing all of the gory details, but this hire comes more than two years after allegations of studentathlete mistreatment and abuse against Mcferrin by former players.
It prompted Memphis to commission an outside investigation, and that investigation raised very serious Title IX concerns about the university's administration, in addition to highlighting Mcferrin's poor relationship with her players.
It was Memphis' version of what the NCAA went through last week, when the systemic inequities between its men's and women's basketball tournaments made national headlines. But the university nonetheless gave Mcferrin a two-year contract extension that was set to expire after this season, until Mcferrin abruptly retired with five games to go.
All this happened before Veatch got to Memphis, and the school has since adopted many of the recommendations from the investigation.
Elma Roane Fieldhouse, where Tuesday's press conference was held, is in the midst of a $4 million renovation. The women's team is now allowed to practice in the $20 million Laurie-walton Family Basketball Center, which was somehow designed and approved last decade only with the men's team in mind.
Veatch also hired a senior women's administrator, a position the previous regime left vacant.
“There was a gap as far as administrative support,” said Lauren Ashman, the athletic department's new executive associate athletic director and senior women's administrator who helped Veatch target Merriweather during this search. “It was something we knew we needed to commit to.”
Merriweather is the best proof of this progress.
Veatch and university president M. David Rudd each noted Merriweather had other suitors emerge once Wright State upset Arkansas, but choosing Memphis became “a no brainer,” according to Merriweather.
“As much as these renovations look amazing ... it's not the gym, it's not the locker room, it's not the film room. It's not the way you travel. It's not any of those things,” Merriweather said. “It's the people, and that is the reason why Memphis has the opportunity to grow and move forward.”
There's nowhere to go but up. Memphis hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1998. It hasn't had a winning season since 2015-16. It hasn't felt like a relevant part of the city's sports landscape since, well, it's almost been too long to remember.
That's why when Hardaway and Merriweather spoke recently, he extended an olive branch.
“Whatever it's going to take, I'm willing to help,” Hardaway said. “She's making history. That's a lot of weight on her shoulders. I'm here to get that off.”
So as the first Black women's basketball coach in school history finished her introduction to Memphis, she sounded this resounding tone: “Representation matters. I think it's important for young people to see people who look like them.”
And if this basketball-obsessed community can finally see a women's basketball team that represents them again, even better.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto