Hardaway is winning the offseason again
Penny Hardaway is winning the offseason again.
Perhaps that’s taboo to say at this point after so many previous offseason wins haven’t translated to enough wins on the court over his six years as Memphis basketball coach.
But it doesn’t make the notion that he is winning these first few months of the offseason any less true. This part of the job, the part Hardaway has been good at since the moment he got this job, is still important.
He can’t get to where he wants to without this part, even if he also can’t get there if he doesn’t master the parts of the job that come after this – the parts that have often tripped him up. He can’t get over the hump unless he gives himself a shot at doing so.
That, more than anything else, is what has been accomplished in recent weeks. Through the transfer portal, through the same landscape that can lead to the very same pitfalls that did in last year’s team, Hardaway has given himself a chance to get it right this time. It’s all he can do at the moment.
So after watching a 15-2 start go up in flames, after falling short of the NCAA tournament, after facing probably the most intense criticism he has ever received from Memphis fans in the weeks after this past season fell apart, Memphis is on the verge of completing another roster makeover — and a particularly timely one at that.
Hardaway has reeled in a new backcourt featuring the reigning AAC freshman of the year (P.J. Haggerty) and a point guard who was a force in the Big 12 the past three seasons (Tyrese Hunter). He recruited the Wichita State sharpshooter who ended the Tigers’ season in March (Colby Rogers). He lured an underutilized Big Ten big man (Dain Dainja), a shot blocker from SMU (Tyreek Smith) and an intriguing
young guard for the bench from George Mason (Baraka Okojie).
He has, maybe most importantly, brought back a sense of stability through his recruiting chops – by reinforcing that good players still want to play for him and he has access to the NIL money necessary to make sure they do play for him. That’s a sentiment worth lingering over, especially since player procurement is often the first (and most notable) sign of a coach whose influence is waning.
The basketball analytics website, Evanmiya.com, considers Hardaway’s offseason haul to be the 11th-best transfer portal class in the country, and he is likely to add some more depth pieces in the coming weeks with several scholarships still available. The template he’s using feels more thought out than a year ago, when some early recruiting misses forced Hardaway to rely on too many flawed short-term transfers.
Hardaway wanted a roster that was mostly in place by June. Check.
He wanted a roster that better reflected the defense-first identity he cultivated before last season. Check.
He needed a roster that didn’t rely so heavily on grad transfers who may or may not be convinced to buy into the Memphis culture. Check.
He wanted David Jones back. Ok, well, he doesn’t have everything yet.
But there’s a diversity to this group, both positionally and in terms of experience, that Hardaway didn’t have last season. There’s a strategic goal in mind, with Hardaway and assistant Rick Stansbury both mentioning in recent months how effective Memphis was early on last season when it went small and played Jones at the four spot.
Should Jones not stay in the NBA draft and elect to return to Memphis, Hardaway will have put together a team worthy of being the AAC preseason favorite. It would be a team expected to do damage in March. Even if Jones were not to come back, Hardaway still appears to have the makings of a team that could be on the right side of Selection Sunday.
Then again, we said all that last June, July and August when Hardaway amassed what became his most disappointing team as a college coach.
The residual effects of what happened as last season spiraled can be seen and felt in the more restrained reaction to the players Hardaway is bringing into the fold. There’s a wait-and-see approach now that Tigers fans have been let down by recruiting exploits more than once during the Hardaway era. It’s probably the sensible way to go about this, on the verge of a season in which Hardaway will need to return to the NCAA tournament to avoid the uncomfortable conversations that began to crop up a couple months ago.
To get there, he’ll have to win more than transfer portal battles.
But until he can, might as well embrace that a successful season can’t really begin until there’s a successful offseason.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on X: @mgiannotto