Memphis still believes in Hardaway
Leonard Draper had just gotten off the phone with Penny Hardaway.
Draper had called the night before, after he spent Tuesday at Stein's Restaurant in South Memphis talking about Hardaway with “the guys who have the feel of the community,” according to the longtime Larry Finch confidant and Memphis basketball supporter.
Draper, 80, usually just texts with Hardaway. They've known one another for decades now, ever since Hardaway emerged as one of the city's best basketball prospects. So he texted after last Saturday's AAC Tournament loss to Houston, when Hardaway “was terribly upset,” said Draper. “The kid hurt. I could tell it because when I sent him a message, he responded back how he felt.”
So Draper knew Hardaway needed to hear what they were talking about over lunch.
“You got my whole support, and you've got the support of a lot of people, young man,” Draper said, recounting his conversation with Hardaway moments after it occurred. “People are still very supportive of Penny. They want him to succeed. He's one of our own. We need him to succeed.”
As Year Three of Hardaway's tenure as Memphis basketball's head coach comes to a close, this sentiment feels like the most tangible accomplishment.
Though he hasn't made the NCAA Tournament, though he became the first Memphis coach since before Gene Bartow to not make the NCAA Tournament during his first three seasons on the job, he's done enough to convince much of Memphis to still believe in him, and to believe he's still the right man for the job.
And perhaps more than that, it's still important to much of Memphis that it's Hardaway, the revered native son, who gets this program back to the upper echelon of college basketball.
This is why judging Hardaway in the traditional sense doesn't make much sense at the moment. The enthusiasm he has generated, the money he has brought back to the university's coffers, and the hope he has injected, those are the biggest reasons why Hardaway has already signed a five-year contract extension, despite the contin
uation of the Tigers' NCAA Tournament drought this season.
But if we are judging Hardaway off wins and losses, particularly compared to the coaches from the same hiring cycle three years ago, he actually compares quite favorably.
Only seven of the 55 NCAA Division I coaches hired ahead of the 2018-19 season have made the NCAA Tournament since then. Only three coaches (Louisville's Chris Mack, Utah State's Craig Smith and Drake's Darren Devries) have a better winning percentage than Hardaway (.648). Only two coaches (Smith and Devries) have more wins than Hardaway (59) since being hired.
Asked earlier this week about how he would evaluate the program after three years, Hardaway initially noted that, “it's just been really unlucky what's really happened because we really haven't had any footing.”
Hardaway cited having to coach a roster largely comprised of players Tubby Smith recruited during his first season. Then came the much-hyped 201920 campaign in which James Wiseman played just three games, D.J. Jeffries suffered a season-ending injury and the season got called off by the coronavirus pandemic before the American Athletic Conference and NCAA Tournaments could be played.
This season, Hardaway added, featured the absence of forward Deandre Williams early on, an ill-timed ankle injury to point guard Alex Lomax late and a half-court buzzer-beater at Houston that likely kept Memphis out of the NCAA Tournament.
But going into Hardaway's second NIT appearance in three years Saturday, he feels the program is finally honing in on an identity. That frantic, full-court pressure became a weapon to build upon when Memphis played its way onto the NCAA Tournament bubble after a
6-5 start to the season.
The defense, for the second year in a row, was elite. The offense, while still prone to turnovers and missed free throws, got better. The roster, if Hardaway can keep it mostly intact, is set up to finally be filled with veterans.
“It's headed in the right direction,” Hardaway said.
That seems to be enough for now, even though this season should be viewed as a disappointment. The Tigers were good enough to be in the NCAA Tournament, and didn't get there because of its own self-inflicted wounds. This is a postseason sport in which Hardaway's future will be determined by how many NCAA Tournaments he makes, and how he far he gets in them.
But a disappointing season does not equate to a disappointing outlook.
These first three years have shown us how prepared Hardaway was to become the face of the program, and how adept he is at luring in talent and motivating competing personalities to sacrifice, especially on defense. They also exposed his deficiencies settling on defined rotations, operating an efficient offense and emphasizing the small details of the game. And it could be devastating for the program if the NCAA case related to Wiseman's eligibility goes poorly.
So in some ways, Hardaway has not been judged harsh enough because of who he is and what he means to Memphis. In other ways, however, he has been judged too harshly because of who he is and what he means to Memphis.
This unique dynamic became the theme of Draper's discussion at the lunch table.
“I just said, ‘Hey, we got to let this guy know that you're in this fight,' because you can rest assured Penny still has strong support, ” Draper said. “Don't get sidetracked. Things are going to be OK. He's going to be OK."
As long as Memphis believes in him. You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto