How to manage Memphis basketball hype factor
They’ll say you should know better at this point.
That for more than a decade the product Memphis basketball has put on the floor has never matched the stir it creates off it every offseason.
That if there’s one lesson to be learned from the odyssey the Tigers have gone on since John Calipari left in 2009, or the seven-year drought without an NCAA Tournament berth, it’s to celebrate a recruiting win simply as a recruiting win rather than start counting the wins or booking Final Four reservations.
That this could be another setup to be disappointed.
Just like when Josh Pastner had all those great recruiting classes and never made it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Just like two years ago, when the James Wiseman fiasco ruined the last time Memphis was the talk of the college basketball world.
Undoubtedly, in the midst of the elation that accompanied Jalen Duren’s decision to come to Memphis and the anticipation that surrounds Emoni Bates’s recruitment and the amazement that the Tigers have a Hall of Famer on staff, you’ve probably heard from these people.
Maybe they’re Kentucky fans, or Tennessee fans, or Houston fans. Maybe they’re the folks who can’t fathom how Memphis might pull this off, who don’t yet understand the wild, wild West nature of recruiting in the name, image and likeness era, or the gravitational pull Penny Hardaway has harnessed
through three years. Maybe they're just people who want Hardaway to fail, or don't like Memphis, for one reason or another.
So what can you say to them if they say this is too much hype too fast for these Tigers? If they say Hardaway better win big this year?
If they make the very accurate point that Memphis is one of five schools to reel in at least four top-5 recruiting classes since 2010, and it's the only school among that group to not make the Sweet 16 during that time?
Glad you asked. I present a four-answer guide to responding to anyone trying to rain on your parade after the Tigers' latest recruiting splash.
1) Hardaway isn’t a normal college coach and it extends to any conversation about pressure on him.
“Penny Hardaway is officially out of excuses and needs to win big,” is how Fox Sports Radio's Aaron Torres phrased it on his podcast this week in reaction to Duren's commitment. “Needs to win big” or else what? Hardaway just signed a five-year extension in the middle of an NCAA investigation into his program and signed a five-star for the third year in a row despite never making the NCAA Tournament.
Even if the Tigers are a total flop, Hardaway isn't in danger of being fired. This isn't a traditional situation in which a coach enters Year Four without a tournament berth and must get there to keep his job.
If Memphis can't live up to expectations, the chorus of doubters nationally and locally will grow louder and the city will be disappointed. But I can't imagine anyone would be more disappointed than Hardaway. He didn't take this job to just survive. He took this job because he felt a civic responsibility and a competitive void, with a vision that seems larger today than maybe the most ardent fan had before he was hired.
2) Even if Memphis doesn’t get Bates, there’s already a great recruiting class in place and it’s easier to fit the pieces together. Look at Bates as a luxury at this point. A cherry on top of an already delicious sundae.
With him, the expectations will grow. He could be a generational scorer and talent. He would also mean there's a logjam of players who came to Memphis expecting a starting role. It would be a good problem, but another problem to solve nonetheless, on top of the possibility that Alex Lomax is the only point guard on the roster.
Someone like Lester Quinones, or Landers Nolley II, or Earl Timberlake would need to unexpectedly come off the bench. Without Bates, the pecking order becomes much more straightforward (although the point guard conundrum still exists).
3) The offseason hype has been justified at least two times before.
While the post-calipari era suggests Memphis has a tendency to get ahead of itself, there is a history of preseason grandeur coming to life the past two times the Tigers went to the Final Four. Before their 1985 appearance, Memphis brought back the nucleus of a Sweet 16 team. Calipari's 2008 national finalist was coming off an Elite Eight appearance. This can work because it has worked before, despite recent evidence to the contrary.
4) This team looks different than any Memphis team since Calipari was here.
Unlike under Pastner, Hardaway has a legendary former head coach on his staff in Larry Brown to help the cause. Unlike the 2019-20 campaign, when Wiseman, Precious Achiuwa and the rest of the Tigers' No. 1 recruiting class got to campus, there are established veterans like Deandre Williams, Nolley, Quinones and Lomax to ensure this latest ballyhooed freshman class isn't required to do all the heavy lifting once the games begin.
And should all else fail, should these naysayers continue to antagonize you, just remind them there's always next year and the next great Memphis recruiting class awaits to get our hopes up again.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto