The Memphis Tigers head coach has been suspended due to a misunderstanding with two players.
For recruiting breaches related to two in-home visits with a prospect two years ago, the infractions panel suspended Memphis coach Penny Hardaway for three games on Wednesday.
The fine is the result of a December-mediated settlement that let the school close the case and start probation while one person contested the severity of the accusations made. That turned out to be Hardaway, the former NBA and Memphis player who was charged under regulations defining head coaches’ accountability for behavior inside their organizations.
Hardaway paid the kid from Dallas a house visit in September 2021, about two weeks after an assistant coach had paid him a visit. Juniors were not allowed to have in-home visits at their present school other than in April of that year, according to NCAA regulations.
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Hardaway will miss the opening three games of the November 2023–24 season. He had claimed to the NCAA that he was not aware of the regulation.
Playing Penny Hardaway
On March 17, 2023, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, head coach Penny Hardaway of the Memphis Tigers converses with a referee during the second half of a game against the Florida Atlantic Owls in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament first round game. Dylan Buell/Getty ImagesIn )
“Ignorance of the rules is not an explanation,” the panel declared. “The head coach’s inattentiveness to compliance — particularly at a time when his program was under scrutiny related to a different infractions case — resulted in careless violations.”
In 2019, the school was dealing with a different NCAA investigation connected to the recruitment and brief collegiate stay of center James Wiseman, a one-and-done player. In the end, that case resulted in the NCAA penalizing Memphis with three years of probation, a public reprimand, and a fine but not imposing a postseason ban or punitive punishment on Hardaway through its recently established Independent Accountability Resolution Process.
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“Flawed, yet predictable,” said Alabama-based attorney Don Jackson, who represented Hardaway.
“This case was pursued for one reason (and one reason only): because of the Enforcement Staff’s dissatisfaction with the outcome of the IRP decision of last fall,” Jackson stated. Whether to appeal will be decided in the days ahead.
Gametime: Penny Hardaway
At FedExForum on March 5, 2023, in Memphis, Tennessee, head coach Penny Hardaway of the Memphis Tigers reacts during the second half against the Houston Cougars. Getty Images (Justin Ford)
Memphis stated that school administrators “strongly believe Coach Hardaway never intentionally committed a violation.”
“We will be much more diligent in our education and monitoring and learn from this incident,” the school stated. “Now that the whole case is closed, we will proceed in supporting Coach Hardaway and our men’s basketball program, as we do all of our programs.”
The panel’s report states that the assistant’s visit, which was originally scheduled to occur at the high school but was moved to the residence “due to scheduling issues,” lasted for around 15 minutes.
Hardaway was visiting the area to see his son participate in a basketball competition and go golfing with pals, in addition to seeing a different prospect there. A picture of Hardaway that the family shared on social media eventually set off the inquiry.
In one instance, the NCAA claimed that Hardaway “attempted to deflect blame” by claiming that the prospect’s year had been entered into the program’s compliance software by the recently promoted director of recruiting, which might have raised an alert. According to the report, Hardaway claimed during the infractions hearing that “it was not his responsibility” to obtain the training, even though he had thought the recruiting director had been schooled on the system but had never confirmed.
Chief hearing officer Gary Miller of Akron described the infractions as “relatively limited in nature” but said they gave Memphis a recruiting edge by setting it apart from other colleges that had adhered to the regulation on house visits.
