The head coach of Memphis tigers basketball has officially announced the suspension of new signing due to…
Penny Hardaway, the Memphis basketball coach, will be punished for three games during the 2023-24 season, the NCAA announced Wednesday. Hardaway will serve his suspension for the first three games of the season, which includes games against Jackson State (Nov. 6), Missouri (Nov. 10), and Alabama State (Nov. 17).
The punishment stemmed from two illegal in-home visits with a recruit from Dallas during his junior year of high school in the 2021-22 academic year. NCAA rules stipulate that coaches may not visit a recruit until April of their junior year. According to the NCAA judgment, a former Memphis assistant coach paid a visit to the unnamed recruit in September 2021. Two weeks later, on October 1, 2021, Hardaway paid another visit to the same recruit. NCAA rules demand that any in-person visits with recruits during the fall months of their junior year of high school take place at the prospects’ schools rather than at their homes.
According to multiple reports, the former Memphis assistant coach who conducted the recruit’s initial illegal in-home visit is Cody Toppert (now an assistant at LSU). The sources requested anonymity because certain aspects of the case have not been made public. Multiple sources reportedly told The Commercial Appeal that the NCAA questioned Toppert and ruled that no NCAA rules violations will be pursued against him. As a result, he is not a party to the lawsuit and will not be punished.
According to the NCAA Committee on Infractions judgment, Hardaway told members of the enforcement staff “that he believed he ‘could visit any student-athlete at any time.'” Hardaway later told the enforcement officials that he would not have visited the recruit if he had known it would result in a violation. According to the panel’s findings, Hardaway “blamed the error, in part, on the fact that the prospect’s year was not accurately entered into Memphis’ compliance software.”
The Memphis athletic department issued a statement on Wednesday, noting that Hardaway exercised his right to oppose his piece of the case and resolve it with the NCAA. “We supported Coach Hardaway’s right to work directly with the NCAA on his portion of the case, and we strongly believe Coach Hardaway never intentionally committed a violation,” Memphis stated in part. “The University of Memphis is devoted to compliance. We will learn from this occurrence and be more vigilant in our education and monitoring. Now that the entire matter has been resolved, we will continue to support Coach Hardaway and our men’s basketball program, as we do with all of our programs.
