Amid turmoil, AD says Penny Hardaway will 'absolutely, unequivocally' be Memphis' coach

Amid turmoil, AD says Penny Hardaway will ‘absolutely, unequivocally’ be Memphis’ coach

Posted by Admin September 6, 2024 Basketball

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Memphis athletic director Ed Scott said Friday that Penny Hardaway will “unequivocally” be the basketball coach when the season starts.

“Absolutely, unequivocally, based on every piece of information I have right now today, Penny Hardaway is going to be on that sideline marching up and down and trying to get us a victory when Missouri comes in here,” Scott said on 92.9 ESPN’s “The Geoff Calkins Show.”

It’s been a wild week for the basketball program. First, the athletic department announced Wednesday multiple members of Penny Hardaway’s coaching staff (Rick Stansbury, Faragi Phillips, Jamie Rosser and Demetrius Dyson) were being let go.

Then, later that evening, the university said it was aware of an anonymous letter alleging the program has committed multiple potential major NCAA violations in recent years.

Scott had planned to appear on Calkins’ show before the staff departures and before the letter. He said as of Thursday, Memphis had not received a formal notice of allegations from the NCAA related to the letter. He also said he’d learned about the letter’s existence during the interview process for the job — Scott took over for Laird Veatch, who left for Missouri, and he started at Memphis in late July — but did not read the contents until he was contacted by Sports Illustrated for a comment on Wednesday.

The staff departures were not related to the letter, Scott said, adding that he didn’t see the letter until after the staff departures had been announced.

“Leadership is hard, and you’ve got to make tough decisions,” Scott said. “And Penny made tough decisions. And for that, I’m really proud of Penny.”

Scott, who has officially been in the job for just over a month, said he’s worked on trying to build relationships with all of Memphis’ coaches.

“For me, Penny is a wonderful human being. He’s been gracious to me,” he said. “I’ve had dinner with Penny and the team at his house. I treat him no differently than I treat (football coach) Ryan Silverfield or (women’s soccer coach) Brooks (Monaghan) or any of our head coaches.”

The letter contains multiple allegations, including that academic violations involving multiple players were committed during the 2023-24 season. Former player Malcolm Dandridge was withheld from competition for the final five games of that season as the school looked into a potential issue with his eligibility status. Sources told The Commercial Appeal in February the circumstances of Dandridge’s situation involved academics. In March, The Commercial Appeal reported the school fired academic advisor Leslie Brooks the day before it announced Dandridge was being withheld from games.

Scott told The Commercial Appeal last week the school self-reported its findings to the NCAA. Scott said Friday that there’s no update from the NCAA on that investigation.

Scott made it clear he understands the impact that Hardaway has had on Memphis.

“He’s doing this not to get paid,” Scott said. “He’s doing it because he believes he can win and he cares about Memphis and he cares about the institution. And so if that’s the common denominator, I love working with someone like that. Working with Penny in this city, anything he does or does not do is going to be national news. And I’m comfortable with that.”

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan.