Penny Hardaway’s Memphis basketball program is in turmoil just two months before the start of the 2024-25 season.
Hardaway abruptly fired four members of his staff on Wednesday, announcing in a statement that assistant coaches Rick Stansbury, Faragi Phillips and Jamie Rosser and special adviser Demetrius Dyson had all been let go.
“I want to thank Rick, Faragi, Jamie and Demetrius for their service to the University of Memphis and our basketball program,” Hardaway said in a statement. “These are good coaches that I've worked with closely over the past few seasons, but I made the difficult decision to go in a new direction with our staff. The timing is not ideal, but I want to give this team the best opportunity to reach our goals of winning the American Conference and advancing in the NCAA Tournament. With the season rapidly approaching, we are going to move quickly to complete the staff.”
Hardaway’s statement gave no clear reason for his decision to clean house more than five months after the conclusion of the 2023-24 season. A possible reason emerged Wednesday night, however, when Sports Illustrated‘s Pat Forde reported that Memphis has received an anonymous letter alleging widespread NCAA rules violations within the program.
Per Forde, “the letter alleges Hardaway’s personal involvement in what could be major violations in the recruitment of a player who came to Memphis and a second prospect who did not enroll at the school.” The letter claims those violations occurred in 2020 and 2022 while also accusing Memphis of academic violations during the 2023-24 academic year.
Hardaway’s tenure as the head coach at his alma mater has been tumultuous from the beginning. While his first full recruiting class at Memphis in 2019 was ranked as the best in the country, the star of that class – James Wiseman – played in just three games for the Tigers after it was determined he accepted impermissible benefits. Hardaway served a three-game suspension to start last season due to recruiting violations tied to impermissible in-home visits in 2021.
On the court, Hardaway’s teams have failed to perform up to expectations, making the NCAA Tournament in just two of six seasons with just one NCAA Tournament win in 2022.
The Tigers, who missed the tournament last season, have just one returning scholarship player on their 2024-25 roster.
Mike Davis, who joined Memphis’ staff in June, is the only remaining assistant coach on Hardaway’s staff. Davis, the head coach at Indiana from 2000-06, was most recently the head coach at Detroit Mercy from 2018-24.
