Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway has had enough. On Thursday night, Hardaway sounded off during his postgame press conference after his team lost to SMU 70-62. One reporter asked Hardaway if he was embarrassed by the team’s performance and if he had lost faith he could get the job done at Memphis.
“I think the one thing I can say to this media because this media gets kinda f— up sometimes when it comes to me. We don’t have our full roster. Y’all know we don’t have our full roster. Stop asking me stupid f—ing questions about if I feel like I can do something,” Hardaway said, per ESPN.
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“If I had my roster like they did, then I feel like I can do whatever I want to do. I’m coaching really hard, my boys are playing really hard, I’m not embarrassed about nothing. We have four freshmen starting, y’all need to act like it. Act like we got 17- and 18- and 19-year-olds out here trying to learn how to play against 22-, 23- and 24-year-old guys. Come on, man. Stop disrespecting me, bro. Like, don’t do that. I work too f—ing hard. I work way too hard for that. Y’all write all these bulls— articles about me and all I do is work. We got young kids on the floor. They got young kids on the floor.”
Memphis is currently 9-8 on the year and started the season ranked No. 12 in the AP poll. The Tigers are 3-4 in the American Athletic Conference and lost eight of their last 12 games after starting the season 5-0. After just missing the NCAA Tournament last year, Memphis is looking to be a national title contender, which is what they looked like to start the season.
Hardaway, a four-time NBA All-Star, is in his fourth season as head coach of Memphis. Each year, the team has won at least 20 games but has yet to reach the NCAA Tournament. Memphis won the NIT Tournament last season after being on the bubble for March Madness. The last time Memphis was in the NCAA Tournament was in 2014. In its history, Memphis has been to the Final Four three times and played in the championship game twice.
