Penny Hardaway unleashes on Memphis media

Things don’t appear to be going well for Penny Hardaway down in Memphis. After tonight’s conference defeat to SMU, a third straight loss, Penny appears to come unglued.







Put this in the Coaching Rant Hall of Fame.

 

In order for that to go into the Coaching Rant Hall of Fame, people would have to believe that Penny is an actual coach.

 

Won't end well for him, whenever it ends.

 

SMU appears to play several seniors. This is true. Memphis is in the bottom third in KenPom's Experience measuring system.
Know what else? Memphis has nine players who were or would have been ranked among the Top 100 nationally as seniors in their respective class years. The rest of the AAC appears to have a total of six Top-100 players according to rosters here:
2021-22 American Athletic Conference Season Summary | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

 

Just project about 200 miles south a year or two from now and the demise of Coach Prime will be very similar.

 

Maybe it actually was a bad question.

 

It was certainly a question to evoke a strong response. But it depends who asked it. I can remember moments where I asked questions like that, not necessarily to get the answer but because the coach was just being a dick, and losing. All of this stuff is public now because of the internet, but they're still people sitting in a small space, trying to do a job and getting nowhere with a coach. If you're on a beat for a long time, there are going to be times when reporter and coach push up against each other. It is an adversarial relationship. So if this guy is Memphis beat reporter, this question was likely fomented by frustration. If it was some rando who doesn't cover Memphis full time, it's probably not the right question.

 

He's the only one who ever worked hard in his life.

 

Someone should have asked him why he was being so pissy.

 

The question and the answer both come when the coach’s seat is pretty hot. A quick Twitter check shows Memphis fans are fed up, which means the question is more than warranted, IMO.

 

Every coach or manager goes into the job knowing there's only three ways out: retire, quit for a better job or get fired.

If you're not willing to ask the No. 1 question that's on everybody's mind, go work in Edmonton (/crossthread). And if you're Hardaway, you know when the seat's getting warm so you shouldn't be surprised when the 800-pound elephant in the room gets unveiled. It's not easy, but the coach has to keep his cool in those situations, because blaming the media and making excuses only makes it worse.

Like it has been explained countless times, "You're not my coach, Coach." We're not cheerleaders for the school or the sport, no matter what anybody else thinks.

The reporter has a job, and that's not sugar-coating things when things are going the wrong direction. Maybe that's Hardaway's way off taking the heat off his kids, but at his own expense. Whatever's going on in the locker room -- either mentally or physically -- it's something he can't easily fix. So shoot the messenger.