The weekend in college hoops

Good morning! And welcome to a world where Oregon’s basketball court is no longer a brown mess, but a vibrant green.

Let’s get to the rest of the news.

1. Penny Hardaway’s unfiltered interview

In many ways, Penny Hardaway IS Memphis basketball.

He’s a native who played high school and college basketball there, coached high school basketball in Memphis, and has coached the Tigers since 2018. That kind of history and attention brings expectations, both from fans — and himself.

So when the Tigers turn in a season like this one — 22-10 overall, 11-7 in AAC, their worst league finish since 2020, and no NCAA Tournament appearance — it’ll create some backlash.

And Hardaway hears it. As he noted in a nearly 80-minute interview last week with Marcus Taylor and DJ Brother John on The Voice of MSCS' "TaylorMade Sports," he hears it all.

"It's not even about reporting about what we do and how we do it. It's more personal," he said. "I can read through it. I see everything. I keep all receipts. I just laugh, because every single thing this year from the smallest thing has been reported or an article written on it. And there's been a lot more negative and personal things toward me this year out of all years, because to me it was a layup."

The full interview is below. Hardaway discuss expectations, how he compares to other coaches, NIL, why playing in the AAC isn’t helpful, and a lot more. Some of it was odd, and some of it was incongruent with facts.

But mostly? Hardaway sounded like a guy who wishes his team would’ve been better.

“Losing games that they say I shouldn’t? I agree. Losing games that you should win? Come on bro, I’m just as hurt as they are. I’m grinding and working harder than anybody to make this city proud, and help us get to a level.

“I’m going into my seventh year. I’m still a pup in the game. I’m still learning how to hire, learning how to do things, and still being very successful at the same time because it all wasn’t negative. I’ve done some positive things for this team. At the end of the day, I’m not looking for any sympathy, all I’m saying, I see the people who are writing the personal because you’re getting personal with me to make me look like I’m a fallen star or I’m somebody that was projected out there to do this, and I said we wanted all the smoke and I said that we wanted to win a national championship and it hasn’t happened yet.

“But if you put all my stats in the first six years vs all these coaches who are being successful now, then you can talk to me. Because all those coaches weren’t making Sweet 16s and Elite Eights and Final Fours in their first five or six years.”

He specifically referenced Baylor’s Scott drew as a coach who didn’t have a winning season in his first 12 years (it was actually Drew’s first four seasons, then he made an Elite Eight in Year 7), but I think that was a result of catching an off-hand comment during Drew’s press conference when he stayed at Baylor this spring.

ANYWAY, all that sounded reasonable to me. Is Hardaway actually a coaching pup? Depends on who he’s compared to. Is fair to criticize his season after Memphis started 15-2 and the season went downhill? Yeah, because he agrees with that. (With the understanding that Caleb Mills got injured and Malcolm Dandridge missed the last five games of the season.)

He also spoke at length about his mother’s health and how that emerged as a serious issues this season.

It’s the additional comments in the interview that went off the rails a bit.

"Because it's a care factor that's out of this world that I'm not trying to let us down. It's not just about a check. It's about trying to figure it out to win for us so we can have something positive in our city. I'm trying my best. It's sleepless nights, going, 'Man, you've gotta get this together.' Not for me. For the city, because I could leave. I could leave right now. But I also still try to be loyal to my city. That's going to always override the hate. I can take the bumps, the bruises, the punches, the stumps and all that. Because I know I'm focused on trying to help my city. For the people who do that, those are the people who aren't helping at all. Again, I'm an easy target. That's all I'll say."

"(Because) I feel like, if I leave, it's going to go down hard," he said. "So I gotta take the bumps and the hits. I'm fighting in the ring and in the corner right now. I'm fighting both."

To be clear: Hardaway was an upgrade over Tubby Smith, who was 40-26 in two seasons, and over the last two seasons of Josh Pastner’s seven seasons. But the two of them are on par with overall results; Pastner also logged five 20+ win seasons and never reached a Sweet 16. But six seasons with just two NCAA tourney appearances is a tough look for Hardaway.

Did Hardaway and Memphis miss an ideal chance last year when it lost 66-65 to FAU, which would’ve been an easy path through Fairleigh Dickinson to the Sweet 16? Yes. But that’s part of the game. And it sounds like Hardaway understands that.

Right now, his 2024-25 roster has nine players on it, and doesn’t seem like one that’s primed for a tourney run. But maybe he’s due.

2. Illinois’ massive recruiting win will impact next season

Illinois coach Brad Underwood had himself an awesome Sunday with the addition of 2025 wing Will Riley.

Let’s start with this:

Subscribe to The Field of 68 Daily to read the rest.