Penny Hardaway talks about the basketball offseason in Memphis and transfers
Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway spoke about his team’s offseason at TPC Southwind on Wednesday.
The University of Memphis is aware of an anonymous letter accusing the men’s basketball program of several potentially serious violations of NCAA regulations in recent years.
“The University of Memphis is aware of the anonymous letter and has provided it to the NCAA,” university spokeswoman Michele Earheart said in a statement to The Commercial Appeal late Wednesday.
News of the letter’s existence came on the same day that the athletic department announced that several members of Penny Hardaway’s coaching staff (Rick Stansbury, Faragi Phillips, Jamie Rosser and Demetrius Dyson) would be fired two months before the start of the 2024–25 regular season.
It is not immediately clear whether there is a connection between the existence of the letter and the recent personnel changes.
The allegations in the letter, which were obtained by The Commercial Appeal but have not been independently confirmed, describe Hardaway’s alleged involvement in potentially significant violations in 2020 related to the recruitment of a former Memphis player and a second student-athlete who signed with the Tigers in 2022 but never played a game for the team.
The letter also alleges that several players violated academic regulations during the 2023-24 season. Former Tiger Malcolm Dandridge was suspended from competition for the final five games of this season as the school investigated a potential issue with his participation status. Sources told The Commercial Appeal in February that the circumstances of Dandridge’s situation involved academic issues. In March, The Commercial Appeal reported that the school had fired former men’s basketball academic adviser Leslie Brooks, a day before announcing that Dandridge was suspended from games.
Last month, Memphis’ new athletic director, Ed Scott, told The Commercial Appeal that the school self-reported its results to the NCAA.
The Memphis men’s basketball program has been no stranger to the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions in recent years.
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In 2022, after a years-long investigation into violations (adjudicated through the now-defunct Independent Accountability Resolution Process), the program was accused of committing four Level II violations and five Level III violations during a saga that began with the handling of James Wiseman’s participation status in 2019. While the NCAA’s initial notice of allegations identified at least four Level I violations (the most serious), Memphis and Hardaway were able to avoid significant sanctions — but the program was sentenced to three years of probation.
In 2023, Hardaway was suspended for three games to be served during the 2023-24 season for two unauthorized home visits to a Dallas recruit in 2021 during his penultimate year of high school. The NCAA also imposed an additional year of probation.
The Tigers open the regular season on November 4th at FedExForum against Missouri.
Reach sportswriter Jason Munz at [email protected] or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.
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