How Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway pulled off perhaps his most improbable recruiting job yet

Rarely conventional. Never boring. Often rewarding.

Following along with Penny Hardaway on the recruiting trail is some of the most fun a Memphis basketball fan can have this side of March. But even the sixth-year Tigers coach can admit: It’s not necessarily for the faint of heart.

Never has that been truer of a single offseason since Hardaway — who already has engineered some of the more can’t-look-away campaigns in college basketball — was hired. But this one has been different. Almost comical, in a way.

“It’s one of those laughers, really,” he said earlier this month in an exclusive interview with The Commercial Appeal during the Tigers’ exhibition tour of the Dominican Republic.

Coming off a 26-win season, an AAC championship and second straight NCAA tournament appearance, Hardaway practically had to start from scratch. Some of it was by design. Some of it wasn't.

And some, shall we say, is simply the nature of the beast.

Five months after Hardaway tore most of it down, he has reconstructed a roster with a collection of parts that has even some national media members include the Tigers in the national championship conversation.

“Is this the year Hardaway breaks through?” Fox Sports college basketball broadcaster and reporter John Fanta wrote Wednesday.

If it is, it indeed will be largely because of his latest recruiting masterpiece.

How this Memphis basketball team came together

Hardaway got the ball rolling early, securing signatures from four high school seniors in the fall.

Carl Cherenfant’s commitment came first. Then, Memphis made a big splash by landing high-profile playmakers Mikey Williams and JJ Taylor. Hardaway’s son, Ashton, followed a week later.

Between graduation and attrition, the Tigers were always going to need a significant number of reinforcements. For that, Hardaway turned to the transfer portal. Nick Jourdain was the first to hop on board. Caleb Mills was next, followed by Jonathan Pierre.

That initial wave, according to Hardaway, was a mix of effective recruiting and Memphis being an attractive destination.

“It was just, one guy got in (the portal). We sold him on what could be,” he said. “Then another guy got in. Then, a couple guys just said, ‘Hey, I want to be at Memphis.’ So that helped. And once you have three or four guys, it’s easier to go get another guy.”

Not always smooth sailing

Except it wasn’t — not right away, at least.

The Tigers hit a relative dry spell between early April and early May, punctuated by a failed run at Jaden Bradley. The former Alabama point guard took an official visit to Memphis in April — which in Hardaway’s case is almost always a telltale sign of an impending commitment.

But weeks went by without so much as a peep from the former five-star. Then, on May 3, Bradley announced he was headed to Arizona.

Hardaway admitted there were times that this offseason felt a bit like a roller coaster.

“I probably zoomed in on one guy that I didn’t get,” he said.

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Hardaway declined to identify the specific player he wanted and ultimately missed out on. But it gave him the chance to underscore one of the inherent issues he sometimes must contend with on the recruiting trail. He calls it “the scary thing”: the ever-present threat that “everybody’s gonna give you the time of day just because of the respect factor.”

But Hardaway prides himself on his ability to read people — especially prospective Tigers.

“I know when I’m gonna get a guy,” he said. “By the conversations. By how he responds through texts. What we talk about. You can tell if a guy really likes your school versus if they’re just giving you the time of day because of my history.

“If you gotta go for months trying to twist somebody’s arm, you can tell it’s not gonna happen.”

A furious finish

With the May 11 deadline for undergraduate transfers bearing down, Hardaway still had holes to fill. But he didn’t panic.

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His patience paid off. When grad transfers David Jones, Jordan Brown, Jahvon Quinerly and Jaykwon Walton became available, Hardaway went to work and went into the Dominican Republic trip with a flourish. Just this week, he welcomed back fifth-year big man Malcolm Dandridge, who announced Friday he will finish his career at Memphis.

There are still matters unsettled. Memphis remains hopeful that all-conference forward and fan favorite DeAndre Williams will be granted another season of eligibility by the NCAA. Mikey Williams is still facing felony gun charges and might not be part of the team.

But this is Hardaway in his comfort zone.

“To me, this is familiarity, because I’m from the NBA,” he said. “This is free agency, you know what I mean. This is what I’m used to.”

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: How Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway pulled off latest recruiting magic