Memphis basketball quit at SMU and Penny Hardaway sounds sick of these Tigers | Giannotto

They quit.

Anybody who watched Sunday could see it. Anybody who watched on television could hear it because even the ESPN announcers couldn’t avoid mentioning it. Anybody who heard Penny Hardaway drop the same curse word in Sunday’s news conference he once used to discuss Rick Barnes and stupid (bleeping) questions knew it.

The Memphis basketball team quit.

They fell behind early again, Hardaway started subbing in seemingly his entire roster within 75 seconds, and the Tigers just completely crumbled in a 106-79 loss that likely will be remembered as a critical crossroads for the program.

Hardaway didn’t call anyone out specifically. But he didn’t have to, either.

Jahvon Quinerly and Jaykwon Walton set the tone and the lack of effort filtered down the roster until the first half became a full-blown disaster. The second half was effectively an exhibition for David Jones (33 points, 10 rebounds) to keep his scoring average up in front of some NBA scouts.

The Tigers at least seem to be getting their money’s worth with him. It appeared Sunday that just about everyone else Hardaway hoped to count on this season cashed in already, and after the game he ripped this team he put together to shreds.

“We just haven’t been a team in a long time,” Hardaway said. “I’m fighting really hard for the school and for the city and everybody needs to be pulling the rope in the same direction. Right now, everybody’s not pulling the rope in the same direction.”

It got only harsher from there.

More: Penny Hardaway rips some Memphis basketball players, questioning their commitment to team

“There was people unhappy when we were 15-2 and they’ve been unhappy all year," he said. "It just seemed like the one thing we talked about when we got all these guys is, ‘Are we gonna be able to keep everyone happy?’ We have not been able to keep everyone happy. When they’re not happy, they shut down.”

If he doesn't even like them, what about the fans?

“Everybody is all caught up in the names, but that’s what’s getting us into trouble," Hardaway continued. "The names aren’t wanting to play hard all the time.”

“We don’t do this at Memphis,” he finally declared. “We just don’t go out like this.”

So did they quit on one half or one game? Did they quit on the season? Did they quit on Hardaway? Did they quit on each other?

None of the answers reflect well on Hardaway. But those last two questions are important moving forward, and they have to be asked given what’s happening — and what Hardaway said would happen after Memphis wilted at North Texas just three days earlier.

He said these Tigers would show up. That he just wanted this team to fight. Instead, Memphis showed almost none. It gave off the body language of a team ready to be embraced as this season's prime example of when the transfer portal goes bad.

Hardaway once lost a game by 40 points at Tulsa, and this somehow felt worse. For all of the confusing lineups and maddening losses, he is right that none of his previous teams ever stopped playing hard for him. Too many on this team did on Sunday, and to hear him tell it, they started quitting on him a while ago.

So it’s best to quit focusing on the NCAA tournament. Hardaway sure seems to have.

This group likely has one route to get there after the performance it put forth on this two-game swing through the Dallas Metroplex — win the American Athletic Conference tournament when it returns to the area next month. The only mystery is whether Memphis will need to win three or four games to do it.

This looks like the type of wide-open league that will keep you watching until the very end, be it bitter or breathtaking. But what once looked like his most promising team has become his most disappointing, and Hardaway sounded almost resigned to that fate after this debacle.

Sunday conjured up memories of the Tigers’ 41-point loss at SMU to close the 2016-17 regular season. This was a team that had quit on a season and a coach, right down to President George W. Bush sitting in the front row as an SMU walk-on sank a garbage time 3-pointer that sent Moody Coliseum into one more outburst of delight at Memphis’ misery.

SMU scored 58 points before halftime on Sunday, torching the Tigers from the 3–point line and manhandling them on the glass. Hardaway shuttled through 11 players in a little more than seven minutes, played every scholarship player before halftime, and even used Olive Branch walk-on Joe Cooper for the first time, trying to spark anything out of this roster made up mostly of mercenaries.

This is how Hardaway chose to construct a team two years ago after going through the turmoil of the 2021-22 season. He found the right mix of transfer portal signees and program holdovers last year, and it’s admittedly backfiring on him right now.

But he’s going to need a new batch of transfers this offseason, and they can’t be like the ones we’re watching waste away this season.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on X: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis basketball quit at SMU, and Penny Hardaway sounds sick of it