Memphis coach Penny Hardaway hit with 3-game NCAA suspension for recruiting violations
Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway has been suspended for the first three games of the 2023-24 season due to recruiting violations, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
According to the NCAA, Memphis coaches conducted two impermissible in-home recruiting visits with a prospect in 2021 when the prospect was a junior in high school. The first visit involved a Memphis assistant. The second was made by Hardaway himself. NCAA rules allow coaches to have in-person contact with recruits during their junior years, but they must occur at the prospect’s school. In-home visits are not allowed for high school juniors.
Because of Hardaway’s “personal involvement in the violations and failure to monitor his staff,” Hardaway violated the NCAA’s head coach responsibility rules, the NCAA Committee on Infractions determined.
Per the report from the Committee on Infractions, Hardaway claimed “he should not be held responsible for the violations because he did not know NCAA rules prohibited in-person home visits and Memphis’ compliance office failed to appropriately train his newly promoted director of recruiting.”
Memphis and the NCAA previously reached a negotiated resolution to a violations case involving James Wiseman back in December. The recruiting violations were discovered during the Wiseman case, but Hardaway contested the allegations.
The NCAA has imposed an additional year of probation that was previously given to the program. The probationary period now extends to Sept. 26, 2026.
No additional penalties for the program will be imposed other than the suspension for Hardaway. During his suspension, Hardaway cannot attend his team’s games or have any contact or communication with players or coaches
"Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse," the NCAA panel said in its decision. "The head coach's inattentiveness to compliance — particularly at a time when his program was under scrutiny related to a different infractions case — resulted in careless violations.”
In a statement, Memphis Athletics said it believes Hardaway "never intentionally committed a violation."
"We supported Coach Hardaway's right to work directly with the NCAA on his portion of the case, and we strongly believe Coach Hardaway never intentionally committed a violation," the Memphis statement says. "The University of Memphis is committed to compliance. We will learn from this incident and be even more diligent in our education and monitoring. Now that the entirety of this case is finalized, we will move forward in support of Coach Hardaway and our men's basketball program."
Hardaway, a former NBA star who played collegiately at Memphis, is entering his sixth season as the head coach at his alma mater. The Tigers are coming off a 26-9 record and American Athletic Conference tournament title in 2023. Memphis has reached the last two NCAA tournaments. In 2022, the Tigers fell in the Round of 32. Last year they lost a heartbreaker to Florida Atlantic in the first round. FAU ended up advancing all the way to the Final Four.
