NCAA suspends Memphis men's basketball coach Penny Hardaway for recruiting violations
The NCAA has suspended Memphis men's basketball coach Penny Hardaway three games in the 2023-24 season over recruiting violations committed nearly two years ago.
The violations took place September 2021, during a pair of in-home visits to a prospect in Texas, when the prospect was a junior. While the NCAA allows men's basketball coaches to conduct in-person visits with junior prospects, they must occur at the player's high school. The NCAA deemed that the in-home visits gave Memphis "a recruiting advantage over other compliant programs."
The NCAA's Division-I Committee on Infractions panel announced the discipline Wednesday in a statement, charging him with a failure "to promote an atmosphere of compliance." These recruiting violations came at a time when the program was being investigated for a series of separate violations.
"Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse," the NCAA's infractions panel said Wednesday in a statement. "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. Head coaches must remain diligent in monitoring their staff and promoting compliance at all times and cannot delegate those responsibilities to compliance staff members and administrators."
Memphis opens its 2023-24 men's basketball season with games versus Jackson State (Nov. 6), at Missouri (Nov. 10) and versus Alabama State (Nov. 17).
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The first of the two offending in-home visits took place September 15, 2021, when an assistant coach made the visit; the second was two weeks later and involved Hardaway visiting. The program and the NCAA reached an agreement in December 2022 to confirm the violations and penalties.
"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," Memphis said in a statement published on its athletics website. "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, as we do all our programs."
The Tigers finished last season with a 26-9 record, including a 13-5 mark in the American Athletic Conference. They were upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against the FAU Owls.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NCAA suspends Memphis men's basketball coach Penny Hardaway 3 games
