Penny Hardaway showed Memphis a motivational video before it faced FAU. Here's what it saw

Moments before Memphis basketball's players left the locker room to face FAU at FedExForum, coach Penny Hardaway had something he wanted his team to see.

Some Tigers had seen it before. Some had even lived it. But Hardaway wasn't leaving anything to chance. If any one of them needed a little something extra to get up for Sunday's highly anticipated clash, he made sure they got it.

Memphis (20-8, 9-6 AAC) unleashed 11-plus months' worth of pent-up fury on FAU (21-7, 11-4), leading by 10 in the second half and holding on to win 78-74. It was payback for how the Tigers' season ended at the hands of the Owls in March 2023. A controversial call by the officiating crew, a moment of infighting seen on camera, and a blown defensive assignment that led to FAU's game-winning basket in the closing seconds were just some of what stuck in Memphis' craw almost a year later.

Hardaway wanted that to be one of the last things the Tigers saw before tip-off. But that wasn't all. Memphis video coordinator Jordan VerHulst commissioned Paris Cole, a social content specialist for Tiger Sports Properties, to produce a motivational video to play for the team.

It lasted 90 seconds and showed the final moments of FAU's NCAA win in Columbus, Ohio. It included audio of Grind City Media's Gary Parrish discussing how Memphis had rapidly plummeted off the bubble, plus various disparaging social media posts.

Also featured was the viral video of the Owls dancing to Lil Baby's "Low Down" after they beat Kansas State (and Nae'Qwan Tomlin) in the Elite Eight — essentially taunting the Wildcats because that song and that dance were part of their pregame ritual last season. A scene from "Creed," interwoven with footage from the Tigers' trip to the "Rocky" steps leading up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art earlier this month, was thrown in for good measure.

It struck the perfect chord.

"Penny, he definitely wanted to turn us up," said Tomlin, whose 21 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks added up to his best performance since joining Memphis in late December.

David Jones scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, the fifth double-double in his past six games. He was not at Memphis last season, either, transferring in during the summer from St. John's. He was aware of the way the Tigers' 2022-23 season ended. But there was something different about seeing it just seconds before standing toe-to-toe against largely the same FAU team that broke Memphis' heart.

"(Hardaway) was just like, 'Let's go win the game,' " Jones said. "Malcolm (Dandridge) and Jayden (Hardaway), they were here last year. They said, 'Let's get (FAU) out of the gym early, because they're not like that.'

"So, we had to do it for our coach and for our teammates."

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And do it, they did. Memphis is striving to finish the season strong. Currently in sixth place in the AAC standings, it needs to wind up in fourth or higher to grab a double-bye at next month's conference tournament. With three games to play, the Tigers are one game behind SMU for fifth and 1.5 games behind UAB for fourth.

Memphis travels to East Carolina for its next game on Thursday (6 p.m., ESPN+). After its home finale versus UAB on Sunday, the team still has another meeting with FAU, on March 9 in Boca Raton, Florida.

But on this day, in front of an announced crowd of 13,510, these Tigers drew on ghosts of Memphis' past to do Hardaway and others proud.

"Obviously, you know, you want to get that get-back for Memphis," Tomlin said. "But I also wanted to do it for my last year's team, with K-State. They beat us in the Elite Eight and that feeling, that hurts. In the locker room, everybody's crying. So I did it not only for Memphis but for my last year's team."

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: How Penny Hardaway motivated Memphis basketball to beat FAU