What Penny Hardaway's revealing defense of his son really means for Memphis | Giannotto

Penny Hardaway was technically defending his son, and how he doles out playing time to his son. But he inadvertently helped explain so much more about this Memphis basketball team and the situation it’s in at the moment.

The question Thursday, in the midst of a 16-minute news conference with reporters, was about the decision-making balancing act Hardaway goes through filling the dual role of coach and father to Jayden and Ashton Hardaway. It’s a hot topic, once again, after Jayden Hardaway played a career-high 28 minutes and produced four points, three rebounds and one assist in the Tigers’ loss at Tulane last weekend.

The answer Penny Hardaway gave was what you might expect, and entirely reasonable. He pointed out that he considers Jayden the “most solid” player on this Memphis roster, someone who can be relied upon to do the unglamorous tasks on the court that don’t involve scoring or show in the box score. He mentioned, as well, the injury to Jaykwon Walton that forced him to turn to someone else, and he elected to go with a veteran.

“He’s a stabilizer out there,” Penny Hardaway said of Jayden. “He understands what’s going on.”

To understand what Memphis is going through right now — to understand what Penny Hardaway is going through to pull these Tigers out of the two-game swoon they bring with them to UAB on Sunday (4 p.m., ESPN) — it’s important to understand what he’s really saying there.

He knows Jayden Hardaway. He knows what to expect from Jayden Hardaway. And like it or not, Penny Hardaway is still getting to know just about everyone else on this roster.

This isn’t about nepotism so much as it’s about comfort, and that distinction might well be what’s separating Hardaway and this program from really taking off.

Guards Jahvon Quinerly and Jayhlon Young arrived on campus right before Memphis went on its Dominican Republic exhibition tour in August. Same goes for forward Jordan Brown, before he left last month and came back last week.

David Jones arrived later to start the fall semester. Walton didn’t get to Memphis until preseason practices were underway. Nae’Qwan Tomlin has been here barely a month. He and Brown probably just met last week.

Though they’ve all been through adversity before during extensive college careers, they’ve never been through it with the unrelenting spotlight Memphis gives its college basketball team. They’ve never been through it with Penny Hardaway. They’ve never been through it together.

This is all an offshoot of the transfer portal — and Hardaway’s decision to construct a roster largely through the portal. It appears to be the best way for Memphis to acquire the most talent in this era of college basketball. But the turnover can present chemistry problems for any coach, in any given season, on any given night. We’ve lamented frequently how much harder it is for fans to connect with players now that so few stay more than a year or two at one school. But the loss in connection between the coach and his players, often forged through years — not months — can’t be overlooked. In any other decade, Hardaway would have but a few players like that. This season, though, it’s dang near the whole roster.

“I never really got to know these guys before I recruited them, so I’m still getting to know . . . all these guys,” Hardaway said. “That’s what happens when you go in the portal and get a guy for one year, and you’re trying to fight and battle for positioning.”

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So after two-straight losses, with a week between games, Hardaway said the Tigers spent practice “starting all over,” particularly on defense. Jones admitted he needed to take more pride in his defense. Hardaway sounded hopeful they had figured out how to better cover up their weaker defenders.

It speaks to the potential of this group that they’ve only now been forced to formally address any of this, with Memphis still ranked within the top 25 and armed with a better NCAA tournament résumé (at this juncture) than any of Hardaway’s previous teams.

Hardaway has traversed this tightrope somewhat successfully the past two years, emerging from scenarios stickier than the one that will play out starting Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama. He knows how to have Memphis playing its best in March.

“We’re not in a crisis right now, Hardaway said. “We’ve lost some leverage, a bunch of leverage, but we still have a team that can make it to the Final Four and play with anybody in the country.”

Figuring out a more stable ride there remains an obstacle standing between Memphis and the high NCAA tournament seed it wants.

Maybe that means getting transfers to campus earlier, or trying to retain more players. Maybe it’s just not possible anymore. Maybe the ride this season will smooth out soon, now that Hardaway and his team spent this week having gotten to know one another just a little better.

“His trust,” freshman Carl Cherenfant added, “is the biggest thing we have to gain as players.”

Jayden Hardaway has that trust. It's why, when an injury struck in a big road game last weekend, his father turned to him to play more minutes than anyone else on the bench.

If this season is to become what Penny Hardaway thinks it can, he needs to get there with everybody else on this team.

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: Penny Hardaway's revealing defense of his son