Why Penny Hardaway aired Memphis basketball's dirty laundry after its USF loss | Giannotto

Jahvon Quinerly actually missed a potential game winner. It was bound to happen, given the way Memphis basketball had been playing of late. But maybe it was supposed to happen, so Penny Hardaway could say what he said after the Tigers collapsed in a 74-73 loss to South Florida Thursday night at FedExForum.

“I don’t even know if this is going to be a wake-up call,” Hardaway lamented, “because we have so many things that are going on that we’re just dealing with as we’re moving forward that I hope by March is all gone.”

This is when his news conference veered into the dramatic. A mere four days after being wowed by his team’s performance at Wichita State, he unloaded a series of concerning (but vague) observations about the program’s chemistry behind the scenes.

To those not familiar with the unnecessary subplots that seem to follow Hardaway and Memphis basketball, it probably seemed disturbing. To those following along closely, it felt premeditated — and right around the time on the calendar when his teams seem to arrive at a crossroads.

The "stop asking me stupid (bleeping) questions" rant happened almost two years to the day of Thursday's news conference. Last season, it was a double-overtime loss to UCF a week earlier than this, which was preceded by a couple of too-close-for-comfort wins early in conference play.

For better or worse, this sort of rhetoric from Hardaway at this juncture is actually becoming an annual thing.

In this moment, Hardaway suggested he can’t play certain Memphis players with one another because of the chemistry problems. He emphasized the negativity in the huddle can get so bad, the coaches don’t even have time to talk about the opponent because they’re forced to sort through whatever issues the players are going on about. He reiterated that this roster, with so many new players, has too many players who want to be the focal point offensively, who then allow it to leak into their defense.

You never would have known that Memphis entered Thursday with a top-10 ranking in January for the first time since 2009 and had the nation’s third-longest winning streak.

“We’ve been able to mask it,” Hardaway said, “but it’s there.”

That was the giveaway, of course.

Hardaway wanted to get this off his chest. He probably wanted to for a while now, ever since these Tigers came out of their holiday break with close call after close call. Blowing a 20-point lead against USF, with a diminished crowd due to the snow and ice, was his opening. He knew it, and he took it.

So please don’t fall for the trap too many in the city might after a bad loss like this one. Don’t overreact — yet. What happens now that Hardaway aired this dirty laundry publicly is going to be far more telling, beginning with a tricky road game at Tulane on Sunday (noon, ESPN2).

Memphis responded by becoming the best version of itself the past couple of years, and it's starting off from a much better position than those teams. The Tigers have done enough good work that one unexpected loss in league play won’t ruin their NCAA Tournament seeding. They've shown us for a month now that running through the American Athletic Conference unscathed was unrealistic.

The problem, of course, is another setback or two like this probably can (and will) hurt those Selection Sunday hopes of being better than a No. 8 or No. 9 seed again, and Memphis just used a mulligan on a game it was completely controlling coming out of halftime.

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The same issues that cropped up lately were issues again. Memphis couldn’t stop dribble penetration, and miscommunication, especially on USF's final two possessions, was costly. It couldn’t keep USF off the offensive glass in key moments. Its offense went stagnant with little ball movement and plenty of ill-advised shots, particularly once USF went to a zone defense.

Quinerly can be a little too passive to start games. Leading scorer David Jones can be a little too passive late in games. Jaykwon Walton is too inconsistent and takes too many 3-pointers. Nae'Qwan Tomlin looks a little too lost out there at times. Jayden and Ashton Hardaway are playing too much, while Malcolm Dandridge and Jayhlon Young probably aren't playing enough.

But lest you need reminding, the Tigers had their best record in 15 years before Thursday's game. This time, Quinerly didn’t bail them out, and the mistakes came accompanied by Hardaway’s foreboding postgame words.

“The team needs to be appreciative of having the opportunity to be in the top 10 and have more pride in what we do and be more intentional in what we do,” he said, “instead of just trying to show up.”

Hardaway’s warning falls on him, too.

There are players on this team he can’t play together because of personality clashes? And it’s January? That should have been addressed weeks ago. Same goes for the uncertainty about Jordan Brown’s status with the team. Either he’s with the program or he’s not. This state of limbo can't be helping what Hardaway has already portrayed as a potentially combustible locker room.

But neither will panic.

From the sounds of it, Hardaway had been waiting for this loss to happen.

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: Why Penny Hardaway put Memphis basketball on blast after USF loss