By Due to compliance difficulties, including recruiting infractions, inside the programme during the 2021–22 academic year, the NCAA stated on Wednesday that Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway will serve a three-game ban at the start of the 2023–24 basketball season.
According to the Division I Committee on Infractions, Hardaway and one of his assistants engaged in two unlawful in-home recruiting trips with a highly regarded prospect during his junior year of high school. The assistant visited the recruit and his family in Texas in September 2021 to explain Memphis’ “style of play” for 15 to 20 minutes while presenting a PowerPoint presentation.
In the same year, Hardaway visited the prospect at his Dallas home two weeks later. While Hardaway had earlier said he was to Dallas to “attend a golf outing with friends” and see his son play basketball, on October 1, 2021, he got a text from a member of his staff asking if he could visit the prospect. Hardaway visited the recruit’s house, where they spoke about the team’s playstyle and took a photo with the family that was later shared on social media.
However, the NCAA stipulates that any in-person meetings with potential recruits during the autumn of their junior high school year must take place at the recruit’s institution. The committee determined that Hardaway’s “personal involvement in the violations and failure to monitor his staff” resulting from the improper contact with prospects constitute a Level II-mitigated violation that justifies a three-game penalty.
The NCAA said in a statement that the regulations in question are essential to the men’s basketball recruiting environment and Memphis’ disregard for them gave its programme a competitive edge over other programmes that abide by the rules.
Memphis will compete in three preseason games from August 1–7 in the Dominican Republic, however, the Tigers’ non-conference schedule is not yet set. According to the Commercial Appeal, among the Tigers’ early non-conference games are against Jackson State on November 6, Missouri on November 9 or 10, and Alabama State on November 17.
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