Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway will not coach the team’s first three games of the 2023-24 season, according to an NCAA statement announcing the penalty Wednesday.
The Division I Infractions Commission declared: “The men’s basketball coaches committed recruiting violations when they engaged in two unauthorized recruiting home visits with a prospect during his junior year of high school.” “Because of his personal involvement in the violations and failure to monitor his staff, the men’s basketball coach also violated the head coach’s responsibility rules.”
The NCAA Committee on Infractions (COI) deemed the penalties, which occurred during the 2021-22 season, to be Level II in nature. The school will pay a fine of $5,000 and serve a probationary period of one year extending to the current probationary period (which stems from The James Wiseman IARP case) but will not face additional penalties. This irregularity was discovered amid the Weizmann investigation but was not related to the wrongdoing in this case.
The investigative committee’s decision states that “the coach bears ultimate responsibility for what happened in his program.” “He could have taken steps to prevent the violations from happening, but he did not,” he added. (Read the COI report here.)
Memphis met with the NCAA and agreed to the sanctions in December.
“We have supported Coach Hardaway’s right to work directly with the NCAA on his part of the case, and we strongly believe that Coach Hardaway did not knowingly commit any infringement,” the Memphis statement read. “The University of Memphis is committed to complying. We will learn from this incident and will be more diligent in our teaching and monitoring. Now that this whole issue is finalized, we will move forward in supporting Coach Hardaway and the men’s basketball program as we do all of our programs.”
From the NCAA version:
The violations in this case centered around the recruitment of a highly rated men’s basketball player. First, in September of his junior year of high school, the assistant coach of Memphis men’s basketball traveled home to another state and visited with him and his family. Two weeks later, the Memphis men’s basketball coach did the same. NCAA rules, as adopted by members, require that any personal contact with recruits during the fall months of the junior year of high school be made at prospective schools, not at their homes. As a result, these visits violated recruiting rules.
The Tigers are coming off a 26-9 season and a second straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Hardaway’s team is not expected to be ranked ahead of the season, but the numbers will once again be a contender in the American Athletic Conference. Next season will be Hardaway’s sixth as head coach for his alma mater.