Memphis basketball head coach Penny Hardaway will be suspended for the first three games of the 2023-24 season.
Hardaway will sit out games against Jackson State (Nov. 6), at Missouri (Nov. 10) and Alabama State (Nov. 17). The suspension was triggered by a recruiting violation Hardaway committed during the 2021-22 season.
The Violation
Both Hardaway and a former assistant coach illegally had in-home visits with a high school junior recruit in Dallas, Texas. The former assistant made the initial visit on September 15, 2021, and Hardaway visited the recruit two weeks later on Oct. 1, 2021. The former assistant in question is likely Cody Toppert, who is now an assistant coach at LSU.
According to NCAA rules, coaches are not allowed to have in-home visits with a recruit until April of their junior year. Any visits made with a recruit prior to that must be at their high school during the fall months of their junior year.
According to the NCAA Committee on Infractions panel’s decision, Hardaway told the committee “that he believed he could ‘visit any student-athlete at any time.” Hardaway went on to say that he wouldn’t have visited the recruit at that time if he knew it would result in a violation. He also “blamed the error, in part, on the fact that the prospect’s year was not accurately entered into Memphis’ compliance software.”
Reactions to the Suspension
However, those reasons didn’t earn much sympathy from the committee.
“Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse,” it said in its decision. “The head coach’s inattentiveness to compliance — particularly at a time when his program was under scrutiny related to a different infractions case — resulted in careless violations. Head coaches must remain diligent in monitoring their staff and promoting compliance at all times and cannot delegate those responsibilities to compliance staff members and administrators.”
Memphis released its own statement following the announcement of Hardaway’s suspension.
“We supported Coach Hardaway’s right to work directly with the NCAA on his portion of the case, and we strongly believe Coach Hardaway never intentionally committed a violation,” the statement reads in part. “The University of Memphis is committed to compliance. We will learn from this incident and be even more diligent in our education and monitoring. Now that the entirety of this case is finalized, we will move forward in support of Coach Hardaway and our men’s basketball program, as we do all our programs.”
Memphis suffered other penalties for this violation besides Hardaway’s suspension back in December 2022. It received one year of probation (which is added to the three years’ probation it received in the IARP punishment). The program was also given a two-week ban on all communications related to recruiting, a reduction of in-person recruiting days by 4, a reduction of two official visits and a $5,000 fine.
Hardaway’s attorney Don Jackson, who is representing DeAndre Williams in his case for an additional year of eligibility, also chimed in on the suspension.
“Today’s decision was flawed, yet predictable. This case was pursued for 1 reason (and 1 reason only): because of the (NCAA’s) dissatisfaction with the outcome of the IRP decision last fall.”
