Penny Hardaway expected to be named new Memphis Tigers basketball coach

Former Memphis star Penny Hardaway is expected to be named the next Memphis men's basketball coach barring any last-minute complications, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. 

Both sources told USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee on Thursday to anticipate the university holding a press conference announcing Hardaway's hiring early next week.

One person said Hardaway's representatives have been in negotiations with university officials about a contract since the Tigers' season ended in the American Athletic Conference tournament semifinals last Saturday. 

One source close to Hardaway said he is fielding phone calls and inquiries from potential assistant coaches and staff members, although he has yet to decide what his staff at Memphis will look like.

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Hardaway, 46, will coach East High School in the TSSAA state semifinals on Friday in Murfreesboro and also runs the Memphis-based AAU program, Team Penny. This would be his first college coaching job.

Hardaway declined comment when asked about the Memphis job on Thursday as he was leaving the TSSAA’s Boys Basketball State Championships being held at Middle Tennessee State’s Murphy Center.

“I can’t comment,” Hardaway said. “I’m employed at Memphis East.”

On Wednesday, after East defeated Blackman in a state quarterfinal game, Hardaway was asked about the Memphis opening.

"I'm at East right now," he said. "I want to be able to focus on East right now ... I'm with these guys; I'm invested in them," Hardaway said. "We hear the noise (speculation); they hear the noise but they've never heard me bring anything up. They know what I'm about and that's this third gold ball. I'm not focusing on anything else outside of that."

Memphis fired former coach Tubby Smith on Wednesday after just two seasons and will owe him nearly $10 million since he had three years remaining on a five-year contract. But Smith's dismissal was mostly due to factors beyond his win-loss record (40-26).

Attendance at Tigers' home games hit a 48-year-low this season and the athletic department could miss out entirely on an $800,000 payment from the Memphis Grizzlies as part of the school's lease with FedExForum.

Donations to the athletic department also decreased by $1.1 million during the 2016-17 fiscal year largely because of a drop in men's basketball season ticket sales. 

In the school's statement announcing Smith's firing, it cited "the best financial interest of the University of Memphis."

Hardaway's hiring would help fix these issues, at least initially, because of his status as one of the city's basketball legends and his ability to jolt the Tigers' recruiting efforts, both locally and on a national scale. 

Due to his role at East and with Team Penny, Hardaway has ties to several top 100 2019 recruits, including 6-foot-11 forward James Wiseman, the top high school junior in the country, according to several recruiting outlets.

Smith's dismissal, and the potential hiring of Hardaway, had been in the works for more than a month even though rumors about Smith's job security only intensified last week ahead of the AAC tournament. 

A person with direct knowledge of the situation said that university president M. David Rudd began discussing the possibility of Smith's firing with the executive committee of the university's Board of Trustees once Memphis lost in overtime at ECU on Feb. 3.

The executive committee consists of executive vice president and chief financial officer of FedEx Alan B. Graf Jr., former interim university president and Chesapeake Energy chairman R. Brad Martin, and Cato Johnson, the chief of staff and senior vice president of public policy and regulatory affairs at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. 

Those deliberations have now led to Hardaway's imminent arrival back on campus.

Hardaway starred at Treadwell High and chose to stay home and play at Memphis despite suitors from around the country.

He went on to earn All-America honors two years in a row for the Tigers (1991-92 and 1992-93) before being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1993 NBA draft. He was a four-time all-star and played 15 years in the NBA.

Hardaway returned to Memphis after his retirement and got involved in the city both philanthropically and through the grassroots basketball scene. He earned a bachelor's degree in professional studies from the university in 2003.

Hardaway also donated $1 million to the University of Memphis in 2008 to help construct what is now called the Penny Hardaway Hall of Fame.   

It appears that he will soon take this relationship one step further and become employed by his alma mater. 

Statewide high school sports editor Tom Kreager contributed to this report.