Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway will serve a three-game suspension at the start of the 2023–24 basketball season due to compliance issues, including recruiting violations, within the program during the 2021-22 academic year, the NCAA announced on Wednesday.
Hardaway and one of his assistants committed the violations when they took part in two illegal in-home recruiting visits with a highly touted prospect during his junior year of high school, according to the Division I Committee on Infractions. In September 2021, the assistant traveled to the recruit’s home in Texas and visited with him and his family to discuss Memphis’s “style of play” for 15 to 20 minutes in a PowerPoint presentation.
Two weeks later, during that same year, Hardaway took a trip to the prospect’s home in Dallas. While Hardaway previously stated he made the trip to Dallas to watch his son play in a basketball tournament and to “attend a golf outing with friends,” he received a text from a member of his staff on Oct. 1, 2021, asking if he could visit the prospect. While at the recruit’s home, Hardaway also discussed the team’s style of play and took a picture with the family that was later posted on social media.
