Memphis has always been a city that works hard with great grit and grind, it is also a city that loves their basketball. Since the hiring of Head Coach Anfernee “ Penny” Hardaway a native Memphian, the city has been a complete buzz about the hometown Tigers.
Memphis has seen record-breaking attendance numbers, ground-breaking recruiting numbers, and an- overall energy around the program that hasn’t been seen since the 2008 Final Four season. The Tigers have already signed a top-five recruiting class for 2019 with all three of the Tiger commitments being local Memphis kids. The Tigers have two kids from East High School ( James Wiseman, Malcolm Dandridge) where Penny Hardaway was formally the coach, and one kid from Olive Branch High School ( D.J. Jeffries).
The culture around Memphis as a whole has completely changed over the last year since the hiring of Penny Hardaway. Fans of all walks of life have a new pride in being a Memphis Tigers from little kids to grown adult’s, fans across the Mid-south are a buzz.
The city of Memphis has always been a city where the native Memphians take care of their own with deep love and extreme passion. Memphis has always been a history rich city from their music, Barbeque, and basketball. Tigers Basketball plays a rich part into the city having been to three Final Fours and has won countless Conference Championships in their long historic history. Memphis has also had six All- Americans come through the program with a hope for many more to come in the coming years.
In a recent interview with the media Head Coach Penny Hardaway had this to say about the overwhelming pressure and the target on their back because of this new Memphis Basketball culture. –
“It’s a little jealousy from a lot of these coaches around the country, and I do understand that because we’re NBA players trying to come back and we didn’t have any experiences as college coaches, so we didn’t quote-unquote pay our dues. So the coaches and their so-called boys in the media, they’re going to always throw jabs at us. I do understand that and it is what it is. We just still have to win to prove them wrong. We pose a problem to a lot of colleges and a lot of teams that didn’t have a problem from this school at all for the last eight or nine years. We’re quote-unquote taking the kids from coaches that have easily been able to get them at their schools, so there’s going to be a target.”
Memphis as a whole has always been one to adopt the Memphis vs. Everybody mentality and it has completely taken on a much cooler role since the start of College Basketball season. Memphis is now the cool and hip place to be with former NBA standouts at the helm of the program, this coaching staff gets what it means to be a true Memphian.
So as fans across the 901 get geared up for the later part of this season enjoy the ride and process of what Head Coach Penny Hardaway is building here at Memphis. Tiger fans across the city, be proud, be loud, and most importantly be hopeful for the new culture of Memphis Basketball. This type of excitement is bound to only grow as the Tigers have more success in the coming years and as Penny Hardaway leads the Tigers to new heights that many fans thought impossible when John Calipari left the program. To the rest of the nation, let Memphis have their moment. Sure, the Tigers will likely never be on the same level as the “Blue Bloods” but the city of Memphis deserves this new culture and deserves to be proud of something local.
