On Wednesday, Memphis Tigers basketball fired four assistant coaches on his staff two months before the season.
Memphis dismissed assistant coaches Faragi Phillips, Jamie Rosser, and Rick Stansbury as well as adviser Demetrius Dyson.
Thus far, Memphis has yet to explain why the moves happened, but head coach Penny Hardaway released a statement on the moves Wednesday.
Statement from Penny Hardaway. pic.twitter.com/PavBsN3Wzx
— John Martin (@JohnMartin929) September 4, 2024
“I want to thank Rick, Faragi, Jamie, and Demetrius for their service to the University of Memphis and our basketball program. These are good coaches that I’ve worked closely with over the past few seasons, but I made the difficult decision to go in a new direction with our staff. The timing is not ideal, but I want to give this team the best opportunity to reach our goals of winning the American Conference and advancing in the NCAA tournament. With the season rapidly approaching, we are going to move quickly to complete the staff,” Hardaway said.
Under Hardaway, Memphis hasn’t fared particularly well. They were ranked high last year but eventually bottomed out and missed the NCAA Tournament. He’s made two NCAA Tournament appearances as the Tigers‘ head coach.
Time will tell to see if these stunning moves will lead to improvement for the Memphis program. If not, it could be curtains for Hardaway.
