Penny Hardaway’s tenure at Memphis will not be remembered like the eternal farce of Clyde Drexler’s misadventure at Houston or Patrick Ewing being completely in over his head at Georgetown.
Over Hardaway’s eight years as head coach, despite coming to the job with no real translatable experience, there have been some real wins, a few legitimate highs and moments where it felt like he might have a chance to deliver on a variety of outlandish boasts that made many of his veteran colleagues wonder privately if he had any clue what kind of shark-infested waters he was swimming in at the highest level of college basketball.
Now, as Hardaway winds down his most disappointing season — Memphis is an unfathomable 12-18 and could fail to qualify for the American Conference tournament despite what is believed to be the most expensive roster in the league — an old truism of college sports is bucking and roaring in Bluff City…