Memphis pursuing Penny as coach, LB as asst.

[skyscraper]

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... bby-smith/

Memphis legend Penny Hardaway is "actively preparing to be a college coach" and has already started identifying possible future staff members, multiple sources have told CBS Sports. Meantime, Memphis president Dr. David Rudd told the Commercial Appeal on Tuesday that his administration is "going to evaluate the program at the end of the year," which effectively confirms what CBS Sports has learned: Memphis is seriously considering firing Tubby Smith and replacing him with Hardaway.

An attempt to reach Hardaway for comment was not immediately successful.

The former NBA All-Star currently runs the Team Penny Nike EYBL program and serves as the coach at East High in Memphis -- where he has assembled an incredible roster favored to soon win a state championship. Between Team Penny and East, Hardaway has ties to three top-40 players in the Class of 2019 -- No. 1 James Wiseman, No. 26 D.J. Jeffries and No. 40 Chandler Lawson.

A source told CBS Sports one person Hardaway would likely target for a position on staff is Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Brown was on 92.9 FM ESPN in Memphis on Feb. 26 and spoke glowingly about Hardaway.

[mrydel]

This would be an interesting event

[skyscraper]

Memphis would immediately be relevant again if this happened.

[mtrout]

Why can’t we have LB as an assistant?

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Hiring Larry would sell a ton of season tickets!

[Pony_Law]

It would be hard to imagine LB not being the alpha when it comes coaching the team. That said if you could make it work where LB teaches the x’s And o’s and the PH is an ego manager and recruiter

[Ponyneighbor]

This is almost too depressing to even contemplate. In a season of terrible performance, a rash of injuries, getting booted from my season ticket seats, and no recruits to get excited about, this would be the ultimate kick to the crotch. Our best-ever coach to whom we showed the door goes to that crap school in that town to be an *assistant* coach in our own conference? Good night

[PonyLawExpress]

Genius move by Penny, even if he doesn’t hire LB. Gets everyone all stirred up about it.

Penny would bring in a top 5 Recruiting class in 2019 in Memphis hires him. He would put them back on the radar. If he got a LB like asst. that would make him a slam dunk hire. Will be interesting to see what Memphis does.

[Nacho]

I love me some lb but he is a sanctions nightmare.

[deucetz]

I love me some lb but he is a sanctions nightmare.

I would rather have LB with potential sanctions then what we had this year.

[mustangxc]

What we had this year is largely due to sanctions. Add a couple transfers to this team and we are still on the bubble.

[MV pony]

Oh goody, a bubble team. How wonderful.

[RI Stang]

I love me some lb but he is a sanctions nightmare.

I would rather have LB with potential sanctions then what we had this year.

When "potential sanctions" turn in to real sanctions - which they have at every school LB has been at - you have what we had this year and LB isn't sticking around anywhere through that kind of struggle. With that said, I wouldn't change what we did, as it completely changed our program seemingly overnight and this year was still 100000x better than pre-LB years. But we don't need to do that again. I wouldn't blame Memphis doing it now either. The trick is to sustain through and after the sanctions. We'll find out soon enough if we are able to do that.

[mustangxc]

The good thing is that we proved that we do have a fanbase if given something to cheer for. I think that will absolutely make a difference going forward whether that is with Jankovich or someone else.

[footballdad]

Larry just wins. He'll have a wry smile on his face if this goes down.......especially when they start beating up on Jankovich!