OT: Memphis Might Fire Tubby Smith for Penny Hardaway? (Update: Tubby out, Penny hired)

https://twitter.com/SLAMonline/status/971208089222438914

What?

That would be as dumb a move as us passing on Tubby 20 years ago.

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Penny Hardaway has never coached, even though he was an outstanding player. So what if hiring him to coach the Memphis Tigers makes no sense? After all, we did just exactly that when we hired Clyde.

And, yes, Memphis is lucky to have Tubby.

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Plan on hiring Larry Brown as an assistant too. Guess they want to be on probation and lose scholarships.

I think I’d rather hire Lil Penny.

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We didn’t pass on Tubby…HE passed on us !!!

And at the time, it was a smart move on his part.

We were blessed with AB !!

Why in the world would Memphis allow him to hire Larry Brown? That would be so incredibly dumb.

The part of me that wants the AAC to get better hates this…the part of me that wants to see Memphis fail LOVES this.

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I’m sure you are right. I don’t know the details. I do know money talks. Not offering enough is a close kin to passing in my opinion.

The interim AD we had at the time tried to force AB onto Tubby because Alvin was still under contract with UH for one more year (@$30K)…Tubby wanted to pick his own coaches as is normal. Anyway, he declined and UH defaulted to AB which started UH into a 12 year BB abyss !!

Which we just now climbing out of.

All because of $30K…I am sure there is more to it, but that is what I recall.

I have no idea if Penny can coach, but he has 5 stud recruits that play for him in AAU. If he gets that job, Memphis immediately replenishes its talent.

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Provided they can get past the FBI

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Yeah your boy Josh Pastner and his AAU connections certainly worked out well for Memphis.

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I was never a big Pastner fan, but I will give him credit that he was able to keep Memphis afloat for a few years before going down the drain. Tubby has not been much better, so I can understand the Tigers wanting to go a different route…Basically Penny would bring in the studs with Memphis money but he would have to have an assistant coach who could actually coach…

Tubby Smith is in only his 2nd year at Memphis and last year cleared out all the riff raff that Pastner left behind. It has taken Sampson four years to get us back to the Dance. Hate to think where we would be if we had been as short sighted.

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Pastner inherited a team that had been to 4 straight Sweet Sixteen or better. With all his AAU connections, he brought in top 10 talent and never made the Sweet Sixteen. Smith inherited a team that didn’t even make the NIT the last couple of years and had half the team bailing. With the mess left to him, Tubby finishing 5th two straight years is incredible.

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That is revisionist history. Show me how he inherited a juggernaut from Calipari. He inherited very little from Cal’s team. The best player on Memphis’ team that year was Elliot Williams, a transfer that Pastner brought on to the team. You can crap on Josh all you want. He still won 70% of his games at Memphis. Were they trending down when he left, no doubt, but he was not terrible.
2009–10 Memphis Tigers men's basketball team - Wikipedia

Also add, Tubbys team has outperformed preseason expectations this year. Not to the tune of UH, but Memphis will finish a few spots higher in the conference than expected.

You don’t believe in momentum? Sell out crowds? Program hype? There is a world of difference between the aura surrounding the Memphis basketball program when Pastner joined and when he left.

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What is “momentum” 's FG%? He went 106-34 his 1st 4 years. They went 31-5 and 16-0 in conference his 4th year. It did not end well and it was time for him to leave, but you are just hating to paint a picture like he inherited a juggernaut and did nothing.