Penny Hardaway isn’t spending much time talking about pressure as Memphis basketball heads toward the start of practice. He keeps coming back to one word instead: momentum.
That was the message from Hardaway on Sept. 10, when he appeared at The Legacy Experience at the National Civil Rights Museum. Entering his ninth season after a 13-19 finish last year, he made it clear he’s not carrying the kind of weight people might expect.
“No pressure on me,” said Hardaway, who is entering his ninth season as coach following a disappointing 13-19 campaign. “I’m from this city, I’m for this city. I want to win, so that doesn’t bring pressure to me.
“I keep saying ‘momentum,’ because that’s what I believe in. Right now, it’s at an all-time high, and we’re trying to move.”
For Hardaway, that lift is coming from Memphis football. Charles Huff has the Tigers off to a 2-0 start in his first season, with wins over UNLV in Week 0 and Arkansas State. Boise State is next on Sept. 12 at 5 p.m. on USA Network.
Hardaway said the football program has given the university, and the city around it, a welcome surge of energy at a time when Memphis is still trying to strengthen its position as conference realignment looms.
“Coach Huff and his staff and the team have done a phenomenal job, so that’s the positivity of what’s going on,” Hardaway said. “I’m really just kind of enjoying that while we’re getting our team ready to go, because that’s momentum.
“And we need as much positive momentum as we can get.”
He got a firsthand look at that buzz on Sept. 5, when he was part of the announced sellout crowd of more than 45,000 for the first game at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium since the bulk of its $226.5 million renovation was completed. Hardaway said the West tower, the Landers Plaza view, the improved audio and the upgraded visuals all hit him hard - especially because he remembered his first game there as a freshman in 1990.
“I enjoyed every minute of it,” he said. “I was just sitting there in awe, taking it all in, because it’s what we deserve. I loved everything about it.”
He also sees that football surge as something his own team can feed off after last season’s 13-19 mark, the program’s worst record in 56 years. Hardaway didn’t shy away from the reality that college sports and basketball alike move fast, and yesterday’s success doesn’t buy much today.
“It doesn’t matter that (I’m) two years removed from (being American Conference) coach of the year and (that) we won conference,” he said. “One bad season after having those incredible runs and beating some incredible teams all goes to the wash. It’s only being glorified that I was 13-19.
“But what that does, it continues to drive me. I’m from the dirt, so I understand how that works.
Nobody remembers two years ago. So, you’ve got to win.”
Memphis opens the season Nov. 2 against Iowa State at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
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