The Memphis Tigers took several steps back in the 2025-26 college basketball season. But that did not keep Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway from admiring the work he did in his eighth season on the job.
“I feel like it's the best coaching job I've done,” the 54-year-old Hardaway said, despite guiding Memphis to just a 13-win campaign, via Roman Cleary of Bluff City Media.
A year after winning the regular-season title with a 16-9 league record to go with a 29-6 overall record, and topping the American Athletic Conference tournament, Hardaway's Tigers mightily regressed the following campaign.
In the 2025-26 season. Memphis went just 13-9 overall and collected only eight wins in league play against 10 losses. The Tigers also struck out of the conference tournament right in the first round.
Unsurprisingly, the Tigers did not earn an at-large berth. Having zero Quadrant 1 wins and three Quadrant 4 losses surely did not help Memphis.
It's worth noting, however, that Hardaway admitted that the season the Tigers just had was a “failure.”
“It was a failure for sure,” Hardaway said after Memphis' loss in the American Tournament. “You can't categorize it anywhere else, any other way. We didn't do what we needed to do. We failed.”
Hardaway and the Tigers can redeem themselves in 2026-27, with the former Orlando Magic superstar returning for his ninth season as the program's head coach. There will surely be immense pressure on Hardaway, who has two years left on his current contract, to deliver in the next campaign. Otherwise, that could be his last on the job.
