Penny Hardaway Is the Envy of the College Basketball World, According to Penny Hardaway

You may not be aware that Penny Hardaway is currently the head basketball coach at the University of Memphis, which just happens to be his hometown and alma mater.

Dude's Tigers are currently sporting a 13-7 record in his first year and find themselves somewhere in the upper middle of the pack in the powerful American Athletic Conference.

Despite this mediocrity and the fact that his program isn't exactly a popular topic of conversation, Penny is convinced that there's a dark vein of jeolousy running through the college hoops coaching fraternity.

Hardaway is of the opinion that this envy is due to the fact that he scored a major college coaching gig with no prior college coaching experience.

 

Of course, this does happen to be completely true, but it's unclear what coaches he thinks have taken exception to this, at least publicly.

The former NBA All-Star did raise the ire of some when he started flinging the hyperbole around after a recent win over UCF:

 

Hmmm, someone needs to pump those brakes a bit.

 

Former Houston coach Tom Penders would agree with this assessment.

 

One tepid statement from a former coach doesn't necessarily qualify as a seething groundswell of hate, but Penny seems pretty sure that his NBA pedigree is a problem for coaches across the country.

It should be noted that his staff includes two more former NBAers -- Mike Miller and Sam Mitchell -- which is also apparently a source of animosity.

This angry mob of coaches would no doubt go apeshit if the Tigers made the NCAA tourney, but sadly, this appears to be unlikely.

 

Haters gonna hate.