Miserable Penny Hardaway Eviscerates Memphis Basketball As Team Officially Quits On Themselves And The City

The Memphis Tigers basketball team is in shambles, and head coach Penny Hardaway has officially seen enough.

In mid-January, Memphis was 15-2 on the year and on everyone's radar as one of the most dangerous teams in the country. Then, the Tigers' floor felt like a Sweet Sixteen appearance come March. 

Now, Memphis is staring at a spot in the NIT, and maybe not even hosting a first-round game in the second-tier tournament nobody cares about.

The Tigers have lost six of their last eight games - including woeful losses at home to South Florida and Rice - with their recent two-game road trip to North Texas and SMU seeming to be the nails in the coffin.

Those paying close attention to this Memphis team know the beginning of the end was the home loss to South Florida on January 18, a game the Tigers were leading by 15 points at halftime. For anyone holding out hope, that hope officially died in Dallas on Sunday with the team's 106-79 loss to SMU.

Teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble in late February with talent, and yes Memphis has talent, that lose a game by 27 points have quit on themselves and everyone involved, and that's exactly the case for the Tigers.

Hardaway didn't hold back during his postgame press conference after the loss to SMU and alluded to this team's inability to come together and clear immaturity issues.

"Fuc-ing losing like this, this is terrible, man. This is not competing at all, I don't know what's going on," Hardaway said. "I just don't understand why we're not competing. Everyday we're playing is for our life, to make it to the NCAA Tournament."

"We just haven’t been a team in a long time," he continued. "I’m fighting really hard for the school and for the city and everybody needs to be pulling the rope in the same direction. Right now, everybody’s not pulling the rope in the same direction."

"There was people unhappy when we were 15-2 and they’ve been unhappy all year," he said. "It just seemed like the one thing we talked about when we got all these guys is, ‘Are we gonna be able to keep everyone happy?’ We have not been able to keep everyone happy. When they’re not happy, they shut down."

Hardaway's admission that he doesn't know what's going on with this team isn't exactly the vote of confidence Memphis fans will be searching for in these dire times seeing as how it's his job to know exactly what's going on.

It will take a lot for Memphis fans to turn on Penny Hardaway - he's the Elvis Presley of hoops in the community - but his resume is very much trending in the wrong direction. 

Barring an AAC conference tournament title, the Tigers won't be dancing next month. This would mark two NCAA Tournament misses in the last five seasons with just one tournament win in the four tournament appearances in that stretch.