Questions that will define Memphis basketball’s 2025-26 season
University of Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway’s team has given many, including the coach, pause. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daly Memphian file)
Even as only a handful of days remain until the start of Memphis’ 2025-26 season, there are more questions than answers surrounding the new-look Tigers.
Coach Penny Hardaway’s team — made up of 15 newcomers and no returnees — lost both its preseason games, 99-75 to No. 14 Arkansas and 100-71 to No. 20 Auburn, last month. While those results won’t factor into Memphis’ overall record, it’s what those performances revealed that’s given many people — including Hardaway himself — pause.
There’s little time to course-correct.
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Memphis Tigers Basketball Penny Hardaway 2025-26 college basketball season Subscriber OnlyAre you enjoying your subscription?
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Parth Upadhyaya
Parth Upadhyaya covers the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team. A Raleigh, N.C., native and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Media and Journalism, Upadhyaya is a longtime college hoops junkie. Prior to joining The Daily Memphian in 2022, he covered high school sports in western Pennsylvania for the Beaver County Times and Penn State football for the Centre Daily Times.
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