Blue and white confetti exploded up in the air and floated throughout the bowl of FedExForum. Ladders were out, AAC championship hats were on, and players were cutting down the nets.
“What a difference a year makes,” said Penny Hardaway to the crowd at the conclusion of the game.
What a difference even four months have made for this program.
Rewind to Nov. 4, the dawn of this Memphis Tigers basketball season. Throughout the storied program’s history, the first game of the season is a date fans await with eager anticipation for eight long months. With an SEC opponent, Missouri, coming into town to open the season, this game would be met with excitement that could be felt oozing out of the city almost any other year.
In the Fall of 2024 though, it was met with angst and dread amongst the Tiger faithful. In the previous nine months, Memphis went from 15-2 and ninth in the country to out of the NCAA Tournament in the blink of an eye, returned only one scholarship player, overhauled practically the entire coaching staff in September, and appeared completely overmatched and woeful at shooting the ball in two exhibitions.
Down 42-32 in the first meaningful half of basketball after the debacle that was the past nine months, Tigers fans feared the worst. It was the uncomfortable and tense truth that the Penny Hardaway era was coming apart at the seams, and the tension was coming to a head.
Boo birds rained down upon the same FedExForum court that confetti danced upon today as all the warts of the first six years of the Penny Hardaway era began to appear. The team on the court looked disconnected and dispirited through one half of play and found themselves down double digits in front of a sparse, aggrieved crowd.
But then, the team Memphis has come to love, did for the first time what they have done all year. They responded.
Memphis ended up winning that game over Missouri 81-73, to kick off what has been the best regular season in over a decade for the program.
They then went to Maui, beat the two-time defending national champion and a legendary coach in Tom Izzo, announcing themselves to the college basketball world. They survived in Clemson, a place blue bloods Kentucky nor Duke could win at this year. They demolished regional rival Ole Miss and finished 10-3 in one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation.
And tonight, they topped it all off with a 84-68 win over South Florida to clinch an outright AAC title, the program’s first AAC regular season title ever and the first regular season conference title since 2013.
With a 26-5 record, and a 16-2 AAC record, the Tigers did as well, if not better, than anyone could have reasonably expected this season, all behind the evolved Penny Hardaway.
“I would not have grown as much as I have grown without that failure,” Hardaway said. “That fall that I took, it actually made me better, it made the team better because I got better.”
What a difference a year makes, and this night was a celebration of it all.
“It is gratifying… it’s special. The bottom fell out, and there was nothing I could do about it, but withstand the storm,” said Hardaway after the game. “We went after character first, talent second, and man, what a beautiful group.”
The best crowd of conference play showed up to send off the seniors, Tyrese Hunter, Dain Dainja, Colby Rogers, Nicholas Jourdain, and Moussa Cisse, who were all honored pregame with tribute videos narrated by Penny Hardaway, all of which were instrumental in this season’s success.
The seniors showed up on senior night too, with great performances headlined by Dain Dainja’s 20 points and 6 rebounds, Tyrese Hunter’s 16 points and 7 assists, and Moussa Cisse’s 6 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Sophomore PJ Haggerty, who fans chanted “one more year” year, also had 20 points in this game.
Although it was tied at 35 at halftime, thanks to Memphis’ 10 first half turnovers, the Tigers cleaned it up and immediately jumped on USF to start the second half. Memphis opened the half on a 9-1 run, built their lead to as much as 19, and cruised to the victory.
The buzzer sounded, and the night’s festivities culminated with Penny addressing the crowd, with the confetti streaming down, with players cutting down the nets, in front of thousands of fans covered in blue watching and taking it all in.
“You dream of these type of moments, this is stuff you want to scratch off on your basketball career,” said Hunter.
Hardaway got the honor to make the final cut of the net. After all the disappointment, the drama, the dread of what could have happened this year, Hardaway gets to have this moment as the head coach of his alma mater. He chops it off and the crowd erupts in elation. He climbs down the ladder, places the net around his neck and yells one more time.
“What a difference a year makes!”
