As the final buzzer sounded in Seattle on March 21, where the Memphis Tigers were upset 78-70 to Colorado State, fans of the Tigers quickly took to X to voice their opinions.
A large number of fans, almost all of whom were ride-or-die with Memphis just one day prior, were piling on a lot of criticism towards Coach Penny Hardaway and were even calling for him to be fired, citing his one win in the NCAA Tournament in seven seasons despite having access to quality recruits and significant financial backing.
At the same time, however, the rest of the Tigers fans on X felt just as strongly about Hardaway staying put as the leader of this team, pointing out that the injuries to Tyrese Hunter and Dante Harris made a massive difference in the game against the Rams.
“Of course they’re going to crack down on him more because he’s Penny Hardaway,” said Dain Dainja after the game against Colorado State. “It’s really not fair. But he did all he could as a coach.”
Usually when it comes to something as drastic as a change of head coach, sports fanbases are mostly in agreement about whether or not something like that needs to be done. For supporters of the Tigers, this debate is nothing new.
After every win, everyone on the Memphis basketball side of X gets excited and proclaims Memphis to be the next national champions, yet those same people will be the team’s harshest critic after a loss. Furthermore, everyone will defend the Tigers to their dying breath when fans of another school start to troll Memphis online, even when the team isn’t doing well.
Sam Hadfield is the owner of the account 801 Bracketology on X, which has almost five thousand followers on the platform and is one of the more well-known accounts on the college basketball space. He interacts with fans of almost every team in the country and says, “I think that Memphis has some of the most passionate fans on X of any fanbase in the country.” This hype manifests itself in many ways, the biggest of which is humor for both Memphis fans themselves and whoever else jumps into the conversation.
Hadfield recalls a specific series of interactions with Memphis fans during the 2023-24 season, where he put the Tigers a little lower than the fans thought they should and as a result, fans jokingly claimed to be better bracketologists. In the following few weeks, the Tigers would suffer a brutal collapse during the last stretch of
the regular season, causing Memphis to miss the NCAA Tournament entirely, where Hadfield proceeded to have a little bit of fun himself, referring to one fan as the “#1 McDonald’s bracketologist.”
One reason that Memphis fans are so enthusiastic about their basketball is because of the standards that come along with dawning the blue and grey, especially in the NIL era. Dan Zielinski is the founder and editor-in-chief of Mid-Major Basketball, a website that is dedicated to covering all of the mid-major teams, which is everyone outside of the SEC, Big 12, Big 10, ACC and Big East. He says that “especially in today’s college athletic scene with NIL [and] with the transfer portal it seems like college athletes are scrutinized and praised more than ever before and I think that shows whether it’s Memphis fans or really any fans across college athletics…you kind of get those highs and lows as a program where fans are really passionate.”
These pressures to perform for athletes can often be compounded by the team which a player chose to play for, especially if that team has an enthusiastic fan base or a prestigious history, which can lead to mistakes on or off the court and fans reacting accordingly. On the other hand, if the player or coach can rise to those expectations, they are eternally beloved by the team and its fans. Nowhere is this more apparent than Memphis.
Brandon Bumgarner is a lifelong fan of the Tigers; he got into basketball as a kid during the Calipari era and saw the highs of the 2008 run to the Final Four and the lows of the Tubby Smith led teams. He has carried this love for the Tigers into every other sport he can watch including football, baseball. and softball.
“Originally, I thought that there weren’t many people out there like me,” said Bumgarner. “I joined [X] in 2010 or 2011, so I was in tenth or ninth grade…It’s nice to see so many other people love the same things I love when it comes to the Tigers.”
Bumgarner is one of thousands of Memphis fans who will be the first to criticize the program when they’re not doing well yet will always support the program no matter what. Tigers fans will always love the team as much as they can because of what the school means to the city.
The city of Memphis has always been portrayed as a “little brother” to Nashville and Knoxville and has garnered a reputation nationally as a place to avoid due to the high crime rate. When you look deeper, however, Memphians have some of the strongest bonds to one another, always looking for an opportunity to help one another and make sure no one struggles. Memphis is a blue-collar town and has embraced the “Grit and Grind” motto with their hearts and the best way to express that mentality of hard work is through the Tigers’ athletic teams.
The true source of the passion for Memphis sports lies within the city’s love for their own; when someone from Memphis succeeds, it’s a win for the entire city and is celebrated as such.
Bumgarner puts it best when he says, “There’s a passion in this city for [those] seven letters that go across your chest…if it says ‘Memphis,’ we’re in and that’s the beautiful thing about this city.”
