Penny Hardaway will be a part of nearly all of Memphis Basketball's summer workouts this year.
Sources confirmed to Bluff City Media that the Tigers' nine current scholarship players, including all seven added through the transfer portal, arrived over the weekend in Memphis, which begins summer training on June 1.
This is in stark contrast to Coach Hardaway's previous three teams, all of which experienced significant delays in their roster construction.
Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren did not sign to play for Memphis' 2021-22 team until August 2021. The 2022-23 team signed just three players in the spring and was not able to field a full roster until August 2023.
A team that embarrassingly missed out on the NCAA Tournament last season took this to an extreme.
Javon Quinerly (Memphis' third-leading scorer) did not join the Tigers until late July, as did Ja'Quan Walton and Jordan Brown. David Jones (Memphis' leading scorer) did not arrive until late September due to student visa issues. Na'Quan Tomlin (Memphis' second-leading scorer) signed with Memphis toward the end of the non-conference schedule and joined the team.
But that's not the case this year.
Memphis' top guards P.J. Haggerty, Colby Rogers and Tyrese Hunter are here, as is frontcourt members Nick Jardine, Dane Deinger, Tyreek Smith and Moussa Cisse, guard Baraka Okojie, a transfer from George Mason University, and four-star high school recruit Jared Harris.
Haggerty (6-foot-3) averaged 21.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game last year at Tulsa, earning the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Freshman of the Year honors. Rodgers (6-foot-4) averaged 16.4 points per game at Wichita State, shooting 40.9 percent from the 3-point line (7.1 attempts per game).
Hunter, 6-foot-2, averaged 11.1 points and 4.1 assists at Texas in 2023-24 and was the Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year at Iowa State in 2021-22, leading the team to a 6-3 record in the NCAA Tournament.
Cisse (7-foot-8) and Smith (6-foot-8) averaged 3.1 blocks per game last year. Jourdain (6-foot-9) started 25 of the Tigers' 32 games in 2023-24 and averaged 6.5 points and four rebounds per game. Danger (6-foot-9) averaged 6.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in limited playing time for an Illinois team that reached the Elite Eight last season.
Hardaway has repeatedly stressed to reporters over the past few years the importance of putting together his roster early, and now he's finally made it happen for the 2024-25 season.
There is one small problem, though.
With one year of eligibility remaining, Jones, who was a star player at Memphis last season, isn't on campus yet. In fact, he may never make it there if he doesn't want to.
The 6-foot-6 forward declared for the 2024 NBA Draft on April 20 and participated in the NBA Draft Combine earlier this month.
Last season, he averaged 21.8 points (seventh in Division I), 6.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals while shooting 45.9 percent from the field and 38 percent from 3-point range. Those numbers led the Dominican Republic native to be named a finalist for the Julius Erving Award, given to the nation's best small forward, and to receive various honors, including Associated Press All-America honors.
Jones has until Wednesday at 10:59 pm CST to officially withdraw from the draft and return to school.
