The Independent Accountability Resolutions Process, IARP, has announced its punishment for Penny Hardaway and the Memphis Tigers. And it was kind of anti-climactic.
Yes, Memphis will be fined, go on probation and be forced to vacate wins.
No, Memphis does not serve a postseason ban and Penny Hardaway will not serve a suspension.
The fine is worth $5,000, “plus 0.25% of its average men’s basketball budget based on the average of the men’s basketball program’s previous three total budgets.” Memphis will go on a three-year probation effective immediately, until Sept. 26, 2025. The program will also have to vacate the two wins that former center James Wiseman participated in.
This started when an infractions case involving Wiseman was accepted by the IARP in 2020.
In 2017, Wiseman’s mother accepted a payment of $11,500, from Hardaway, to help with moving expenses from Nashville to Memphis. Hardaway was coaching at East High School which is where Wiseman ended up playing. This is a violation because Hardaway, at the time, was considered a Memphis booster. He was later, and still is, employed by the school as its head men’s basketball coach.
Even though deemed ineligible, Wiseman opted to play in Memphis’ first three games of the season. The NCAA suspended Wiseman for 12 games, but in December 2019 Wiseman left the program to prepare for the NBA Draft. He was selected 2nd overall to the Golden State Warriors.
It was announced in March that Memphis was facing seven violations, four of which were Level I and three Level II. Hardaway was involved in at least one Level I and two Level II violations. The allegations accused Hardaway of not establishing a “culture of compliance.”
However, in today’s announcement, the panel stated Hardaway had “philanthropic involvement in the Memphis community,” and that this “began prior to becoming an athletics booster in 2008 and before he was hired by Memphis as its head coach in 2018.” Also the case “references numerous gifts and financial assistance” from Hardaway to the Memphis community.
The panel used this action in the community from Hardaway to make its decision in today’s ruling, “According to the hearing panel, it was established that the head coach had a long-standing philanthropic commitment, particularly to youth in the economically disadvantaged Memphis community, even prior to becoming an athletics booster. The hearing panel determined that the benefits provided by the head coach were generally available to all prospective students of Memphis, not only student-athletes, and, therefore, were permissible.”
The panel determined the case involved Level II and Level III violations of NCAA legislation.
The IARP, formed in 2019, is a 15-person panel that was created at the suggestion of the Rice Commission on College Basketball. That commission was formed after the FBI’s investigation into bribery and fraud in college basketball became public.
Arizona, Kansas, Louisville and LSU still have IARP cases waiting to be finalized. The IARP will dissolve once all four are completed.
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