Penny Hardaway walked off the stage at The Owner’s Box in Lakeland May 12 in far better spirits than this time a year ago.
“I feel better than last summer,” he said smiling after the athletic department’s first of four “Tigers On Tour” stops. “Much, much happier now over last summer. Feel really good right now.”
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Last year, the Memphis basketball coach was waiting on a decision from former Tigers All-American guard PJ Haggerty. He was also holding out hope the NCAA would grant all-conference big man Dain Dainja another season of eligibility.
Haggerty transferred and Dainja’s waiver request was denied. Because Hardaway spent so much time waiting on those developments, last offseason’s roster build suffered.
This time, Hardaway and his coaching staff have been far more proactive. He has filled 14 spots out of a maximum of 15.
The most recent is FAU transfer big man Maxim Logue, multiple sources told The Commercial Appeal May 12. They requested anonymity since an official announcement has not been made.
Logue joins Jayden Reid, Josh Holloway, Brandin “Beebah” Cummings, Luke Almodovar, Tylik “Bully” Weeks, Rihards Vavers, Jerry Deng and Corneilous Williams as Division I transfers.
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Other newcomers expected to suit up for the team in 2026-27 include incoming freshmen Fred Smith Jr., Cello Jackson Jr. and Parker Pounds. Hardaway will return Julius Thedford and Whorton.
Hardaway said he expects everyone to be on campus when summer workouts begin in early June. Not since pre-COVID has that much of a Tigers roster been on campus so soon.
Hardaway said building chemistry is at the top of his to-do list once summer workouts begin.
“(I want to get) guys to play more 5-on-5 this year to kind of get used to moving the basketball, getting different groups mixed in together and teaching them how to play the game,” he said. “We won’t really run a lot of plays. It’ll be more concept-based, where we’re just kind of making reads. It’s gonna need to be more 5-on-5 this summer. I haven’t done that before.”
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Hardaway also let last offseason’s approach to roster construction better inform how he assembled the 2026-27 version. He said the Tigers’ offensive struggles last season (207th in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency) left a sour taste in his mouth, so he set out to remedy that.
“My best teams are teams that put the ball in the basket. We struggled scoring (last season). A couple years ago, we didn’t,” he said. “So, I definitely wanted multiple options offensively that they just couldn’t key in on one guy.”
Among the more likely candidates to lead the way in scoring are Weeks, who led the Sun Belt at 19.7 points per game, and Cummings, Pitt’s leading scorer at 12.5 points per game before a season-ending injury in January.
Hardaway cautioned that there are plenty more options than just those two.
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“With their history and the way they’ve scored the basketball, Brandin and Tylik, you would think those guys would be the guys,” he said. “But we’ll see what happens in June. We’re just blessed to have that talent on our team and we’ll just see how the rest of it goes in June and July.”
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com, follow him @munzly on X.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Penny Hardaway on Memphis basketball roster 2026-27, summer plans
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
