I forgot how feels to be excited about Memphis Men’s Basketball. I can’t sugarcoat it; the last few years have been terrible. I know the program won 21 games this year and finished 5th in the AAC standings, but there was no excitement. To be honest, nobody cared. I believe a lot of Tiger fans tried to be positive about the program and the direction it was heading, but it was hard. Their is a saying,”The Sun will Shine Again”, but when you are in the mist of a storm, you have to be real with yourself….it’s raining.
It’s been raining for a while for the University of Memphis Men’s Basketball program; the university lost a lot of money last season and due to lose even more this season. They had to make a move and they had to make the right move.
So, the university decide to relieve Coach Tubby Smith of his duties as head basketball coach at the University of Memphis. This was not a very popular move to people outside of the city of Memphis, but who cares, they don’t understand Tigers Basketball. But for those who don’t understand-let me explain. Imagine yourself being a CEO of a company and your company has lost 2 million dollars last year and is on track to lose 2 million or more this year. You have a certain department that is causing this huge loss. The person you have in charge of this department is causing the loss and your stock holders don’t believe him and refuse to keep their stock with your company, if he is still in charge of this department. What do you? The company is the University of Memphis. The department is the Men’s Basketball Program. The person in charger of the department is Tubby Smith. The stockholders are the Booster/Season Ticket Holders for the program. Most functional companies would make a change. They have to satisfy the stockholders. In this case, the booster and the season ticket holders.
The University of Memphis had to make a home-run hire and the best person to fill that position would be a hometown hero. Someone the city loves and respect. So who could they hire….arguably the best player to don the blue and gray; Penny Hardaway.
Today, the excitement returned to the University of Memphis. It’s a revival!Penny Hardaway was introduced today, as the new head basketball coach of the University of Memphis Tigers. I am excited and I know the entire city is too. Game Days used to feel like holidays in Memphis. It feels good to have our holidays back! Like Penny said, “Let’s get our flags, hats and t-shirts back out.” Tiger’s Pride is back!
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