ESPN's Jay Bilas defends Penny Hardaway for outburst after Memphis Tigers basketball loss
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ESPN "College GameDay" discussed during Saturday's show the outburst by Memphis Tigers men's basketball head coach Penny Hardaway after Thursday's loss to SMU.
College basketball analyst Jay Bilas made a strong defense for Hardaway.
"I don't have a problem with anything Penny Hardaway said in the press conference, except for the F-bombs," Bilas said. "That would have been fine in the NBA or the NFL. ... The question wasn't about their record. It wasn't about their play. It was going to his confidence as a head coach. And I think if other coaches were asked that, if (Duke head coach) Mike Krzyzewski were asked that last year, I don't think he would have reacted positively to it."
Bilas played college basketball for Krzyzewski from 1982-86.
"Every coach has to answer for their record," Bilas added. "You are what your record says you are. Those are all fair game. When we get to asking about if you've lost faith in your ability to do this, are you embarrassed, I think most coaches would react to that negatively."
After Bilas' comments, ESPN "College GameDay" host Rece Davis brought up that Hardaway said in May, "This is Memphis. We don’t bluff. We want all the smoke."
"Don't write checks you can't cash," ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg said of Hardaway's smoke comment.
SMU defeated Memphis 70-62 on Thursday. It was Memphis' third consecutive loss.
After the game, Hardaway was asked if he'd lost the ability to get the job done as the Memphis Tigers men's basketball head coach. Here is Hardaway's response:
"I think the one thing I can say to this media, because this media gets kind of (expletive) up sometimes when it comes to me, (is) we don’t have our full roster. Y’all know we don’t have our full roster. So, stop asking me stupid, (expletive) questions about if I feel like I can do something.
“If I had my roster like (SMU) did, then I feel like I can do whatever I want to do,” Hardaway continued. “I’m coaching really hard. My boys are playing really hard. I’m not embarrassed about nothing. We have four freshmen starting. Y’all need to act like it. Act like we’ve got 17- and 18- and 19-year-olds out here trying to learn how to play against 22-, 23- and 24-year-old guys.
“C’mon, man. Stop disrespecting me, bro. Like, don’t do that. I work too (expletive) hard. I work way too hard for that. Y’all write all these (expletive) articles about me and all I do is work. We’ve got young kids on the floor.”
Here's more Memphis Tigers men's basketball news:
Penny Hardaway: 'Stop disrespecting me, bro': Penny Hardaway loses his cool after Memphis' 3rd straight loss
Penny Hardaway apology: Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway apologizes for letting 'my emotions get the best of me'
Mark Giannotto: There's one (bleeping) problem with Penny Hardaway's answer to that stupid (bleeping) question | Giannotto
The Memphis Tigers men's basketball team is scheduled to return to action Sunday at Tulsa.
Erik Hall is the lead digital producer for sports with the USA Today Network. You can find him on Twitter @HallErik.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Jay Bilas defends Penny Hardaway for outburst after Memphis loss
