Memphis Tigers Basketball

Four-star forward JJ Taylor announced his commitment to Memphis on Saturday.

Ranked 63rd in 247Sports' composite rankings, he chose the Tigers over schools including Kentucky, Arkansas, Duke and Kansas.

Taylor transferred to Kanye West's Donda Academy before his junior season along with other stars such as Zion Cruz, Robert Dillingham, Jahki Howard and Jalen Hooks.

"It’s very important for me to be that player, to live up to it,” Taylor told reporters of his national status. “It means something. There is some pressure that comes with that, and I know and expect people to come at me. But I am ready for it and want that. I have to keep working to maintain it, live up to it, to represent Chicago. I know I’m being watched.”

Taylor transferred to San Ysidro (California) High School for his senior year after Donda Academy shut down in the wake of Ye's antisemitic statements.

He has joined Mikey Williams, a 5-star prospect who also committed to Memphis on Saturday.

Top-rated prospect Mikey Williams announced Saturday he will play for Memphis at the next level, per Clayton Collier of ABC 24 Memphis.

Williams will be joined by four-star JJ Taylor, who also announced his commitment to play for the Tigers on Saturday.

Williams, a combo guard, is considered a 4-star recruit and rated the No. 22 overall player in the 2023 class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

Williams has also gained plenty of attention for his social media presence, with millions of followers on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. The prep star was the first high school player ever to earn a sneaker deal with a global footwear company when he signed with Puma, per Nick DePaula of ESPN.

"His talent on the court and his ability to connect with young athletes and fans alike will help drive hoops culture forward and inspire the next generation of athletes," Adam Petrick, global director of brand and marketing at Puma, said in a statement.

Williams' on-court play should not be overlooked as an elite scorer who can attack the basket or make shots from the perimeter. The 6'2" guard has turned heads nationally since his freshman season:

It got the attention of all the top programs in the country, although he kept his options open during the recruiting process.

Williams ended up selecting Memphis as he tries to put himself on track to playing in the NBA.

The school can help prepare him for the NBA as he looks to reach expectations as a top draft pick. In the meantime, he should be a high-level contributor as soon as he steps on to campus and likely a go-to offensive option during his freshman season.

The University of Memphis men's basketball program has been placed on probation for three years and received a $5,000 fine for Level II and Level III recruiting violations by the NCAA.

The penalty came after allegations that head coach Penny Hardaway paid former player James Wiseman and his family $11,500 to move to Memphis while he was still in high school, per Jeff Goodman of Stadium.

The Independent Resolution Panel also ruled Memphis must vacate all wins involving Wiseman, which amounted to just three games.

Wiseman, who is now on the Golden State Warriors, was the No. 2 overall recruit in the 2019 class, per 247Sports composite rankings. He averaged 19.7 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks across three games before the NCAA suspended him 12 games for recruiting violations.

The $11,500 from Hardaway came in 2017 when he was a coach at East High School in Memphis, but the NCAA considered him a booster for the Tigers since he had donated money to his alma mater. He didn't become the Memphis coach until 2018.

Once Wiseman's appeal was denied, he left school and instead prepared for the NBA draft.

"I wanted to have a great collegiate career," Wiseman told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski in 2020. "I wanted to win a national championship. But throughout the course of the first two games, everything started to go down in terms of my mental [well-being]. I was getting depressed. It was dehumanizing for me."

Wiseman became the No. 2 pick of the 2020 NBA draft, but his professional career has been limited by injuries.

The University of Memphis has thrown its hat in the ring for Bronny James.

Per Joe Tipton of On3.com, the Tigers have offered the Sierra Canyon High School star a scholarship.

According to Tipton, Memphis is believed to be the fourth college program to make James a scholarship offer. USC, North Carolina A&T and North Carolina Central are the others.

James' recruitment is going to be one of the biggest stories around college basketball until he makes a decision.

Earlier this week, Jamie Shaw of On3.com reported Oregon and Ohio State are also in the recruiting mix for James.

Shaw noted Oregon was considered the front-runner, but Bronny's father, LeBron James, seemed to dismiss the notion that any school was in the lead at this early stage in the recruiting process:

The 17-year-old James appears to be carving out an excellent path on his own. He is a 4-star prospect and No. 43 overall player in the 2023 recruiting class, per 247Sports composite rankings.

In his scouting report of James for 247Sports, Eric Bossi noted the 6'3" shooting guard has "added some pop on drives to the rim through traffic or in transition" and he is a "fantastic passer."

Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina are among the other notable programs with at least some level of interest in James.

Since taking over as head coach at his alma mater, Penny Hardaway has made the Tigers a force in recruiting. They had the top-ranked class in 2021 with six total commits, including 5-stars Emoni Bates and Jalen Duran, per 247Sports composite rankings.

Memphis has won at least 20 games in each of Hardaway's first four seasons. The program made the NCAA tournament last season for the first time since 2013-14 as the No. 9 seed in the West Region.

The Tigers defeated Boise State in the first round before falling to No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga in the second round.

Emoni Bates' time on the Memphis Tigers men's basketball team has ended after one season.

"I'd like to thank Coach Penny, my teammates, and the entire coaching staff at the University of Memphis for giving me the opportunity to be a Tiger," he said in a statement, per Joe Tipton of On3Sports. "Thank you Tiger Nation for embracing me and all of you who supported our team throughout this season. With that being said, I have decided to enter the transfer portal."

Bates failed to live up to the sky-high expectations that surrounded him as a 5-star prospect, as rated by 247Sports' composite rankings. He was a key part of Memphis' No. 1 class in 2021, but the Tigers also struggled to establish much consistency and finished as a No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament.

As Tipton noted, Bates had quite the journey before even arriving at Memphis.

Michigan State was the only program that seriously recruited him in the early going because most teams expected him to go a professional route before eventually playing in the NBA. Yet he reclassified to the 2021 class and decommitted from the Spartans before choosing Memphis over the G League.

Bates appeared in just 18 games for the Tigers and missed all of February and some time in March because of a back injury. He averaged 9.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per night while shooting 38.6 percent from the field and 32.9 percent from three-point range.

While he flashed his potential with 15 or more points in each of his first three games, he never reached that mark again all season.

Bates also finished with just three points in three minutes in a Big Dance win over Boise State and had five points in 12 minutes in the team's loss to Gonzaga in the second round.

Tipton explained the 18-year-old Bates cannot just go into the NBA at this point because players must turn 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft to be eligible. That means transferring to another school or playing in the G League could be an option.            

Hansel Enmanuel, a high school basketball player who has gone viral for his impressive skills, said Friday that he has received a scholarship offer to play college basketball at the University of Memphis.

According to On3's Joe Tipton, Enmanuel, who had most of his left arm amputated as a child, now has three scholarship offers from Division I schools with Memphis being the highest-profile institution to date. Enmanuel has also received offers from historically Black universities Bethune-Cookman and Tennessee State.

Enmanuel, who was born in the Dominican Republic, is a 6'4" guard and senior at Life Christian Academy in Kissimmee, Florida.

An accident when he was six years old resulted in the amputation of his left arm below the shoulder.

Enmanuel is rated by 247Sports as a 3-star prospect and the No. 34 combo guard in the recruiting class of 2022.

Enmanuel's highlight reels show off his impressive skill set, including shooting three-pointers with a unique stroke and throwing down emphatic dunks.

Enmanuel has also gotten himself on the radar by recently appearing in a video for rapper J. Cole's Dreamer brand.

On3 estimates that Enmanuel has a name, image and likeness (NIL) value of $1.2 million, which is the third-highest among current high school basketball players.

With college athletes now able to profit from NIL deals because of new NCAA rules, Enmanuel should have no shortage of endorsement opportunities.

Memphis forward and 5-star recruit Emoni Bates' father, Elgin Bates, has refuted a report that claims his son's future with the program has "come into question."

"No plans at all," Bates said when asked by Jason Munz of the Commercial Appeal if his son had visions of leaving the team.

Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report tweeted Tuesday that Bates would not play in his team's upcoming game against Cincinnati and that his "future with the program has suddenly come into question."

In response, Elgin Bates told Munz that his son has been dealing with back pain for the past three weeks and has an appointment with a specialist this week. He also said his son won't play Thursday "unless he's cleared to play."

Bates is third on the team with 10.4 points per game. He was once the class of 2022's No. 1 recruit before reclassifying to the class of 2021.

Bates had five schools and three professional options on his list of top eight post-high school choices before choosing Memphis:

Memphis entered the season with high expectations thanks to the additions of Bates and fellow 5-star recruit/big man Jalen Duren,

Unfortunately, it's been a trying campaign for the Tigers, who started 5-0 and reached as high as No. 9 in the Associated Press poll before going 6-8 in their last 14 games.

They are now 11-8 overall (5-4 in the American Athletic Conference), and ESPN's Joe Lunardi currently has the Tigers out of the NCAA tournament picture.

Still, there are nine conference games left on the ledger plus the AAC tournament, so the story of this season has not yet been written for Bates and the Tigers.

For now, Memphis will look to ride the momentum of their two-game winning streak into Cincinnati in hopes of taking down the host Bearcats (15-6, 5-3 AAC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.

Bates would be a tough absence for Memphis, who benefitted from his 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 21 minutes during the Tigers' 87-80 win over Cincinnati on Jan. 9.

University of Memphis men's basketball coach Penny Hardaway issued an apology for his expletive-filled rant directed toward the media after Thursday's home loss to SMU.

Hardaway posted a video Friday on Instagram saying he let his "emotions get the best of" him: 

Memphis entered the 2021-22 season with sky-high expectations. It was ranked No. 12 in the Associated Press preseason poll and reached as high as No. 9 amid a 5-0 start.

The Tigers have gone just 4-8 over their past 12 games, however, and the loss to SMU extended their current losing streak to three.

Injuries and COVID-related absences have started to take a toll with two of the team's top four scorers, DeAndre Williams and Landers Nolley II, missing the clash with the Mustangs.

The main point of Hardaway's rant centered around the unfairness of judging either the team or his coaching performance based on games where they are missing key players.

"It is what it is, man. I don't like to get out of character. We're hurt, man," he told reporters. "Our roster is depleted right now of guys that can definitely make a difference and help the young guys get through this. Right now they're having to learn on the fly. It's hard."

Nevertheless, the former NBA All-Star guard added it was also important to fight through some adversity.

"We gotta be tougher as a group. We gotta stop feeling sorry for ourselves when things aren't going right and just keep fighting," Hardaway said. "Right now we're not fighting. This isn't a Memphis team. We're not fighting hard enough for the entire game."

While there's no doubt the absences have hurt Memphis, a lot of teams have been forced to juggle their rotations during a season heavily impacted by COVID-19 over the past few months.

The Tigers must get hot down the stretch to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament—they're likely on the outside looking in at the 68-team bracket—and at that point they can press the reset button and hope their talent shines through during March Madness.

Hardaway has posted a 72-40 record across three-plus seasons leading the Memphis program and has consistently delivered strong recruiting classes, so he shouldn't be on the hot seat despite the fact that this season has yet to meet expectations.

Memphis Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway was not happy with the media following a 70-62 loss against SMU on Thursday night.

After the game, he was asked by reporters if he felt he could handle the job as head coach. He replied:

I think the one thing I can say when it comes to this media, because this media gets kinda f--ked up sometimes when it comes to me: We don't have our full roster. Y'all know we don't have our full roster. Stop asking me stupid f--king questions about if I feel like I can do something. If I had my roster like they did, then I feel like I can do whatever I want to do. 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.

The Tigers are now just 9-8 on the season, though the young team started three freshmen—Josh Minott, Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren—on Thursday night, while a fourth freshman, Tadarius Jacobs, saw minutes off the bench.

Two of the team's top players, DeAndre Williams and Landers Nolley II, remained out injured against SMU. Guard Alex Lomax did return to action and came off the bench, while Jayden Hardaway and Chandler Lawson also remained out.

So it's been a tough stretch for the Tigers, and Hardaway is clearly feeling the stress.