Memphis placed on 3 years’ probation after James Wiseman recruitment probe
By TERESA M. WALKER | AP Sports Writer
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Process put Memphis on three years of probation with a public reprimand on Tuesday, but declined to punish Tigers coach Penny Hardaway or hand down an NCAA Tournament ban after an investigation spurred by the recruitment of now-Warriors center James Wiseman.
The ruling also requires that Memphis vacate all records of the three games in which Wiseman played, effectively making it as if he never put on a Tigers jersey.
The IARP issued only its second decision Tuesday, with cases involving Louisiana State, Arizona, Kansas and Louisville still on the group’s docket. North Carolina men’s basketball also was put on probation in the IARP’s first decision in December 2021.
The NCAA had accused Memphis of four Level I and two Level II violations, considered the most serious infractions, and a total of seven alleged violations including lack of institutional control, head coach responsibility and failure to monitor.
The IARP ruled that Memphis failed to monitor Hardaway as an athletics booster, provided impermissible benefits and other benefits to recruits. The panel also ruled Memphis failed to cooperate with the investigation by delaying handing over requested documents but decided these were Level II and III violations.
Memphis will be fined $5,000 plus 0.25% of its average men’s basketball budget — based on the average of the program’s last three total budgets. Probation starts Tuesday and runs to Sept. 26, 2025. Memphis also must send at least one member of its Office of Legal Counsel to two NCAA Regional Rules Seminars and inform all prospect men’s basketball recruits in writing that the Tigers are on probation.
The lack of a tournament ban or suspension for Hardaway is key for a program that just ended a long NCAA Tournament drought in March with its first berth since 2014.
The NCAA investigation started in May 2019 and continued into February 2021, with an amended notice of allegations sent to Memphis in July 2021.
The probe began over the recruitment and the short time that James Wiseman spent at Memphis after receiving $11,500 from Hardaway in 2017. That’s when Hardaway was coach at East High School in Memphis. He wasn’t hired as Memphis’ coach until March 2018, and Wiseman committed to the Tigers in November 2018.
But the NCAA ruled the money wasn’t allowed because Hardaway was a booster for the program. The former NBA All-Star gave $1 million in 2008 to his alma mater for the university’s sports hall of fame, which is named for Hardaway.
Wiseman played the first game of the 2019-20 season before the NCAA ruled Wiseman ineligible. He played two more games after filing a restraining order against the NCAA.
The IARP says Memphis was informed Oct. 31 that Wiseman and two other athletes were not eligible because they received money from Hardaway after he became a booster. The IARP said Hardaway wasn’t told until after the opening game.
The IARP also wants Memphis to vacate all wins and records of the three games Wiseman played with those reflected in Hardaway’s career records.
On Nov. 20, 2019, the NCAA suspended Wiseman for 12 games and ordered him to repay $11,500 in the form of a donation to the charity of choice. Wiseman withdrew from Memphis in December 2019 and now plays for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
The Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association fined East High School nearly $15,000 earlier this month and ordered the school to forfeit all games Wiseman played in for Hardaway, vacating its 2018 state championship and 2019 state runner-up trophy.