Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway on 'all the smoke' about schedule, Baraka Okojie status

Penny Hardaway's new Memphis basketball team went through its first official practice for the 2024-25 season early Monday morning.

He liked what he saw.

“I think the city – I know the city is gonna love this team,” he said. “They’re ready.”

The reconstituted Tigers will take on North Carolina on Oct. 15 (6 p.m., ESPNU) in the Hoops for St. Jude Tip Off Classic. Thirteen days later, they will face Alabama in Huntsville in another preseason charity exhibition game before hosting Missouri in the regular-season opener on Nov. 4.

Chances are, according to Hardaway, Memphis won't be at full strength for the exhibition contests. Guard Baraka Okojie , a sophomore transfer from George Mason, missed the majority of summer workouts after undergoing shoulder surgery in June. Hardaway said Monday that he does not anticipate Okojie will be ready for North Carolina or Alabama.

"I don't know, because he hasn't gotten into any contact yet," said Hardaway. "Don't charge me for (this), but I'm just looking at him now (and) he hasn't really gone through a full-contact practice yet.

"(But) I think he'll be ready for the first game (against Missouri). I don't want to throw that out and then that be wrong, but I think he could be ready before the Missouri game."

The October exhibition games and the regular-season opener start another beast of a nonconference schedule . Hardaway has a demonstrated history of putting together some of the most demanding gauntlets in the country. Last season, Memphis' nonconference slate ranked 57th in the nation, in terms of strength of schedule. The season before, the Tigers had the 26th-highest nonconference strength of schedule.

Highlighting the schedule is a game against two-time defending national champion UConn (Nov. 25 at the Maui Invitational), true road games versus Clemson (Dec. 14), Virginia (Dec. 18) and UNLV (Nov. 9), and home games with Mississippi State (Dec. 21) and Ole Miss (Dec. 28).

The AAC schedule is expected to be announced this week.

"I think I got in trouble when I first got here saying that we wanted all the smoke," said Hardaway. "That was basically for recruitment, because of the young kids. But we weren't afraid to play anyone. So, anyone that got that misconstrued, it was definitely all (in the) respect that we're not afraid to play.

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"As you've seen since I've been here, I've done that. No matter what it's been. Every year, even last year, an unbelievable non-conference. Just want to put ourselves up and compare ourselves to the best in the country."

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway on 'all the smoke' about schedule, Baraka Okojie status