One day after Emoni Bates committed to Memphis, the school officially announced the hiring of 16-year NBA veteran Rasheed Wallace.
The move had been expected and I first wrote about it over on Forbes SportsMoney on Aug. 5.
Wallace, a four-time All-Star, won the 2004 NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons, who were coached by fellow Tigers assistant Larry Brown. In his NBA career, spanning over 1,100 games, Wallace averaged 14.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. He was an All-Star in 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2008, and Wallace’s teams reached the postseason in 14 of his 16 seasons.
“I’m excited about adding Rasheed to the program,” head coach Penny Hardaway said. “He is someone our ‘bigs,’ and our entire team, will learn a tremendous amount from. All of his experience in the NBA and knowledge of the game will be key to our success.”
“It was a surprise, but an honor and a pleasure, to receive the call from Coach Hardaway to join his coaching staff,” Wallace said. “I am extremely eager to work with the young men on the team, and I’m excited to cross paths again with Coach Brown and work with Coach (Cody) Toppert.”
As a collegiate star at North Carolina, Wallace helped lead the Tar Heels to the 1995 Final Four. He entered the NBA Draft after his sophomore season, where he was selected fourth overall by the Washington Bullets in 1995.
Following his playing career, Wallace’s previous coaching stops include time as an assistant with the Pistons in 2013-14 and as head coach at Charles E. Jordan High School in Durham, N.C., from 2019-21.
Between Hardaway and Wallace, Memphis’ bench has 30 combined seasons of NBA playing experience, eight NBA All-Star appearances and over 26,000 NBA points. Adding to it is Brown’s 1,098 NBA victories in 26 seasons as a head coach, plus Toppert’s recent coaching experience with the Phoenix Suns and in the NBA G League.
The Tigers won the 2021 NIT championship and finished the 2020-21 season with a 20-8 record. The 20-win season last year was Memphis’ fourth in a row, including all three seasons under Hardaway. The Tigers are one of just 14 schools in the nation with four-straight 20-win seasons to their credit.
Hardaway has won 63 games in three seasons as Tigers head coach, which is the third-most among 50 head coaches hired before the 2018-19 season.
The Tigers are slated to return three of their top-five scorers from a season ago in Landers Nolley II (13.1 ppg), DeAndre Williams (11.7 ppg) and Lester Quinones (9.5 ppg). Joining the trio and the rest of the returning players are newcomers John Camden (F, 6-8, Downington, Pa.), Jalen Duren (C, 6-10, Sharon Hill, Pa.), Chandler Lawson (F, 6-8, University of Oregon), Johnathan Lawson (F, 6-6, Memphis, Tenn.), Josh Minott (G, 6-9, Boca Raton, Fla.), Sam Onu (C, 6-11, Malvern, Pa.) and Earl Timberlake (G, 6-6, University of Miami).
(Release via Memphis)
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