Penny Hardaway did not appreciate how Utah State ran up the score during its college basketball game against Memphis. A dunk as time expired hurt his feelings.
He was furious!
The eighth-year college basketball coach had words for the Aggies, both players and coaches, during the postgame handshake line. Perhaps the Tigers should’ve stopped them.
Utah State embarrassed Memphis.
Although Memphis and Utah State are not of the same status in terms of brand recognition, they are on relative equal footing in terms of on-court results in recent years. The Aggies are actually more successful.
Utah State is on track to make its fourth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance and its sixth in the last eight years. Memphis will not make March Madness unless it wins the conference tournament and it has only reached the NCAA Tournament three times since 2014.
These two programs are on different trajectories at the current moment. That was clear on the court on Saturday.
The top-ranked team in the Mountain West defeated the sixth-ranked team in the American by 24 points. Utah State shot 52.5% from the field. Memphis committed 11 turnovers. It was a blowout.
The Aggies also poured salt in the wound.
They led the Tigers 93-75 with 28 seconds remaining when senior guard MJ Collins slammed home a missed jumper. Then Elijah Perryman stole the ball from Sincere Parker on the next possession and passed ahead to a wide-open Kolby King. He dunked with 17 seconds left.
Collins closed things out with a windmill dunk as time expired just a few moments later. That did not go over well with Hardaway, who exchanged words with several Utah State players during the handshake line.
Memphis HC Penny Hardaway exchanges words with Utah State players in the postgame handshake line.
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) February 15, 2026
MJ Collins Jr. slammed home a breakaway dunk before the final buzzer sounded. pic.twitter.com/A4KN1WJZro
He was not pleased.
Penny Hardaway did not hold back his thoughts.
Memphis got embarrassed. Plain and simple. Penny Hardaway only took issue with the late-game antics because it made him look bad. There was some disrespect involved with the last-second dunk, sure, but the Tigers should’ve stopped the Aggies if they didn’t want them to score.
Hardaway disagrees. He found the actions of Utah State to be disrespectful.
“You can’t do what they did. You can’t keep scoring the ball. We came out here to play this game. You gotta have more class than that. It ain’t even just that last one. It was the rest of them. You just gotta have some type of class— seriously.”
Aggies head coach Jerrod Calhoun offered a different perspective. His team had an opportunity to make a statement to the March Madness selection committee. Every point matters.
“We would not have scored the last two baskets if this was normal circumstances. But the deck is stacked totally against mid-majors now. You got teams that have $10 and $20 million rosters. We don’t have that. We don’t have the ability to play a bunch of Quad 1 and Quad 2 games. We can’t get them.
“We almost gotta be perfect. Let’s call it like it is. The Power 4s can lose 12-13 games. We can lose five. So, every possession is measured and we gotta score the ball there. Unfortunately, we play by the rules. Those are the rules that KenPom, Bart Torvik and the NCAA selection committee want us to play by. I would never have done that to Coach Hardaway [otherwise].”
Fair enough! Hardaway scheduled Utah State as a late-season boost to the NCAA Tournament resume. His team is not good enough for the game to matter. He got dunked on. Get over it.