Penny Hardaway hires NBA coach for his staff at Memphis

Mar 5, 2020; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Memphis Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway during the first half against the Wichita State Shockers at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

Penny Hardaway is calling in the reinforcements.

Jason Munz of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported on Monday that Hardaway has hired longtime NBA coach Todd Forcier as the new strength and conditioning coach at the University of Memphis. Forcier will replace Darby Rich, who left Memphis this offseason to become the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Texas.

Forcier served as the strength and conditioning coach for the Portland Trail Blazers for 13 seasons from 2010-23. Prior to that, he had already been a strength and conditioning coach in the college game for the University of Dayton (from 1998-2002), Syracuse University (2002-07), and the University of Kentucky (2007-10).

Meanwhile, Hardaway is about to enter his seventh season as Memphis head coach, owning a career record of 133-62 (.688) with two NCAA Tournament appearances and an NIT Tournament victory in 2021. He was unable to reel in a familiar figure for the program earlier this year but is now pulling from the NBA ranks to fill his team’s strength and conditioning coach vacancy.