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NCAA Basketball: Penny Hardaway rules recruiting’s Game of Thrones

By R Michael Jones

MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 01: Head coach Penny Hardaway of the Memphis Tigers reacts against the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the HoopHall Miami Invitational at American Airlines Arena on December 1, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 01: Head coach Penny Hardaway of the Memphis Tigers reacts against the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the HoopHall Miami Invitational at American Airlines Arena on December 1, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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In NCAA Basketball’s game of thrones, Penny Hardaway has taken the iron throne – at least for the 2019 offseason recruiting game.

Memphis is Taking the Recruiting Throne!

Grab your seats now for NCAA Basketball recruiting’s own Game of Thrones. This could be one of the biggest recruiting coups in history. Penny Hardaway and his staff are doing things unheard of. They are breaking down walls. Forget White Walkers, we’re talking seizing the iron throne.

Penny is the bastard son. He is not of royal blood, and then again he is. And Mike Miller is his Tyrion Lannister, the clever aide who persuades others to join Hardaway’s noble cause.  Although perhaps he’s a tiny bit taller.

Mike Krzyzewski  is the Cersei Lannister here, leader of the proud house that has all the pedigree. But they have now lost one of their own in Boogie Ellis.

Let’s have John Calipari be Jaime Lannister. He’s sort of blue blood, but he teeters here and there. In many Memphians’ eyes, he is the kingslayer. He swore loyalty to the crown and then stabbed the fanbase in the back. He might try to woo recruits away from Jon/Penny, who he has to admire and yet also despise in some ways.

So Penny is not so much Jon Snow in that he actually wants the throne. And if today goes as planned where Lester Quinones signs with Memphis, the dominoes could start to fall, just as they do in the Game of Thrones intro. Quinones’ signing means that Precious Achiuwa could be next, since the two of them seem to be interlocked. And we all know John Snow, I mean Penny, is big on family. Jonah Jordan of The Daily Memphian quoted Quiones as saying, “Precious (Achiuwa) and I talk every day, That’s like my right-hand man. Whether I do commit to Memphis or Indiana, it’s going to be a huge impact with the other people in the class.”

The impact could be Achiuwa signing with Memphis, and who knows where it goes from there. Four star prospect Boogie Ellis just visited recently, and top five recruit RJ Hampton might yet commit to the Tigers. Most people have Trendon Watford headed to LSU now, but I think it would be rash to underestimate the lure of Memphis’s own “Penny Snow”, or should we say “John Hardaway?” He is a born leader, and the recruits are rallying to his cause.

Graduate transfer Rayjon Tucker might even push the NBA aside so that he can learn under the tutelage of King Hardaway. If all of this goes to plan, Penny gets the number one recruiting class, usurping Duke (krzyzewski/Cersei) and Kentucky (Calipari/Jaime). — this can get almost as confusing as Game of Thrones, right?

Next. 2019 recruiting classes that could be most influential. dark

If I were a betting man, I’d say Hardaway winds up sitting on the iron throne this go round. With his NBA experience, knowledge of the game and pro style offense, who wouldn’t follow him into battle at this point?