Dick Weiss on College Basketball
Memphis is no longer on the outside looking in.
The defending NIT champions who were a fringe Top 25 team in June, have, become a Top 10 team and a possible national championship contender after two late summer signings.
Jalen Duren, a 6-10, 230 pound center from Montverde Academy, and 6-9 forward Emoni Bates of Ypsilanti, Mich. Academy, who were the top two prospects in the class of 2022 before they reclassified, have both announced for Memphis, creating a powerhouse front line for coach Penny Hardaway, the former Memphis high school and college icon and NBA star who has had a charismatic personality style and has shown the ability to recruit elite prospects like James Wiseman
Hardaway has been at Memphis for three years, but has never experienced an NCAA tournament.
Times have changed, especially after Hardaway upgraded his staff by adding ageless 80-year-old Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown to his staff.
Duren and Bates are both considered lottery pick material when they become eligible to declare for the NBA draft. For Duren, who will turn 19 next year, that will be 2022. For Bates, who is only 17, that will be 2023 so he will likely remain in college for two seasons or play one year in college then move to G-League Ignite.
Duren and Bates were heavily recruited by the G-League after Bates decommitted from his initial choice Michigan State and reopened his recruiting. The two got to play together for a weekend this summer with Team Final, a Nike based team out of Philadelphia and showed they could function together.
Duren and Bates are two of the top 100 prospects to commit to Memphis in the class of 2021 along with Jonathan Lawson and Josh Minott. Hardaway has three returning starters–Landers Nolley II, DeAndre Williams and Lester Quinones– from his NIT title team. He also added three high major transfers– 6-9 Earl Timberlake of Miami, Tyler Harris Iowa State and Chandler Lawson of Oregon.
