MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — Rasheed Wallace was formally introduced to the media Tuesday as an assistant coach for the Tigers.
This is Wallace’s first collegiate coaching job and the 16-year NBA veteran spent a great amount of time talking about the impact he wants to have on these players.
“To be coaching with him to help this next generation move forward, it’s an honor, it’s a pleasure because you have a lot of great basketball minds sitting up there in that office and we’re going to pass all of that knowledge on to our young fellas.”
Most importantly, he’s happy about the team he’s able to coach with — Larry Brown that led him to an NBA title and a former player he has an immense amount of respect for.
He said he’s exhilarated to be in a city that has a special place in his heart.
“I think it was already written in it’s path because Memphis has been a big part in my basketball history to be honest, not only just playing in the NBA but being involved here in the McDonald’s All-American game when I was high school back in ’93. Just being able to come to this city, first of all with — I call him the Mayor because he’s like the mayor of Memphis. Anywhere he goes, every body knows him. He gets anything he wants here.”
Tigers Penny Hardaway spoke Tuesday on his top recruiting class and how he was able to get both Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren to join this team. He said it was just building connections with them and their families.
He told us he did already have a good relationship with Bates, just as a mentor and wasn’t expecting Bates to reclassify.
But now that they’re all here, what’s next?
“It’s really trying to get everybody as comfortable as possible and just grind and work and rowing the boat in the same direction,” said Hardaway. “So, with having all of this talent on the coaching staff and then having a lot of talent with the roster, it’s just basically now just trying to get the chemistry down and getting the verbiage down and just having the same like minds on a daily basis.”