March Madness returns to Seattle with Memphis Penny Hardaway feel-good story, Sonics mems

Yahoo

21-03-2025

March Madness is finally back in Seattle.
The best of the first-round games not just inside Climate Pledge Arena Friday but in the entire, 68-team tournament may be Memphis-Colorado State.
And the best story of Memphis-Colorado State may be an 11-year-old girl who has inspired Penny Hardaway.
Hardaway, the superstar of the 1990s, Sonics-era NBA, is Memphis' coach in his hometown. He was coming off what he acknowledges was 'a really bad year' last season. Following a conference tournament championship and another NCAA tournament appearance the year before, his storied Memphis Tigers finished the 2023-24 season fifth in their league. They lost to 12th-seeded Wichita State in their first game of the American Athletic Conference tournament. That ended, for him, a lost year. His Tigers didn't earn a berth in the NCAAs, or any postseason tournament, last season.
There were questions around Memphis whether the city's local hero should perhaps be... fired?
Early this season Hardaway's Tigers beat defending national-champion Connecticut then national power Michigan State in the Maui Invitational in November. But in mid-January Memphis lost a league game at Temple on national television.
Eleven-year-old Maci Barrett was at that game with her mother. Maci is a Tigers fan — and a huge fan of Taylor Swift.
'I'm a Swift-ie,' Maci later told Hardaway.
As you may know, Swift-ies love making friendship bracelets. Her mom inspired Maci to make one.
For the down Hardaway.
She did. Maci presented it to the glum coach following that Memphis loss at Temple Jan. 16.
Maci had strung Tigers blue-and-white beads together with letters. They formed five words..
'I believe in you, Coach.'
Hardaway earned over $120 million in his NBA playing career from 1993-2008. He still makes handsome residuals from his Nike Lil' Penny campaign during his playing days.
He immediately put on Maci's homemade bracelet. Because she believes in him.
'I've been holding on (to it) for dear life,' Hardaway said, in a Memphis Tigers Facebook video, 'and kind of taking it through everything.'
Since Maci's gift — of belief — Hardaway and his Tigers have roared. They've won 16 of their last 17 games. They've won The American tournament. They raced past UAB by 12 points in the conference championship game last weekend.
Memphis has the fifth seed in the NCAA tournament Hardaway has been seeking all season. His Tigers (29-5) begin their March Madness run Friday at 11 a.m. against 12th-seeded Colorado State (25-9), champion of the Mountain West Conference.
It's the first, and seemingly best, matchup of the four first-round games at Climate Pledge Arena.
And Maci will be there.
Executives from Memphis-based FedEx, a big supporter of University of Memphis and its athletic programs, heard about Maci's belief bracelet she gave Hardaway. FedEx flew Maci and her family from Tennessee to Seattle so she can attend her hero's NCAA tournament games here.
The coach is looking forward to seeing her for the first time since her gift-giving in Philadelphia.
'Yes, I am looking forward to that again, because it won't be in such a somber spirit,' Hardaway said Thursday at CPA, before his Tigers' morning shoot-around. 'Like, after we lost at Temple I was kind of down. And she really lifted my spirits.
'Now meeting her for the second time, understanding what's happened, is pretty cool. And it's a feel-good story.'
A Memphis win over trendy lower-seed pick Colorado State would make it a feel-even-better story. The winner of that one advances to the second round Sunday at Seattle Center. That Sunday game will be for a spot in the regional semifinals next week in San Francisco.
Colorado State is a slight favorite. The Rams are only the third 12 seed to be favored in a tournament game since 2005.
CSU Is one of the two lower-seeded teams oddsmakers have as a betting favorite in this tournament's first round. The other is North Carolina, an 11. The Tar Heels are favored over six seed Mississippi.
A 12-seed has won 55 games in round one in the 40 years since the NCAA expanded the field to 64 teams in 1985.
Fourth-seeded Maryland (25-8) of the Big Ten plays 13th-seeded Grand Canyon (26-7), champion of the Western Athletic Conference, in Seattle's other West region game Friday. The second game of the afternoon session is at about 1:35 p.m.
The evening session is two East Region games: fourth seed Arizona (22-12) from the Big 12 against 13 seed Akron (28-6) of the Mid-American Conference at about 4:35 p.m., then fifth-seeded Oregon (24-9) of the Big Ten against 12 seed Liberty (28-6) from Conference USA, around 7:10 p.m.
Tickets were available on secondary online markets Thursday with falling prices for Friday afternoon session. The evening session with relatively local Oregon plus Arizona's notoriously rabid, well-traveled fans is a more expensive ticket inside the NHL Kraken's home arena that seats 18,300 for basketball.
Many around college hoops see Memphis-Colorado State with Kansas-Arkansas as this tournament's best first-round games.
Memphis' leading scorer PJ Haggerty (21.8 points, six rebounds, four assists per game) against the Rams' leader Nique Clifford (19 points, 9.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists per game) is the marquee matchup in Friday's first game.
'I see where he averaged 19 and 10 rebounds, so it's kind of impressive,' Haggerty said of Clifford, a big, strong guard. 'But just sticking to our principles, just guard him, contain him, things like that.'
Clifford called this opportunity to follow Colorado State's win over Virginia and loss to Texas in last year's NCAA tournament 'a blessing.'
'This is your childhood dreams that you grow up working for,' the Rams' 6-foot-6, 200-pound senior leader said.
'So we're just excited to get this thing rolling.'
Memphis scores a ton of points. The Tigers' second-leading scorer, big man Dain Dainja, averages 19 per game.
They see the key to advancing past Colorado State is going beyond the points the Tigers believe they will score.
'Just the little things, the things you work on in practice: Defending and rebounding,' Dainja said. 'All the stuff we work on in practice, just translating over here in this tournament.'
The Terrapins were second-place finishers to Michigan State atop the rugged Big Ten this regular season. Maryland has freshman star Derik Queen averaging more than 16 points and nine rebounds per game inside.
The Terps are well aware Grand Canyon is in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in five years. They know the Grand Canyon coach Bryce Drew — who hit a famous buzzer-beater for Valparaiso to upset heavily favored Ole Miss in round one of the 1998 NCAA tournament — and his Antelopes were a 12 seed last year when they beat fifth-seeded Saint Mary's in round one.
'Yeah, I don't know how they got a 13 seed, to be honest with you,' Maryland coach Kevin Willard said. 'They've won (26) games. They won a game in the (2024 NCAA) tournament. They have a six-year senior, six-year senior. They're a veteran basketball team.
'From my standpoint watching them on film they're probably the most connected defensive team that we're going to play all year.'
Arizona in its first year after leaving the Pac-12 had big wins in the heated Big 12, over Iowa State, BYU, Texas Tech, Baylor and in the conference tournament, Kansas.
The Zips play to their Kangaroo-inspired nickname. They are fast. They run and push the ball up the floor. They came back from an 18-point deficit in the MAC championship game to beat Miami, Ohio, last week to get here.
'Obviously, we were down 18 the other day, and the disposition and poise and composure of our group has been like that all year,' Akron coach John Groce said. 'Our group continued to fight and swing and battle and found a way. And that's kind of been their disposition.
'So we're excited to compete (Friday). Obviously, they're a very good basketball team. But we've had a good week of prep — and looking forward to the opportunity.'
Arizona has a big size advantage over smaller Akron. Seven-footer Henri Veesaar is likely the focal point of the Wildcats' game plan.
Akron has never won an NCAA tournament game (0-5).
Liberty is another lower seed many are picking for an upset.
That's because the Flames can shoot from everywhere, in any setting. They are fifth in the country in 3-point shooting percentage and second in the advanced metric of effective field-goal percentage. Kaden Metheny averages 13.5 points per game and has shot at least 47.6% from the field in each of the last three games to earn Liberty its conference tournament title and NCAA berth.
The Ducks should have two big advantages. One is in rebounding. Liberty is 298th in the nation in rebounding percentage.
Plus: The crowd Friday night inside Climate Pledge Arena should be full of roaring Ducks who made the drive up Interstate 5.
'A lot of excitement, of course, on Selection Sunday,' Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said. 'And then it's all good up until you see your opponent — and then it's like, 'Oh, man.'
'So we're looking forward to an opportunity, though, and we'll see how it goes.'
The Boston Celtics' sale got approved Friday, for a record $6.1 billion.
That has renewed hope around the Northwest basketball community the Sonics may be returning in the NBA as an expansion team soon.
Most around the league have believed the sale of the Celtics has been a key event that needed to happen before the expansion process can begin in earnest.
Hardaway played NBA games in Seattle for 15 years, first in 1993 when it was the old Seattle Center Coliseum, in 1994 when the SuperSonics were in the Tacoma Dome for one season, then in 1995 and beyond in KeyArea. That, of course, was the building before Climate Pledge Arena under the same historic roof.
He is among so many who feel it's past time for the league to get back to Seattle since it moved away, to Oklahoma City in 2008.
'Yeah, it was always tough because Coach (George) Karl's teams, that's when they were in their prime with Gary (Payton) and Shawn (Kemp) and those guys, Nate McMillan,' Hardaway said. 'And it was always tough to come to Seattle and play the Sonics. And the fan base was really the sixth man.
'It was, like, not only were they tough, but it always got so loud. And it's unfortunate that there's not a franchise here, because this city was so good for our league.'