College basketball: Penny Hardaway back to Memphis as coach

Former Memphis All-American Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway is heading back to his alma mater as its men’s basketball coach.

Memphis will announce Hardaway as its next coach at a news conference scheduled for Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. The 46-year-old Hardaway replaces Tubby Smith, fired after going 40-26 in two seasons.

Hardaway is a four-time NBA All-Star and three-time All-NBA player who will be making his college coaching debut. He has been coaching for years with his own AAU program, Team Penny, and won his third straight Tennessee high school championship at Memphis East last weekend.

Memphis hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2014, and attendance dipped to 6,225 this season — the worst since 1969-70.

Cal Baptist in Elite Eight

The California Baptist men’s basketball team will play Queens University of Charlotte in the Division II quarterfinals on Tuesday at 4 p.m. PDT in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The Riverside-based Lancers (28-5) are ranked 21st in the nation and seeded seventh for the Elite Eight. The No. 7-ranked Royals (31-3) are seeded second.

Center Kalidou Diouf leads the Lancers with 18.1 points and 8.5 rebounds.

Etc.

Jeffrey Carroll scored 26 points to help Oklahoma State beat Stanford 71-65 in the second round of the NIT. ... Charlotte hired Virginia associate head coach Ron Sanchez as its new coach. ... The West Coast Conference hired former Pac-12 executive Gloria Nevarez as the league’s new commissioner.