Penny Hardaway wants to play Kentucky

After failing to make the NCAA Tournament in his first season as head coach of the Memphis Tigers, Penny Hardaway has quickly assembled the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class.

Now, that recruiting success has Penny feeling giddy. He wants a shot at John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats. One-and-done vs. one-and-done.

On Tuesday afternoon, Hardaway spoke to the media regarding his recruiting haul and he was asked if he’d made any progress toward a home-and-home series with Calipari.

Penny admitted he hadn’t talked to Coach Cal since the Final Four, but he plans on continuing discussions to get the Cats on the schedule. While Hardaway would prefer a home-and-home, he’d even settle for a neutral site in Cats’ fans favorite city: Nashville.

“I’m definitely going to be talking to him about a home-and-home or even a neutral site,” Hardaway said. “We talked about a neutral site in Nashville before.”

He added that Calipari said to give him a year to figure something out, but Penny is ready to take on anybody. And he says it isn’t just because of his newfound recruiting success, either. He just wants to play the best.

I’m fairly confident that Cal won’t schedule a home-and-home, mainly because he doesn’t do so with anyone. He prefers neutral site games because they’re much more similar to a tournament game environment. Not to mention, Memphis and Cal aren’t exactly on great terms.

However, a neutral site game seems like a legitimate possibility in the near future.

You can see Penny’s comments below (4:07 mark) and let us know what you think about them, as well as that interesting bumblebee shirt.