New Tennessee State basketball coach Nolan Smith is leaving Penny Hardaway’s staff at Memphis after less than a year.

Tennessee State University has named Nolan Smith as its new head men’s basketball coach. Smith joins TSU following last season, where he was an assistant coach for the Memphis Tigers under Penny Hardaway.

Nolan Smith, an All-American basketball player at Duke who spent last season as an assistant coach at Memphis, is Tennessee State's new coach.

Nolan Smith (left), who served as an assistant coach for the University of Memphis’ men’s assistant basketball coach last season, has been named Tennessee State’s head coach. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian) Smith will leave Memphis after one season on coach Penny Hardaway’s coaching staff.

As Tennessee State closes in on the hire of Memphis assistant Nolan Smith, is he the right coach to lead the Tigers to further prominence.

Memphis basketball assistant coach Nolan Smith is reportedly deep in talks with Tennessee State to become its next head coach.

Nolan Smith has been working for nearly a decade in roles, most recently as an assistant, at some top programs in college basketball. He’s now set to earn his first chance at being a collegiate head coach per reports out of Nashville.