Penny Hardaway has done a ton of talking for a coach with a 13-7 record to start his career at Memphis, which is currently good for third place in the AAC — a league which features only one ranked team (Houston).

Apparently, following all their success, Hardaway and his Memphis program are a target for the haters. Here is what the first-year Memphis coach had to say following his team’s 20-point win over UCF over the weekend.

“I’m getting used to this as a coach because it’s a little jealousy from a lot of these coaches around the country,” Hardaway said Monday according to ESPN.com. “I do understand that because we are NBA players trying to come back, and we didn’t have any experience as college coaches. So we didn’t quote, unquote, ‘Pay our dues.’ So the coaches and their so-called boys that are in the media, they’re going to always throw jabs at us.”

Upon his arrival at Memphis, Hardaway hired former NBA players Mike Miller and Sam Mitchell to his Tigers coaching staff. Those moves have put a target on Memphis’ back, according to Hardaway.

“For sure, I definitely feel like there’s a target on my back,” Hardaway said. “There’s a lot of people that don’t want me to succeed because it’s going to look like an NBA guy came back with no experience and won so of course I relish in that.”

It’s unclear if this is directed at Tennessee and Rick Barnes, who Hardaway took serious issue with following Memphis’ 102-92 home loss to the Volunteers back on Dec. 15. The matchup was the first in a three-game series that will pick up once again next season in Knoxville before the final showdown in Nashville in two seasons.

Whether these comments are specifically targeted at Tennessee or not, they are similar to ones issued by Hardaway earlier this season when he commented that Barnes was disrespectful to his staff and the NBA culture of the Memphis program.

“I’m not here to ruffle any feathers; I’m just here to win,” Hardaway concluded on Monday.

Apparently, this quote from Hardaway following the Memphis-Tennessee game does not count as ruffling any feathers: