Faragi Phillips - Assistant Coach - Men's Basketball Coaches

Faragi Phillips

Title:
Assistant Coach

Faragi Phillips, a proven coach with significant ties to Memphis, was named an assistant coach on head coach Penny Hardaway's staff prior to the 2022-23 season.

In Phillips' first season in the Bluff City, he helped lead the Tigers to a 26-9 overall record, their first AAC championship, the program's first-ever win over the nation's top-ranked team and a second-consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Phillips spent the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons as an assistant coach under Jerry Stackhouse at Vanderbilt, which came after serving as head coach at Memphis’ Whitehaven High School for four seasons (2015-19) and Memphis’ Mitchell High School for four years before that (2011-15).

During his time at Whitehaven, Phillips turned the Tigers into a perennial powerhouse. In each of Phillips’ four seasons as head coach, the Tigers won 20 games or more. In 2018 and 2019, Phillips led Whitehaven to back-to-back state tournament appearances, finishing as the state runner-up and a quarterfinalist. In 2017, Phillips’ team defeated nationally-ranked Huntington Prep in the ARC Hoopfest Classic, and a year later in 2018, defeated Chicago’s Whitney Young. Phillips compiled a 91-30 record as the head coach of Whitehaven.

Prior to his stint with Whitehaven, Phillips spent four years at Mitchell, leading the Tigers to four-straight state tournaments and back-to-back state championships in 2014 and 2015. Mitchell had only won seven games over a two-year span prior Phillips’ arrival. Phillips compiled a 108-29 record over a four-year span, while also winning four consecutive sectional championships, four-straight regional championships, and three city/county championships.

In 2019, Phillips joined Stackhouse's Vanderbilt staff as an assistant coach. From 2019-21, Phillips worked extensively in skill development, scouting, practice planning, player development, recruiting and academic development. He helped develop 2020 NBA Draft selections Aaron Nesmith and Saben Lee, who went 14th overall to the Boston Celtics and 37th overall to the Detroit Pistons, respectively. In 2021, Scotty Pippen, Jr. earned first-team All-SEC accolades as he set the school scoring record for a sophomore and finished as the SEC scoring leader at 20.8 points per game. Pippen was also second in the SEC in assists and steals and matched or increased his career-high point total six different times.

Phillips worked with Memphis-based AAU Circuit Programs Team Thad and Bluff City Legends (formerly Team Penny). In 2013-14, he coached with the Team Thad organization which featured notable players Terrence Davis, LaGerald Vick and Jeremiah Martin, who also played for Phillips while at Mitchell. In 2016-17, Phillips coached Team Penny and notable players including James Wiseman, DJ Jeffries, Alex Lomax and Chandler Lawson.

Phillips played collegiately at Mississippi Valley State from 1995-99, leading the team to the 1996 NCAA Tournament where they faced the Allen Iverson-led Georgetown Hoyas. A SWAC first-team all-conference performer, Phillips averaged 12.6 points in his four-year career and 20.9 points as a senior.