Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington is a proponent of in-state scheduling when it comes to nonconference opponents.
Memphis is among the schools he likes to see on the Commodores’ schedule, perhaps on an annual basis.
The Tigers (4-5) and the 13th-ranked Commodores (10-0) renew the series Wednesday night in Memphis, just the third meeting in 21 years between the programs separated by only three hours on Interstate 40.
“It was not easy scheduling, but I want this series for the fans,” Byington said. “Teams in Tennessee like us should play each other, and they’ve got a great basketball tradition, and so we were willing to say we’ll come to Memphis this year and start (the home-and-home series) on the road. That’s how bad we want to start it. It should be a series that we play year in and year out.”
The all-time series is tied 8-8, but Memphis won the past four times it opposed Vanderbilt. The Tigers earned an early-season victory in December 1998, then prevailed in the 2005 NIT quarterfinals. More recently, Memphis posted a 76-67 win in November 2022 at Nashville, and the Tigers pulled out a come-from-behind, 77-75 home victory a year later.
Former Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse and current Memphis coach Penny Hardaway, both former NBA stars, agreed to the series renewal when the former was running the Commodores.
Hardaway enjoys the renewal as well.
Memphis must regroup from a lopsided loss Saturday at No. 11 Louisville. The Cardinals sank 18 3-pointers on 35 attempts while beating the Tigers 99-73.
“I would say the breakdown came from us not executing the game plan that Coach P put in,” Memphis forward Hasan Abdul Hakim said. “And that’s kind of been the summary of our season. (We’re) still trying to figure it out.
“They did hit shots, and kudos to them. But I think a lot of (Louisville’s 3-pointers) came from our little mistakes or miscommunications, stuff that we worked on all week.”
Abdul Hakim did his part, scoring a season-high 18 points to go along with four rebounds, two steals and one block. He shot 2 of 3 from 3-point range.
Hardaway hopes to eliminate some of the breakdowns his team encountered at Louisville.
“We put some things in to try to get the guards more downhill and to the paint, and (the Cardinals) didn’t allow it,” Hardaway said. “When we ran offense, they took us out of it. And we looked disheveled once we got down. … We (started) playing one-on-one. We know that’s losing basketball.”
Hardaway said the Tigers need to put the loss to Louisville behind them and concentrate on “protecting home court” against Vanderbilt.
Byington is also looking for a better overall performance from his team than the one it gave him in a 83-72 home win over Central Arkansas on Saturday. The coach praised Tyler Nickel’s play — the senior contributed eight 3-pointers and 30 points, both career highs — but said all the others need to step up.
“If we play like we did (against Central Arkansas), we’ll get beat by 40,” Byington said. “Hopefully we’ll play better.”
