Memphis-UT rivalry means more to Tiger fans
When Memphis senior Jeremiah Martin looked at his iPad this week, at the film of Tennessee’s loss to Kansas earlier this season that coach Penny Hardaway uploaded for each player on the roster, he recognized quickly the Volunteers will be the best team the Tigers have faced all year.
But Martin is from here, a Memphis native who’s never gotten to play against Tennessee before. And so inevitably, whenever he began breaking down the size, skill and strategy of the defending SEC champion, his mind would also drift off the court.
To the scene and the stakes accompanying a game that might mean more to the people watching from the stands than the players competing in it Saturday at FedExForum.
“It’s more so the rivalry, the hype behind the game. It’s just so many people want to see this game,” Martin said
Thursday. “It’s just a big game for the city, really the tradition of Memphis.”
Are you ready for the latest milestone of the Hardaway era?
We’ve experienced his first big recruiting win and his first Memphis Madness. We’ve seen his first exhibition game and his first career win. We’ve made it through the first signs of struggle and his first set of adjustments.
And now we get to witness his first sellout. The first of many, hopefully.
Because it’s easy to forget what this feels like.
When a Tiger basketball game turns into a civic gathering. When more than 18,000 fans cram into FedExForum. When the pregame anticipation dominates conversation around the city. When celebrities like Houston Rockets star Chris Paul are asking for tickets.
Because Saturdays like this one don’t happen very often.
The 26th meeting between Memphis and Tennessee on the basketball court will be the first sellout since former coach John Calipari’s final season, and the fifth since the Tigers began playing games at FedExForum, according to the Memphis athletic department.
“I know when Coach Penny Hardaway got the job, he wanted to change the culture,” freshman Tyler Harris said, “and I feel like on Saturday, it’ll really feel like, ‘Wow. We made a change.’ ”
It will also be a chance to see why this rivalry just means more for Memphis than Tennessee.
A chance for the university and the basketball program that long ago became a rallying point for this city to punch above its weight class again and land a knockout blow.
A chance for Hardaway to get his first signature win as coach, and a chance “to prove we can play with anybody in the country,” he said.
“I feel like Saturday, all our games have been preparing us for this moment,” Harris added.
It’s why the Tigers agreed to a three-year basketball series with the Volunteers, with a game in Knoxville next year and a neutral-site game in Nashville in 2020, even though Tennessee stubbornly refuses to play Memphis in football anymore.
It’s why tickets along the baseline of FedExForum are going for as much as $1,500 on the secondary market, and tickets in the lower bowl will cost at least $200 if you don’t have them already.
It’s why this is still a basketball school and Tennessee will never be, even though the pressure to win Saturday is entirely on the Volunteers.
They’re ranked No. 3 in the country after upsetting No. 1 Gonzaga last weekend. They’re the highest-ranked opponent to come to FedExForum since No. 2 Tennessee famously played No. 1 Memphis on Feb. 23, 2008.
Hardaway was at that game, along with Priscilla Presley and Peyton Manning, wearing a Memphis varsity jacket.
He remembers the energy in the building before the ball was tipped. It’s an energy he was hired to re-capture. It’s an energy you can already feel wherever you go in this city.
So this edition Memphis-Tennessee should be a landmark event for Tiger basketball, and that won’t change if the result of doesn’t go in the home team’s favor.
Because the first sellout of the Hardaway era is another reminder of what this program used to be, what it might still become, and what it feels like when Tiger basketball matters again.
“I hope the atmosphere Saturday is as crazy as it’s ever been. As loud as it’s ever been,” Hardaway said. “To where I’m so hoarse I can’t even do the media afterwards. My voice is gone. That’s how I want it to be.”
“It’s going to be one of those games. I can feel the fans want this game as bad as we want it.”