Rick Barnes addresses potential rivalry series vs. Memphis: 'Nowhere near being talked about'

Along with the Tennessee Volunteers, the Memphis Tigers have proven to be a consistently strong program in the state. Despite that, Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes doesn’t expect to renew that rivalry anytime soon.

Barnes met with the media at Vols’ Big Orange Caravan for its first stop in Memphis. So, naturally, the topic came up once again.

“We haven’t talked about that in a couple years,” Rick Barnes said. “And it’s nowhere [near] being talked about now. With the change of, you know, new teams coming into our league. We just came out of playing in historically the hardest, best conference ever. So, everything we do [inaudible] will be based on where we feel our league is and what we need to do.”

The last time Tennessee and Memphis met on the court was in December of 2019. There, Barnes saw his Volunteers drop a low-scoring battle in Knoxville. A season later, the pandemic forced a neutral site game in Nashville to get canceled due to COVID tracing and the two sides haven’t met since then. From the sounds of it, there won’t be another game coming soon between these teams either.

The Volunteers and Tigers first met in 1969 for the All College Tournament. That would become a Tennessee win and the two sides didn’t meet again until 1988. From there, however, it became a more consistent game and they played every single season through 2001 before taking another brief hiatus. From that point forward games have become more scattered but still played with some frequency and the two sides have managed to play in a few classics along the way too.

All time, Tennessee has a 15-12 record against Memphis. That includes going 5-5 against one another in their last 10 meetings. That includes going 1-1 against Memphis since Rick Barnes took over in Knoxville.

Rick Barnes identifies Tennessee’s biggest need to address in transfer portal

Rick Barnes has turned his attention to building the Tennessee roster for the 2025-26 season. That means finding the right players in the Transfer Portal.

“Well, I still think the depth at the perimeter would be that. And, but, we’ll be very selective. It’ll be a cultural fit as well as what we, we look for. We’re still excited about, obviously, the players that we have. We’re really excited about the guys that are coming back and the improvement we know they’re going to make and the commitment they’ve made to the program. And, I think it’s going, they’re going to show great leadership for these new guys coming in,” Barnes said.

“Again, the best player we can get. That would be it. I mean, someone that can impact our program in, in more than one way. Someone that can impact us, you know. Understands what we want to do. Again, we’ve got a group of guys that I think that truly have bought in to wanting to be the best team they can be and we need someone to come in with that mindset knowing that, what their skill level, whatever it may be, what skills they bring fits into what we need. And they, they have to know that, if we’re talking to them, it’s something that we’re looking for and that we believe we need to have here to help us improve.”