Can Vanderbilt basketball upset Tennessee again? Jerry Stackhouse wants unhappy Vols fans at Memorial Gym
Jerry Stackhouse knows that there will be plenty of orange in Memorial Gymnasium for Vanderbilt basketball's matchup with Tennessee.
In the past few years, Vols fans have showed up en masse for the matchup against the Commodores. Those fans were disappointed last season, when Tyrin Lawrence hit a buzzer-beater to snap a long losing streak in the rivalry.
For Stackhouse, even with Vanderbilt sitting at 5-13 and 0-5 in the SEC, he hopes the team can create a similar moment on Saturday (5 p.m. CT, SEC Network) against the No. 5 Vols (14-4, 4-1).
"Right now Tennessee's by far, they've shown that they're the class of the league right now by record and just by how they they played so it's it's a big test but all that stuff just kind of goes out of the window when you get these type of games," Stackhouse said Thursday. " ... The excitement that we know is going to be in this building for both sides, a lot of Tennessee fans in Nashville. Vanderbilt fans are going to be here trying to make them unhappy and hopefully we can do our do our part to have them have a long night like they did last year."
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The Commodores have a history of playing Tennessee close, even in years when the two have seemingly had a large gap in quality. Most notably, in 2019, Vanderbilt took the then-No. 1 Vols to overtime at Memorial Gymnasium before losing in a year that eventually ended with a winless SEC record.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jerry Stackhouse wants Tennessee fans to walk away unhappy vs. Vanderbilt
