Vanderbilt Basketball Did Something it Hasn't in a Long Time on Wednesday Night

Last time this Vanderbilt program did what it did on Wednesday night, it was Nov. 21, 1997. The last time it did this in this city was Dec. 7, 1996.

Each of those dates in America were overseen by the Bill Clinton administration, Tupac was at the top of US music leaderboards everywhere and Memphis was less than five years removed from a rebrand that changed its name from Memphis State to University of Memphis. Last time Vanderbilt went into Memphis and knocked off the Tigers, their home games were played in Pyramid Arena–which has since been turned into a Bass Pro Shop.

Until Wednesday.

Vanderbilt went into FedEx Forum and took down Memphis 77-70 in overtime. The Commodores won their first game since 2014 in which they shot under 35% from the field. The Commodores also turned it over 20 times and shot 6-for-31 from 3-point range. The final result was still in their favor, though.

“I told the guys ‘we should have some confidence in knowing that we can have an off shooting night,” Byington said. “We might not play perfect and some things might go against us, but we can still find a way to come out on top and have things go in our favor. We missed some open shots tonight, we got a little bit rattled, we did some things. But, we stayed competitive.”

Byington says that Vanderbilt knew it was going to be difficult to go into Memphis and win despite the Tigers’ 4-5 record–which includes just one power-five win. Memphis looked to disrupt the rhythm that Vanderbilt looked to establish offensively and succeeded at times, yet it couldn’t find a way to get it to the finish line.

With the win, Vanderbilt moves to 11-0 on the season and needs just two more wins to close out non-conference play with an undefeated record for the first time since the 2007-08 season.

It took overtime, but Vanderbilt did it on Wednesday as it lived at the free throw line in the extra period and eventually sealed a win over Memphis to end a four-game losing streak against the Tigers. Vanderbilt now leads the all-time series 9-7.

Perhaps this won’t be its last time in Memphis in the near future.

“It should be a series that we play year-in-year out,” Byington said. “Tremendous respect for Penny and what they’ve done. Just being in the state of Tennessee, these teams should match up.”