Tennessee allowed 53 second-half points to Arkansas in its win Tuesday.
Mike Wilson, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
More than a month has passed since Tennessee beat Memphis 102-92 in the return of the rivalry.
But the aftermath lives on.
On Wednesday, Memphis coach Penny Hardaway went on ESPN’s “Get Up” and was asked by former Michigan and NBA guard Jalen Rose about Hardaway’s relationship with Vols coach Rick Barnes.
“I’ve always had a lot of respect for coach Rick Barnes,” Hardaway said. “We had a situation here in Memphis with a rivalry game. You know it’s going to be heated. You’ve had those rivalry games before with Michigan State, I’m sure. You know when you get in that game it’s going to be a lot of high tempers and a lot of competitiveness.
“After the game, I didn’t feel like he gave my team a fair understanding of what we were trying to do. He was kind mocking the NBA and our coaching staff and I really didn’t like that. I have the utmost respect for him, but I couldn’t let him do my team like that.”
Late in Tennessee’s win at Memphis on Dec. 15, UT’s Jordan Bone and Memphis’ Alex Lomax and Jeremiah Martin were issued technical fouls.
Hardaway offered an account after the game. UT players offered a different one. Barnes made a pair of off-hand comments on his radio show — one about Hardaway’s postgame comments and the other a comment on Memphis flopping.
Hardaway took exception to those remarks a day later and went off on Barnes, calling him “low class” and tossing an expletive toward Barnes as he ended his press conference.
After UT beat Memphis in the first game of a three-game series, Hardaway shared his account, stating that Lomax “is a kid that is not going to talk trash.” He instead blamed Bone for the incident, stating that Bone “said something to (Lomax) disrespectfully” and the freshman “protected himself by saying something back.”
Then he claimed that Tennessee’s “entire team emptied the bench to come over.”
“They didn’t come over because it was a timeout,” Hardaway said. “You could see visibly see guys with their fists balled, talking trash to our guys. It was almost like a standoff.”
He said he told the refs as much, asking why Tennessee could leave its bench area without receiving a technical foul.
Bone indicated that Lomax made a layup, then said something after Memphis called timeout. The Vols junior regretted retaliating by saying something back to Lomax in the waning moments of a game Tennessee controlled throughout.
“We were supposed to walk out of here with class,” Bone said. “I allowed that to get to me.”
The following Tuesday, Barnes’ lone comment about Hardaway’s postgame comments was that he “didn’t like” Hardaway talking about Bone.
The UT coach then pointed ahead to facing Samford.
“That game is over with and done with,” Barnes said of Memphis. “We’ve got to get down the road.”
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Barnes did, however, have a little fun with Hardaway’s “fists balled” comments on his Monday night Vol Calls appearance on WNML. He asked Tennessee play-by-play man Bob Kesling if “at any point Saturday did you ball your fist up and get ready to fight the other commentator?”
Later that Tuesday, Hardaway blasted Barnes during a press conference in Memphis.
He doubled-down on his take on the late-game incident, saying, “If you just watch the film I’m not making anything up.”
Hardaway referred to comments Barnes made on Vol Calls about his team “flopping” and said such statements were “low class.”
He also ended his press conference by saying, “Rick Barnes, get the (expletive) out of here.”
Barnes declined to comment on Hardaway’s comments after UT beat Samford on Dec. 19.
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