Tennessee basketball and Vanderbilt play Saturday in Nashville for the first meeting since Mark Byington was hired as the Commodores coach.

Here's what Mark Byington said about Vols coach Rick Barnes and the rivalry before the Vanderbilt basketball game vs Tennessee on Saturday

Rick Barnes has dominated his in-state SEC rival as Tennessee's coach. He's now 0-1 against Mark Byington at Vanderbilt.

Mark Byington and longtime Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes don't have the long-standing relationship that Barnes has with many of the SEC's coaches, but Barnes has taken notice of ...

Rick Barnes picked up a habit in 1988 ... Barnes adopted that practice, which led him to call Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington after he was hired in March. "That always meant something to me ...

It took Jerry Stackhouse eight tries as Vanderbilt’s coach to finally get that first — and only — victory against Rick Barnes’ Vols. Mark Byington did it in his first try. And while ...

Zakai Zeigler sat for the final 7:10 of the first half between Tennessee basketball and Vanderbilt on Saturday. The Commodores outscored UT 20-9 then.

On the court, Golden and the Gators are a national championship contender. They opened the season with 13 straight wins, then pummeled a then-undefeated and top-ranked Tennessee by 30 points in early January. They were ranked No. 21 in the preseason AP poll, but Golden supplemented five key returnees with Florida Atlantic transfer Alijah Martin.

No offense in kenpom.com 's history has ever eclipsed an adjusted 130 offensive rating. Auburn is sitting at 131.3 with February looming right around the corner. Bruce Pearl, offensive coordinator Mike Burgomaster and this Auburn staff are on the verge of some historic stuff. Pearl's willingness to change and evolve is at the epicenter of it.

Mark Pope says it’s a “fun” and “awesome” aspect of playing in the SEC, but it’s something that will be a challenge for the Cats on a game-to-game basis.

Nine players departed after Stackhouse’s firing. That prompted Byington to bring in 11 transfers, including Michigan State guard AJ Hoggard, North Texas’ leading scorer Jason Edwards, Virginia Tech sharpshooter Tyler Nickel and James Madison sophomore center Jaylen Carey.

It marked the lowest-scoring game under coach Rick Barnes ... which stood as the lowest-scoring game under Barnes. The Vols beat that mark by scoring only 43 points in the loss at Florida.