KNOXVILLE -- Donnie Tyndall won't make his first coaching appearance along the baseline at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gymnasium on Wednesday night.
It will be, however, his first game as the coach of the Commodores' primary in-state rival.
As did his two immediate Tennessee coaching predecessors, Bruce Pearl and Cuonzo Martin, Tyndall will don the bright orange blazer for his first game against Vanderbilt when the Volunteers visit Nashville on Wednesday night.
Tyndall will be the fifth Tennessee coach Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings will face since taking over the Commodores' program in 1999.
"I think a lot of people make a big emphasis of coaching from the end line," Tyndall said Monday, "but let's be honest, they've got a great coach in Coach Stallings, and they've had great players for years and years and have great crowds that get into the games.
"That's what makes it hard, is the great coach, the great players and the challenging environment, more so than coaching from the end line. We understand it's a huge rivalry game. Both fan bases will be excited. I'm sure it'll be a very passionate, electric environment in there on Wednesday, and we'll have to play very well to give ourselves a chance to win."
Tennessee and Vanderbilt, programs that have met 185 times dating back to 1922, are separated by two games in the Southeastern Conference standings heading into the first of their two meetings this season, but the two young teams appear to be going in different directions.
In their last five games, the Vols have just one win, and the four losses came by a combined 19 points.
"I try to preach to our team, when we won four of five or whatever it was, it's about the daily grind and continuing to improve," Tyndall said. "If you lose four out of five, you can't feel sorry for yourself. It's still about the daily grind and trying to improve every day.
"Nobody in college basketball's going to feel sorry for me, my staff or our team because we're losing. I can promise you that. You've got to come back in the gym, come back in the film room with a focus and a determination and try to get better. If you do that, eventually I think the wins will take care of themselves."
Vanderbilt won 11 of its first 14 games against an easier schedule, but after beating Auburn in their SEC opener, the Commodores lost seven games in a row before home wins against Florida and South Carolina last week.
Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings argues a referees call during their game against Arkansas at Memorial Gym Saturday Feb. 8, 2014, in Nashville.Stallings starts three freshmen, including leading scorer Riley LaChance.
"We are coming off a good week, games that we won in different fashions," Stallings said. "We got off to a good start in one game and had a great finish in the other. We're feeling a little better than we were a week or two ago.
"I think we're making strides as a team," he added.
Tyndall coached against Vanderbilt in Nashville while he was an assistant at LSU, but as a head coach he faced Stallings just once. In his third season at Morehead State, the Eagles lost 72-48 at Vanderbilt in November 2008. Three players from that game -- Morehead State's Kenneth Faried and Vanderbilt's Jeffrey Taylor and Festus Ezeli -- went on to play in the NBA.
"Donnie's doing a terrific job," said Stallings, who is 19-12 against Tennessee as Vanderbilt's coach. "Those guys play really, really hard. A little bit of a unique style, but they play it well and make it very, very difficult for opposing offenses and defenses, really."
Pearl, who brought back the orange blazer made popular by former Tennessee coach Ray Mears -- who would wear one in the Vols' annual rivalry games against Vanderbilt and Kentucky -- was 8-4 against the Commodores in his six seasons. Martin won four of his six games against Vanderbilt, the last victory a 76-38 beatdown in the most recent meeting last March in Knoxville.
Wednesday, Tyndall gets his first shot at continuing that trend.
"You just follow the SEC for years and know that this is a huge natural rivalry to both programs and both fan bases," he said. "To me, it's no different than Eastern Kentucky and Morehead or Southern Miss and Memphis. All those games are just as important.
"You prepare no differently, and you understand that to the fans it's more important, but to us, we'll prepare like we do each and every game."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.