Only one member of the Auburn men's basketball team played inside Memorial Gym two years ago when the Tigers last visited Vanderbilt, and current junior forward Jordan Granger received two minutes of playing time.
First-year Tigers coach Bruce Pearl has spent a bit more time at the unique home of the Commodores.
The Southeastern Conference's league basketball schedule tips off tonight with four contests, including Ole Miss visiting No. 1 Kentucky, but it's Auburn's trip to Vanderbilt (9 Eastern on ESPNU) that will hold the first of many walks down memory lane for Pearl. The former Tennessee coach took six Volunteers teams to Memorial Gym and was asked on Monday's SEC teleconference whether that experience could provide some comfort for his new program.
"'Comfort' would not be the word I would use to describe my feelings about Memorial," Pearl said. "We've had so many big games in that building. Vanderbilt beat us when we were No. 1, and when I was at Tennessee, Kevin (Stallings) had some very talented teams. He's one of the best coaches in our league.
"There is a lot of history and a lot of memories, with some good, some bad and some ugly."
Tennessee's first-ever No. 1 ranking was short-lived when the Commodores defeated the visiting Vols 72-69 on Feb. 26, 2008. The Vols, however, did win in Memorial in both 2009 and 2011, which was Pearl's final season in Knoxville.
Pearl was asked if his players had any idea about what kind of environment they could be walking into tonight.
"No, they don't," he said, "and I don't want them worrying about it. I want them to worry about how they're going to guard Vanderbilt and how they can get back in transition. They will see firsthand, and if me being at Auburn makes the feeling in this gym a little different for whatever reason, we're going to have to play through that.
"We would like for Auburn some day to be a bigger target. We're still a team that's in the bottom of the league that's trying to work its way into the middle."
Auburn has lost 14 consecutive SEC road openers.
So far, so acceptable
The Georgia Bulldogs enter SEC play tonight at home against No. 23 Arkansas with a 9-3 record and with six consecutive victories. Georgia's streak started with its 31-point win at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Dec. 2.
Georgia went 6-6 in nonconference play last season and 6-7 two seasons ago, but coach Mark Fox isn't overly ecstatic right now with his sixth Bulldogs team.
"I think we're playing just good enough to win," Fox said. "I don't think we're playing great. I really don't. There are some things we have to improve on, because we haven't rebounded it well, and we had a two-week break between games and don't have a good rhythm right now offensively."
Early MVP candidate
Could the best player in the SEC average only 24 minutes a game?
Kentucky junior forward Willie Cauley-Stein is part of John Calipari's platoon system and has been ultra-efficient in his time on the floor. Through 13 games, the 7-foot, 240-pounder from Kansas is averaging 10.1 points and 6.6 rebounds a game, and he has totaled 24 steals and 22 blocks.
"If you ask me, he's the MVP of the league," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. "He is so versatile, and his motor has gone to another level. He is playing like the upperclassman you would expect, and he's playing with a sense of urgency."
A better presence
The SEC had two teams in last year's Final Four with Florida and Kentucky, but Tennessee was the only other league member to make the 68-team field.
In Joe Lunardi's projected bracket released Monday on ESPN, the SEC had five representatives with Kentucky (No. 1 seed), Arkansas (No. 8), LSU (No. 9), Georgia (No. 10) and South Carolina (No. 11).
"Kentucky is not just ahead of everybody else in the SEC but in the country," Mississippi State coach Rick Ray said. "Then you've got three or four teams who could be vying for second place and then a jumble where someone will end up sixth and someone 14th."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.