While Penny Hardaway might not be looking ahead to next season, Memphis announced on Friday a new home-and-home series with Texas, which will start next year.
The first game will be played at Moody Center on Wednesday, December 16, 2026, and the Longhorns will play a return game inside FedExForum during the 2027-28 season.
The Tigers have only played six games against Texas in program history, and the most recent matchup was in the 2008 Eight Eight when Memphis beat the Longhorns 85-67. While it won the most recent game, Memphis is only 2-4 against the Longhorns, and the only other win came in Austin during the 1973-74 season.
Texas becomes the fourth known power conference opponent that the Tigers will play during the 2026-27 season. The Tigers already have contracts to play Baylor, Louisville and Vanderbilt, while their series against Ole Miss and Mississippi State have expired.
It’s unclear if Memphis will renew either series, but Penny Hardaway and Chris Beard have both said they would like to continue the series.
With this news, it’s confirmed that the Tigers will play Baylor in Waco on December 5 before playing the Longhorns in Austin a week and a half later.
Texas is 17-11 overall and 8-7 in its second year of SEC play this season. After losing in Dayton last season, the Longhorns fired Rodney Terry and signed Sean Miller to a six-year deal.
Miller is 504-204 as a head coach, and he has four Elite Eight appearances between stops at Xavier and Arizona. In 2021, Miller was fired from Arizona after the NCAA charged the program with five Level I violations.
Following a year away from coaching, Miller returned to Xavier in 2022 before taking the Texas job after three seasons. He is 2-0 as a head coach against Memphis after beating the Tigers on a neutral site in 2009 with Dayton and in the first round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament with Arizona.