Memphis’ rivalry with UAB has intensified on social media over the last 24 hours. The back-and-forth stems from Matt Mbole, who committed to UAB over the Tigers on Sunday, and his comments after joining the Blazers’ roster.
Mbole visited Memphis last week before taking a visit to Birmingham over the weekend. After his commitment, Mbole spoke with Steve Irvine, who covers UAB for The Banner, and talked about choosing the Blazers for development.
“I don’t think I was going to develop my game and a professional career in Memphis,” Mbole said in an interview with The Banner. “Coach AK intends to develop my game over the long term so that I will be able of playing at the professional level after college.”
Shortly after that post was made, Memphis assistant coach Trevor DeLoach, who is very active on social media, made a post seemingly responding to Mbole’s comments.
“(Laughing face) you can’t believe everything you see on here.”
A few hours later, UAB assistant coach Jesse Bopp made a post saying, “relationships still matter”. Blazers’ head coach Andy Kennedy quoted the post, doubling down on the development in his system.
“Buying (money bag emoji) vs. Developing (100 emoji) #ExceedingExpectations (check mark)”
To most people, this appeared to be Kennedy taking a shot at the Memphis basketball program and its NIL budget, which is considered to be one of the best in the American Conference. Memphis fans started tweeting about different players and posting videos of recent highlights from the UAB/Memphis rivalry.
On Tuesday, “Hitmen Hoops” quoted Kennedy’s post with a minute-long highlight reel of Dain Dainja against UAB. Kennedy responded to that post by giving Dianja credit and implied that Tigers’ fans misunderstood his tweet and that he was talking about a “completely different dude.”
Whether he was talking directly about the Memphis program or not, it got both fan bases fired up over the last 24 hours, adding another element to the rivalry. The two teams have played each other at least twice in each of the last three seasons, but it’s unclear when or how many times they will play this season.
Last year, the American released its conference basketball pairings in late July, and it’s likely it will be around the same time this year. Memphis leads the all-time series 44-13, and it’s 7-3 in the last 10 matchups.
While the Tigers won five straight over the Blazers, UAB won the most recent game 78-67 in Memphis last season.