re: UT Basketball Discussion -- UT: 16-15 (8-10) Final reg. Season

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"I think it's extremely important. For our state, for the fans," said Hart. "I just feel strongly we've got to do all we can to get that (annual Memphis) game moving again, and I'm not talking one or two games. Get that series from a long-term perspective, see if we can't get it back.

"Tom's been great in our conversations. We just need to see where Josh is, and Rick's going to handle that end of things and then we'll see what happens."

Barnes elaborated on the Gonzaga series and also stressed a desire for an annual meeting with the intrastate rival Tigers.

"We're working out the deal with Gonzaga. This year we'll have to go there, and again, Mark Few who I have great respect for, we scrimmaged them every year that I was at Texas once we were able to start scrimmaging, and we've either met in Denver or Arizona, we've met somewhere and we've scrimmaged. We're going to play, and he has a tournament up there in Seattle, Battle in Seattle. Think it's around (December) 20th. They'll return it back to Nashville (in 2016)," Barnes said. "I would not be opposed to playing a game here in Atlanta. I would love to get the series going with Memphis every year. If there's a way we can play in Memphis, we need to play in areas where we have alumni.

"And also we want to make sure we're playing in areas we're going to recruit. Whether it be on the East Coast … once you get it going, TV becomes such a big part of our schedule because they're going to want to start to put matchups together. It's important we have the kind of success that people want to play and TV would want to put us in."

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