After a near NCAA tournament level season and a contract extension, Jerry Stackhouse faces what is likely his most important season as Vanderbilt’s head coach.

he fourth year coach could have eased his team into it, but instead his group will have to hit the ground running in a challenging opening night contest.

With that challenge comes a golden opportunity for the Commodores to open their season with a quality victory in college basketball’s marquee opening night game.

On Monday, Penny Hardaway’s Memphis Tigers will come to Memorial Gymnasium with plenty of high expectations.

The Tigers are ranked 34th in Kenpom’s preseason rankings and are a consensus top-two team in the American Athletic Conference.

If that ranking holds, the Tigers would be a Quad 2 opponent. If Hardaway’s team can move into to the top 30 of the NET rankings, it would become a Quad 1 opponent on Vanderbilt’s résumé.

Despite their high ranking, the Tigers only return one double-digit scorer in Deandre Williams. The lack of returners isn’t overly surprising, but the way Penny Hardaway has surrounded them is.

Rather than handing the keys to highly-touted high school recruits like he has in past years, the former NBA All-Star has built his team a bit differently this season: Through the transfer portal.

Hardaway has put together one of the nation’s best portal classes on the back of arguably the country’s most highly regarded transfer in Kendric Davis.

“We are very aware of him” Stackhouse said. The fourth year coach also described the former AAC player of the year as a “... big talent in a small package.”

The Tigers’ talented class doesn’t stop there, though. Hardaway also added talented UTEP transfer Keyonte Kennedy, who originally committed to Vanderbilt in the portal before changing his mind and leaving for Memphis.

Hardaway also added athletic forward Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu, double digit scoring guard Elijah McCadden, SMU transfer Jahmar Young Jr., and high scoring guard Damaria Franklin, who is still ineligible.

Although Memphis is likely more talented than Vanderbilt, teams that build through the portal are susceptible to slow starts. Vanderbilt seems like it will be catching Memphis at the right time of the season.

Memphis will hope to offset that potential lack of continuity offensively with its defense. Hardaway and his group don’t just want to get stops either, they want to put pressure on Vanderbilt and force the Commodores into mistakes.

“I think when the season starts we’ll be pressing way more,” Hardaway said. “At Vandy we’ve got to throw the entire kitchen sink.”

The length and athleticism that the Tigers have will certainly test Vanderbilt’s guards early and often throughout Monday night. The Commodores will have to be ready for Memphis’ talented group to blitz them out of the gate.

The way Vanderbilt’s backcourt handles the press and the general pressure that Memphis throws at them will largely determine the outcome of the game.

That task will lie almost entirely on the Commodores veteran guards as freshman point guard, Paul Lewis, is still in the concussion protocol. As of Tuesday’s presser, Stackhouse was unsure of Lewis’ status.

Every possession in this game of two defensive-minded teams will be valuable, Vanderbilt can not afford to give consistently away chances to score.

That will be easier said than done, though.

Hardaway’s group was ranked 33rd in the nation in defensive efficiency last season and will feature plenty of length all around the floor. Vanderbilt will have to bring it offensively.

Stackhouse can’t be sure what to expect from his team on Monday night, but he does seem to have an idea of what his crowd will be like.

“I’m expecting a big crowd, I think there’s a lot of excitement from everywhere, from the city, just in general,” Stackhouse said.

This one has all the makings of a game that could have a big time environment. It is the first game since Stackhouse received a contract extension, the first time we will see his most highly rated recruiting class, and it is one of college basketball’s marquee opening night matchups.

To enhance the environment, Vanderbilt’s crowd will participate in a white-out.

Heading into opening night, Stackhouse and his program may have more positive momentum than they ever have throughout his tenure as head coach. A win would take that positive momentum to another level in every aspect.

Vanderbilt is a 2.5-point underdog, per CBS sports, but if the Commodores can beat the odds and pull out a victory it could be a significant short term step for the program.