Three Things to Know: #18 Vanderbilt Commodores – Sports Illustrated

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Mark Pope's Kentucky Wildcats will return to the road on Tuesday as they head to Nashville to take on the #18 Vanderbilt Commodores. They will be looking to keep their hot streak going and extend the current winning streak to six games. The Commodores enter Tuesday's matchup 17-3 overall on the season, but just 4-3 in SEC play, as they have faced a little bit of a wakeup call.
The Commodores are coming off a 32-point win over Mississippi State, however, and are no team to take lightly, especially given how dangerous they can be on the offensive end. In conference play, Vanderbilt has been very good at home, as two of their three losses have actually come on the road and the one loss at home was by four points to a top-15 Florida team 98-94.
Vandy is looking to get their second big quality win of SEC play against Kentucky, as their other Quad 1 opportunity came in a 96-90 win over Alabama. As you can see it really starts with their offense, but let's get into three things Kentucky fans need to know before their Wildcats face #15 Vanderbilt on Tuesday.
One of the big reasons why Vanderbilt has one of the best scoring offenses in the country is how extremely efficient they are. They rank 8th nationally in turnover percentage, 2nd in blocks and 1st in steals, and are then also the 11th-best scoring offense in the country. A big part of their scoring has to do with 6-7 wing Tyler Nickel, who is actually one of the more efficient scorers in college basketball in large part due to his shooting. Nickel is 9th in the country in effective field goal percentage, as well as 5th in true shooting percentage and 39th nationally in three-point percentage. Then, there's Tyler Tanner, who is the highest usage player on the team, and has been great in SEC play. He backs up the fact that he is getting the third-most minutes of anyone in the conference through seven games of play, Tanner has the second-highest assist rate in the SEC, but also takes the 17th-most shots. He is coming off of a 24-point game against Mississippi State and had 29 in their win over Alabama.
When you think of Vandy, your first thought is about offense and for good reason, but head coach Mark Byington has his team as a top-20 defense as well according to many metrics, including KenPom. It's an exploitable defense in a few areas, but what they do well, they do extremely well. Vanderbilt has the 8th-best three-point percentage defense in college basketball, as well as 25th in steals and 19th in blocks. Guard Duke Miles is the tone-setter on defense, as he ranks 4th in the country in steal percentage. But, he is currently questionable for Tuesday's game, which would be a huge loss on both sides of the ball, as he is also one of the most used players in Vandy's offense, coming off a 17-point game including seven steals. In SEC play, the Commodores are 2nd in the conference in three-point defense and actually 3rd in non-steal turnovers. Kentucky will need to take care of the ball, or that can lead to more opportunities for an offense that is already high-scoring enough.
This is an area that Kentucky really needs to exploit the most and take advantage of. Vanderbilt is 214th in college basketball this season in offensive rebounding, and in SEC play they are dead last in that category in the conference. As much as Kentucky seems to be starting to shoot the ball better, their identity still feeds off of getting out in transition, and grabbing boards and getting out quick could go a long way against one of the best scoring offenses in the country. And plus, the Wildcats do not want to give that high-level offense any extra opportunities.
Kentucky will have plenty to handle against Vandy, but there are certainly areas where they can exploit, but it will be a tall task to slow down a hot offense like the Commodores have. Can the Wildcats pull off yet another upset as an underdog like they did at Tennessee?
University of Kentucky Basketball and Football beat writer.
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