Given the context, No. 20 Vanderbilt men’s basketball may have pulled off its most impressive win of the season on Feb. 10.
A tough loss to the last-place Oklahoma Sooners on Feb. 7 had Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington questioning his team’s intensity on defense. They responded with a near wire-to-wire victory over Auburn at Neville Arena.
From their poorest outing of the season to one of their best in only three days.
“What a response to come back from not playing well a couple days ago,” Byington said on the team’s postgame radio following the 84-76 win. “Only a few days after (the loss) to show the type of team we are”
Next up, Vanderbilt hosts Texas A&M on Feb. 14.
Though Auburn made a late rally, cutting Vanderbilt’s lead to four points with 2:42 left, the Commodores were a force at both ends. Early on, they fed the ball inside to Devin McGlockton, at one point holding a 28-14 edge on points in the paint. Then when Auburn adjusted, their guards took over, led by Tyler Tanner’s 25 points.
Vanderbilt (20-4, 7-4 SEC) led for all but 20 seconds in the contest, beating Auburn (14-10, 5-6 SEC) on the road for the first time since 2016.
“Our guys just had their mind made up that they’re not leaving here without a win,” Byington said. “We looked like that (at practice) on Sunday, and we looked like that (at practice) on Monday, and carried it over today.”
In the loss to Oklahoma, Vanderbilt struggled on defense early. That dug the Commodores into a hole so deep that even a 32-12 run to finish the game wasn’t enough.
But Byington said the team’s focus, especially on defense, in the three days since the loss showed him they were ready to bounce back.
“That was a bad taste in our mouth the other day. Obviously, I’m upset the way we played, but the guys are prideful, and they care about winning. They care about Vanderbilt. It’s not like a back against your wall thing, but you’ve got to show something after the way we played last time, if you’re really who we think we are. I’m proud of the guys because they showed it.”
Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.
