Vanderbilt men’s basketball ended a spirited run through the 2026 SEC Tournament by falling to Arkansas 86-75 in the championship game on March 15, losing only a few hours before learning its seed and destination for the Men’s NCAA Tournament.
Here are five championship takeaways from courtside at Bridgestone Arena:
Vanderbilt’s team — and fan base — showed up with plenty of energy and enthusiasm for a third game in three days against an NCAA Tournament-caliber opponent. But the hot shooting that the No. 4 seed Commodores (26-8) used to overwhelm Florida went against them this time.
No. 3 seed Arkansas made its first four 3-pointers and stayed hot throughout this final, especially from long range. The Razorbacks (26-8) were 15-for-24 from the 3-point line. When any team that talented shoots 63% from outside the arc, good luck beating that team.
Vandy almost did, though. The Commodores played hard, stayed close and had a chance until the final minute (along with 19 points from Tyler Nickel, 15 from Tyler Tanner and 19 from Duke Miles). But Vandy started slower than Arkansas offensively (missing 19 of its first 26 attempts) and went frigid midway through the second half, going 8:20 without making a field goal.
In a game this tightly contested, the ones that didn’t drop for Vanderbilt and the shots that did for Arkansas made a difference in the end.
Two evenly matched squads, sure. But Arkansas definitely had the best player.
Freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr., didn’t disappoint in the SEC final, scoring a game-high 30 points and showing why he was voted the league’s player of the year this season.
Prior to halftime, Acuff sank a pair of 3-pointers to punch back just when the Commodores were beginning to grab momentum. It seemed every time Arkansas needed it, Acuff was that guy, as he has been all season.
The most encouraging part of this game for Vanderbilt was how its sharpshooter Nickel got going, perhaps shaking off a late-season slump for good before the NCAA Tournament.
Nickel knocked down four of his first six 3-point attempts. His fifth 3-pointer, coming with 6:40 to play, was a huge shot for Vanderbilt, which had missed 11 consecutive field goals at the time.
It wasn’t just Nickel this weekend. Big man Devin McGlockton made a trio of 3-pointers during the Florida game, too. These two guys, both returners from the team that lost in the NCAA first round, are going to be important. Vanderbilt is much more formidable when it isn’t just Tanner and Miles knocking down perimeter shots and putting up points.
Vanderbilt and Arkansas each play an attractive style of basketball, and collectively, they put on a show that was worthy of the occasion. It was a close game, and it was delightful to watch, frankly, perhaps peaking just before halftime.
That was when Miles delighted fans by going behind his back on a layup drive and Acuff answered with his heroics on the other end, sending fans buzzing into intermission.
What’s crazy is Arkansas coach John Calipari and Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington are each in only their second seasons. But Calipari is a Hall of Famer at a program with a national title in its history. The job Byington has done in leading the Commodores to this level so soon has been highly impressive.
Prior to this SEC Tournament, Byington noted how he learned a year ago that this event being in Nashville didn’t mean a home-court advantage.
“It’s truly neutral,” Byington said on March 11, “and sometimes more than neutral against us.”
He hasn’t given up on changing that. After Vandy’s win over Florida, he ended his news conference by encouraging Commodores fans to be there for the championship game, imploring them to start buying tickets before Arkansas and Ole Miss determined the other finalist.
Props to Vanderbilt fans. They responded. They turned out. This game was easily the loudest support I’ve ever heard for Vanderbilt at this tournament (when it was in Nashville or not), and that was a factor, spurring on the Commodores at times as if they were in Memorial.
Arkansas fans showed up, too, and the relatively close split of excited, dueling fan bases created a fun, big-game March feel at Bridgestone, suitable for this matchup of two entertaining SEC finalists.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at [email protected] and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social
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