Live Blog: No. 5 Seed Vanderbilt Basketball vs. No. 4 Seed Nebraska, NCAA Tournament Round of 32 – si.com

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Can Vanderbilt men’s basketball make the magic continue?
That is the question heading into the Commodores’ Round of 32 game against a No. 4 Nebraska team that is having a season to remember of its own. The Cornhuskers are coming off their first ever NCAA Tournament win in program history, but do not let Nebraska’s program history be deceptive of the team it has this year.
Both Vanderbilt and Nebraska have been legit throughout the entirety of the season. And now, the two meet for a spot in the Sweet 16. Vanderbilt has not made the Sweet 16 since 2012 while Nebraska has never made it that far.
Vanderbilt is coming off a Round of 64 victory over McNeese in which the Commodores bounced back from a slow start to win 78-68. However, Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington was not pleased with his team’s performance. He knows how good Nebraska is and knows Vanderbilt cannot afford another slow start in the biggest game of its season.
Another factor Vanderbilt will also be dealing with is the crowd, despite the game being a neutral site. With Oklahoma City being just six hours south of Lincoln, Nebraska, Cornhusker fans have shown up to the Paycom Center in droves. So much so that the arena felt like the first round was played at Pinnacle Bank Arena and is bound to feel like it today.
The key to the game for Vanderbilt will be to start fast on both ends of the floor. In the previous round, Vanderbilt gave up too many open shots early on that a team like Nebraska would make the Commodores pay for.
Tipoff between Vanderbilt and Nebraska is set for approximately 7:45 p.m. CT on TNT.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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