Vanderbilt Basketball Finds Out NCAA Tournament Seed and Location – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The wait is over. Vanderbilt knows its seed, opponent and destination for the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Following the final five games of conference championship games Sunday, the NCAA Tournament selection committee revealed the 68 teams that will play for a chance to win the National Championship.
Upon the reveal, Vanderbilt is a No. 5 seed in the South Region. The Commodores will take on No. 12 seed McNeese Cowboys on Thursday in Oklahoma City. The exact time of the game will be announced with the rest of the first round slate in the coming hours.
The other two teams in Vanderbilt’s region that will be playing in Oklahoma City are No. 4 seed Nebraska and No. 13 seed Troy. If Vanderbilt is able to survive the first round, it would get the winner of the aforementioned matchup.
Vanderbilt is rolling into the NCAA Tournament on a high note in one of its best seasons in program’s history. The Commodores’ 91-74 win over No. 1 seed Florida tied a program record for most wins in a season at 26.
The entire vibe and energy of the team changed on March 7, where Vanderbilt went into Knoxville and beat a ranked Tennessee team 86-82. The win gave itself a newfound confidence that it has not had for a while.
“Yeah for sure,” Vanderbilt freshman Chandler Bing told Vandy On SI on if he feels that Vanderbilt is peaking at the right time. “There ain’t no time like March to really be playing at a very high level. It’s just about continuing to build.”
Vanderbilt has had its peaks and valleys throughout the season. The Commodores began the season off to a 16-0 start, including a win over a ranked Alabama team before it eventually hit a three-game lull in mid-January. Vanderbilt also ripped off a streak of winning five of six games before losing three of four toward the end of February.
Going into March Madness, Vanderbilt looks like it is going in at a peak. That is precisely what every team hopes for going into the tournament.
Vanderbilt has experienced and pulled through plenty of adversity during the season in addition to the valleys of losing streaks. The Commodores dealt with injuries to guard Frankie Collins in December and Duke Miles to a knee injury in mid-January. The absence of a guy like Miles forced Vanderbilt to win in different ways and readjust its rotation. Additionally, the Miles injury gave guys like Bing more opportunities that ended up improving the depth of the team.
Now, Vanderbilt goes into the tournament with high aspirations. The Commodores proved this week that it can compete and beat some of the best teams in the country. It has the chance to make some more history if it continues to play the way it has of late.
UPDATE: Vanderbilt will play No. 12 seed McNeese at approxinately 2:15 p.m. CT, or 25 minutes after the conclusion of No. 4 Nebraska and No. 13 seed Troy.
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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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