Where Vanderbilt Basketball Stands in The NCAA Tournament Bracket Preview – Sports Illustrated

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Turns out Vanderbilt’s loss to Missouri Wednesday night did not hurt the Commodores as much as some originally thought.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee released the top 16 teams, seeded one through four during the bracket preview show on CBS ahead of Saturday’s games. The teams that made the top 16 are treated as the seeds the teams would be if the NCAA Tournament began today.
In the release, Vanderbilt did make the cut as the 15th best team, which is good enough for the third-best No. 4 seed. According to the bracket preview, Vanderbilt would be in the East Region with Duke at the top seed in the region, Illinois as the No. 2 seed and Kansas as the No. 3 seed in the region.
Heading into the bracket preview show, it was not certain where or even if Vanderbilt would be involved in the preview show. The Commodores are coming off a 81-80 loss to Missouri on the road, where Vanderbilt fell a half court shot short of a 21-point comeback. The next day, Vanderbilt’s loss only resulted in a drop of two spots in the NET rankings from 13th to 15th. 
The evaluation of Vanderbilt, its resume and its roster is a bit of a tricky one. The Commodores have been without guard Frankie Collins since mid-December and guard Duke Miles missed Vanderbilt’s past six games. However, Miles is returning today as Vanderbilt takes on in-state rival Tennessee. With Miles back in the lineup, perhaps that gave the selection committee reason to not penalize Vanderbilt as much for its two losses where Miles was unable to play.
With Vanderbilt being rated as the 15th overall team, it gives fans a picture of how close it is to the seed line below it and how much work it has to do in order to jump up to the 3-seed line. The Commodores seem to be inching close to dropping to a 5-seed if it loses another game or two consecutively.
But with five games left and an entire SEC Tournament to play through, Vanderbilt has chances to beef up its resume before Selection Sunday on March 15.
Vanderbilt has had a big jump from year one to year two under head coach Mark Byington. The Commodores are 21-5 after a 20-13 season last year. Vanderbilt has gotten to its terrific start through its explosive offense and its ball pressure in the half court.
The Commodores tipoff against Tennessee at 1 p.m. CT on ESPN.
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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