Where Vanderbilt Sits In Latest Bracketology Projections After Beating Kentucky: The Anchor – Sports Illustrated

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No. 18 Vanderbilt men’s basketball is coming off a big win over a Kentucky team that was red hot going into Tuesday night’s matchup. The Commodores extinguished the Wildcats’ five-game win streak to get back to 5-3 in SEC play. In the SEC standings, Vanderbilt now sits tied for fourth with Kentucky and just a game-and-a-half behind Texas A&M for the overall spot.
While Vanderbilt was on a three-game losing streak, its postseason projection for the NCAA Tournament took a little bit of a hit as some projections had the Commodores has low as a No. 4 or No. 5-seed come March, but two consecutive wins are starting to put Vanderbilt back in the good graces of bracketologists.
In ESPN’s latest projection, Joe Lunardi has Vanderbilt as a No. 4 seed taking on No. 13 seed Troy out of the Sun Belt Conference. In the projection, Vanderbilt is listed in the West Region with No. 1 overall team Arizona as the top seed in the region. In this projection, Vanderbilt would take on Troy in Tampa, Florida. If Vanderbilt were to win that, the Commodores would play either No. 5 St. John’s or No. 12 seed Belmont.
Of course there is plenty of time for Vanderbilt to improve its seeding and bracket projections will certainly change between now and mid-March. But with just six weeks away from the SEC Basketball Tournament, it is always good to see where a team may land.
For Vanderbilt, a No. 4 seed would be pretty solid, but the Commodores probably feel like they could do better than that after starting the season 16-0. Vanderbilt has plenty of opportunities to improve its seeding, especially with a schedule that is largely favorable to it in the back half of conference play.
Vanderbilt is also fighting for SEC Tournament seeding along the way. With its upcoming schedule of Ole Miss on the road before returning home to play Oklahoma, the Commodores can start to establish themselves into one of the double-bye spots before the last full month of the season kicks into high gear. 
Vanderbilt takes on Ole Miss Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. CT.
Vanderbilt men’s tennis vs. Middle Tennessee State, 5 p.m. CT.
There were no games scheduled yesterday.
Vanderbilt men’s golf senior Wells Williams was named to the 2026 Ben Hogan Award Watch List ahead of the 2026 spring season. Williams is one of 35 college golfers named to the preseason list.
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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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