No. 4 seed Vanderbilt basketball advanced to the SEC tournament final with a win over No. 1 seed Florida on March 14 and can win its first SEC title since 2012.
Standing in its way is No. 3 seed Arkansas (25-8), which defeated Ole Miss to advance.
Vanderbilt (26-7) and Arkansas are playing for seeding in the NCAA Tournament at this point, with the Commodores projected as a 4-seed, the Razorbacks as a 5-seed.
The championship game will be held at noon CT at Bridgestone Arena and televised on ESPN on March 15.
Here is our score prediction:
Arkansas won two close games to advance to the final, beating Oklahoma 82-79 and Ole Miss 93-90 in overtime.
The Razorbacks led the majority of both games but could not quite put their opponents away. Ole Miss tied the game late to send it to overtime, but a game-winning shot attempt by Travis Perry fell short.
Acuff, the star freshman, was named SEC Player of the Year. He averages 22.7 points per game and shoots 44% from 3-point range.
He was one of the players Vanderbilt was unable to stop in the first matchup on Jan. 20. He had a team-leading 17 points plus five assists in Arkansas’ 93-68 win.
Vanderbilt’s last SEC tournament title was in 2012. That year, John Calipari was the coach at Kentucky, which was the consensus No. 1 team in the country, having gone 16-0 in the conference and one loss overall.
Calipari now coaches Arkansas, which might not be as imposing as the Kentucky team that Vanderbilt took down 14 years ago, but he likely remembers that upset well.
Vanderbilt 82, Arkansas 75
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X @aria_gerson.
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