NASHVILLE, Tenn.-- The Memorial Gymnasium crowd was big and blue on Tuesday night as Kentucky completely outclassed Vanderbilt en route to a 109-77 win.
The loss dropped Vanderbilt to 6-16 overall and 1-8 in Southeastern Conference play.
This one, like most of Vanderbilt's other SEC games, was never in doubt.
Kentucky led for the entirety of this one, by as much as 33 and showed just how large the talent gap between the two groups was even without DJ Wagner and Tre Mitchell in the lineup.
From the 13:28 mark of the first half on, Kentucky held a double-digit lead.
Vanderbilt trailed 54-38 at halftime after allowing 10 first-half makes from 3-point range and allowing Kentucky to shoot 58.3% from the field.
It didn't get any better from there.
In fact, it got worse.
Perhaps no worse than when Kentucky freshman Justin Edwards threw down a windmill dunk in transition to put Kentucky up 20. That was just one of what probably ended up as a dozen flashy dunks and finishes around rim for Kentucky.
Vanderbilt couldn't guard Kentucky at all in transition, or at all as the Wildcats hit the 100-point mark with 3:56 to go in the contest.
Kentucky put on a show on Tuesday night as it embarrassed Vanderbilt. At times it looked as if Kentucky's guys were trying to outdo each other for the flashiest play of the night title.
Evan Taylor finished Tuesday with 20 points while Ezra Manjon had 14 points and nine assists. That didn't matter for Vanderbilt, though.
The night ended with Jerry Stackhouse walking off the floor without shaking anybody but John Calipari's hand.
Three quick takes:
The talent gap was so, so big
This Kentucky team is one that's capable of going just about anywhere it wants if it can defend. It's hard to say the same about Vanderbilt.
Calipari's group is just too big, too athletic and too talented.
Rob Dillingham got just about any shot he wanted on Tuesday, Adou Thiero got any rebound he put his mind to, Kentucky controlled the pace and completely outclassed Vanderbilt all night.
Pick your stat and Kentucky won it. Rebounding, 3-point shooting, bench points, whatever.
This one felt over from the opening tipoff. Honestly, in a sense it was.
Vanderbilt will never win a game defending or rebounding like that
From about the five-minute mark on the question that was bigger than what the outcome would be was whether Kentucky would hit 100 points.
The Wildcats are a good offensive team but not good enough to where it should look as effortless as it did for them.
Calipari's team dictated the pace, got to any spot they wanted and followed their misses with 26 second-chance points.
Kentucky finished Tuesday night shooting 55.4% from the field and 57.7% from 3-point range. The Wildcats out-rebounded Vanderbilt 50-28 and finished the contest with six double-figure scorers including Antonio Reeves who finished with 24 points.
A team that doesn't defend doesn't have spoiler or upset potential. As it currently stands, Vanderbilt fits that description.
That was another brutal crowd
Before the first half was even over "Go Big Blue" chants emerged from the Kentucky contingent, that wasn't hard to imagine with the sheer number of them inside Memorial Gymnasium tonight.
Tuesday night's crowd was among the largest contingent of visiting fans to overrun the Gym that Vanderbilt calls home.
How can you blame Vanderbilt fans for that, either?
1-8 in the league with all the problems in this program makes it difficult for that group to have any motivation to show up. That's how you get this.
These people are consistently not being rewarded for spending their money and their time on West End, the opposing fans are. It's as simple as that.
Tuesday night was yet another example of that and just about everything else that has plagued Stackhouse's program this season.
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