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Published Dec 8, 2024
Vanderbilt takes down TCU: Quick thoughts
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Joey Dwyer  •  VandySports
Staff Writer
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@joey_dwy

Vanderbilt took down TCU 83-74 on Sunday to move to 9-1 on the season and swept its road trip.

Here's some quick thoughts on that game.

That's among Vanderbilt's best wins and rèsumè boosters

Vanderbilt has a rèsumè full of power-five wins, but that one was unique.

If the season ended today, Vanderbilt's Sunday win over TCU would end up as a quad-two win. Sunday was bigger than numbers, though.

It was also a testament to Vanderbilt's willpower as it went into an arena just a few miles from TCU's campus and won on the back end of a road trip with finals looming ahead. That says something about it.

Jason Edwards' is not just good, he's a star

As Vanderbilt went into the half with a 41-38 lead, Edwards had 17 of its 41 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field and 6-for-6 shooting from the free throw line.

The Vanderbilt guard wasn't done there, though. Edwards finished Sunday with a season-high 30 points on 8-for-16 shooting from the field.

It wasn't just that Edwards was good on Sunday. The Vanderbilt guard willed it into the game for most of the day.

That hasn't been a completely uncommon occurence.

Edwards came into Sunday as the SEC's seventh leading scorer as well as Vanderbilt's leading scorer.

Vanderbilt has been remarkably successful taking care of the ball

The way Vanderbilt has taken care of the ball--and subsequently forced its opponents to turn it over--has been remarkable.

The Commodores have lost the turnover battle just once this season, which was a game in which they only turned it over nine times and won. Vanderbilt came into Sunday ranking sixth in offensive turnover percentage in the country and lived up to that ranking while causing some disruption on the other end.

Vanderbilt won the turnover battle 18-12 on Sunday and scored 22 points off of TCU's turnovers. That was a significant difference in the game.

The size difference wasn't noticeable

Vanderbilt was clearly outmatched in the frontcourt on Wednesday. On Sunday it didn't look that way against a physical TCU team, though.

Vanderbilt outrebounded TCU 37-29, Vanderbilt had more second-chance points and the Commodores won the points in the paint battle 38-28.

Vanderbilt's play of the year thus far; Tyler Nickel's buzzer beater

Vanderbilt's end of half set broke down and Nickel had to let it go.

From well beyond the 3-point line Nickel banked it in and gave Vanderbilt a 41-38 lead heading into the break.

Nickel finished Sunday with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting after being held below 10 points in four of Vanderbilt's previous five games. It's been a noticeable slump for Nickel, but perhaps that shot and what he did on Sunday gave him something to move forward positively with.

Vanderbilt as a whole certainly has plenty of that.