Saturday, January 25

1:30pm CST

Memorial Gym

Students are killing it! Now it is time for you season ticketholders to stop giving away/selling your tickets to opposing fans, especially when there are Vandy fans BEGGING to go! WE NEED BLACK/GOLD IN THE STANDS, NOT BLUE MIST!!!

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Kentucky enters the game ranked 9th in the AP Poll. Vanderbilt was 3rd in ” receiving votes”.

KenPom has Vanderbilt at 48 while the Cats are 19th.

The all-valuable NET rankings have the big blue squad 11th, and Vandy at 38.

PENDING

Kentucky comes into Memorial just as happy with their new coach Mark Pope as Vanderbilt is with Mark Byington. The Cats are playing fun basketball again, and the resurgence of the new-look team has reignited big blue nation as they look to take over another gym wherever they play, especially if it is the closest SEC team to them. The Wildcats are led in scoring by Otega Oweh at 15.7 points per game, but, like Bama, have 5 players averaging double-digit points a game.

Vanderbilt returns to Memorial after a humbling but resilient effort in Tuscaloosa Tuesday night against the Tide. Showing fight throughout the 2nd half, the Commodores fought back to a single-digit deficit several times before the Tide went on their mini-run to shut down the momentum and close out the game. The loss was the ‘Dores 4th on the year and 3rd in SEC play, but there is no reason to hang your head after a loss on the road to a team like this. The remaining conference schedule is tough, and we will see some losses to some better teams, but all will be okay. Vanderbilt just need to play at their current level of intensity and invoke MEMORIAL MAGIC (that is on YOU, fans) when playing at home. Vanderbilt enters the game on the right side of the bubble as Fanduel currently has the Dores at (-275) odds to make the NCAA Tournament.

This team looks like what the prototypical college offense is in this day and age, run and gun baby! The Wildcats rank 3rd in the country at Offensive Efficiency, as well as 3rd in points scored per game. This year’s Cats are not turning the ball over, as they are also 3rd in the Assists-to-Turnover ratio. This is another very good team on Vanderbilt’s schedule that has the potential to give us fits for 40 minutes. On the defensive side of the ball, Kentucky is not one of the elites of the conference, ranking 300th in the country in Points Allowed Per Game, 269th in Defensive Rebounding, and 228th in Opponent Assists-to-Turnover ratio. Look for Kentucky to push the ball up the court and get 3-point looks early in the shot clock. If they miss, look for one of their big men to pick up the board and either go up or dish it out for another try. Mark Pope’s team is going to score, and we better learn to keep up.

Entering another game that is, on paper, is a terrible matchup, the Commodores hope to play spoiler again this Saturday at home against another hated rival (can someone say STORMIN’ SATURDAY?). However, the Dores have played enough games now that our talent and athleticism is not going to sneak up on anyone. NO ONE is overlooking this team!

The teams play a very similar style of ball and will be looking to push it at all times, so expect a track meet. An interesting thing I found while looking at stats, Kentucky is averaging 64.6 FGA per game, but letting opponents get off 64.2. If Vandy can hit their shots, especially early, and build a lead I can see the Dores pulling this game off. Kentucky doesn’t turn the ball over a lot, but for Vandy to “do the thing”, they will have to get at least 8 steals. One thing that worries me is the lob down low (letting big men get wide-open lobs off of ball screens), which has been killing the Dores in the last 2 games. If Vandy can control the paint and win the rebounding battle, AND the Cats don’t just ‘tear the building down’ from beyond the arc, look for the Dores in another upset.

88-84 VANDY!

STORMIN’ SATURDAY . . . Fine us again!