First Scouting Report: For a happy Senior Night, UK must vanquish surging Vanderbilt
A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
Kentucky (20-9, 11-5 SEC) will face the Vanderbilt Commodores (16-13, 9-7 SEC) on Wednesday, March 1, at Rupp Arena (capacity 20,545) at Central Bank Center in downtown Lexington.
The game will tip off at 7 p.m. (EST) and be telecast by the SEC Network.
Coach Jerry Stackhouse’s Commodores beat Florida 88-72 on Saturday in Nashville for their sixth victory in their past seven games.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Vanderbilt 155-47 and has won 14 in a row in the series.
As UK head man, John Calipari is 24-4 vs. the Commodores.
Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse is 0-8 vs. Kentucky in his Vandy coaching tenure (since 2019-20).
Most recent meeting
Antonio Reeves came off the bench to score 16 points and Oscar Tshiebwe (15 points, 13 rebounds) and Jacob Toppin (12 points, 10 boards) each had double-doubles as Kentucky defeated Vanderbilt 69-53 on Jan. 24, 2023, before 10,238 fans at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville.
Power rankings
The NCAA NET rankings have Kentucky No. 29, Vanderbilt No. 91.
In the Pomeroy ratings, Kentucky is No. 31, Vanderbilt No. 88.
The Sagarin ratings have Kentucky No. 23, Vanderbilt No. 82.
Know your foe
1. Vanderbilt was rampaging, having won five games in a row, including home wins over Mississippi, Tennessee and Auburn and road victories at Florida and South Carolina, until taking a dispiriting 84-77 loss in Baton Rouge on Wednesday night to an LSU team that had lost 13 SEC games in a row entering the contest.
The defeat at LSU (No. 153 in the NET), a Quad 3 loss, gave Vanderbilt a combined three Quad 3/4 losses. The Commodores took a Quad 3 loss at home when they fell to Southern Mississippi (No. 82) 60-48 on Nov. 11 and a Quad 4 home defeat when they lost to Grambling State (No. 202) 64-62 on Dec. 9.
For a team fighting to ride a late-season surge into NCAA Tournament consideration, those “bad losses” are anvils weighing down the Commodores’ March Madness hopes.
2. When Kentucky beat Vanderbilt in Nashville last month, Commodores super-senior big man Liam Robbins missed the game due to injury. The return of Robbins has sparked Vandy’s recent hot streak.
Over the past six games going into Saturday’s meeting with Florida, the 7-foot, 250-pound Robbins was averaging 18.7 points and 10.3 rebounds a game. Robbins’ hot streak has been fueled by his ability to get to the foul line.
In the past six Vanderbilt games before Saturday’s, Robbins had attempted a whopping 69 free throws, making 49.
3. In the John Calipari coaching era (since 2009-10), Kentucky is 11-2 on Senior Days/Nights. The Wildcats have lost two of the past three senior-recognition games, however.
Vanderbilt is 0-2 against Kentucky on Senior Night in the Calipari era, losing 68-66 in 2010-11 and 73-67 in 2016-17.
Since Rupp Arena opened in 1976-77, the Commodores have faced Kentucky on Senior Night six times — and gone 0-6.
UK lists six players on its roster as seniors — Brennan Canada, CJ Fredrick, Antonio Reeves, Jacob Toppin, Oscar Tshiebwe and Sahvir Wheeler — although all could use the “free COVID season” granted to NCAA athletes who were enrolled in colleges in 2020-21 and return to play college basketball in 2023-24.
So it will be interesting to see who celebrates Senior Night for Kentucky on Wednesday — and if anyone ultimately comes back to go through Kentucky’s Senior Night festivities next season, too.
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