Feb. 26, 2016
Vanderbilt Gamenotes 
| Kentucky Gamenotes
After a big road win on Tuesday night in Gainesville against Florida, the Commodores return home to take on their seventh ranked opponent of the season when they host #16/14 Kentucky on Saturday afternoon. The game will tip off at 3 p.m. CT and will be televised on CBS, with all of the action also available on the Vanderbilt IMG Sports Radio Network.
Vanderbilt improved to 17-11 overall and 9-6 in league play with an 87-74 win over Florida in Gainesville on Tuesday night. With the win, the Commodores swept the season series between the two teams.
Damian Jones led four players in double figures with a career-high 27 points on 12-13 shooting from the floor. Jones also tied a career high in field goals made and added seven rebounds. Jeff Roberson garnered the fifth double-double of his career with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Wade Baldwin IV scored 13 points and had three assists. Baldwin has scored in double figures in 22 games this season.
Matthew Fisher-Davis tallied 12 points, all on threes made (4-8). Fisher-Davis has made three or more threes in 15 games this season. Luke Kornet blocked four shots against the Gators, the ninth game this season he has posted four or more blocks.
Saturday will be the first meeting between the two schools at Memorial Gym since 2014, since the teams played only once in the previous two years. Both teams had met on each other’s home court for every season since the 1953-54 campaign prior to 2014. Kentucky leads the all-time series between the two teams, 141-46, and owns a 42-24 advantage in games played at Vanderbilt.
Saturday’s Game Sold Out
This Saturday’s men’s basketball vs. Kentucky is sold out. All tickets have been distributed as printed tickets on Vanderbilt official commemorative stock or on thermal ticket office stock printed in the main McGugin Ticket Office. No tickets have been distributed via print-at-home tickets or via digital downloads that can be accessed via a mobile device.
Counterfeit and duplicate tickets continue to be the biggest customer service issue for sellout games at Vanderbilt. Be wary of any tickets purchased off of a secondary ticket site or off campus that offer instant downloads. No tickets will be allowed into Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium that are not printed on original Vanderbilt ticket stock.
Again this game is completely sold out including all handicap accessible seating. The ticket office does not have the ability to move fans due to the sellout. Vanderbilt Athletics has a very limited amount of wheelchair accessible seating which is also sold out.
Please remember to bring your original tickets as there will be no reprinted tickets for lost, stolen or destroyed per terms and conditions.
Game 29/ Vanderbilt (17-11, 9-6 SEC) vs. #16/14 Kentucky (21-7, 11-4 SEC)
Nashville, Tenn. – Memorial Gym – 3 p.m. CT
TV: CBS
TV Talent: Spero Dedes (pxp), Doug Gottlieb (analyst)
Radio: Vanderbilt Radio Network from IMG College, vucommodores.com
Radio Talent: Joe Fisher (pxp), Tim Thompson (analyst)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 81, XM 81
Live Stats: vucommodores.com
Twitter Updates: @VandyMBB
Series Information
Series Record: Kentucky leads the all-time series, 141-46.
Last Meeting: UK win, 76-57, 1/23/16 in Lexington.
Record at Vanderbilt: UK leads, 42-24.
Record at UK: UK leads, 62-7.
Record at Neutral Site: VU leads, 5-3.
Coach Stallings vs. Kentucky: Coach Stallings is 11-23 against Kentucky.
Quick Hitters
- Nationally, Vanderbilt is second in the nation in 3FG% defense at 28.5%. Vanderbilt also ranks 6th in FG% defense (38.0%), 15th in blocks (5.4), and 22nd in 3FG% (39.1%).
- Vanderbilt ranks first in all games in the SEC in FG% defense (.380) and 3FG% defense (.285) and second in 3FG% (.391), blocks (5.5), and 3FG made (8.5). In league games only, Vanderbilt leads the conference in blocks with 5.5 per game and is second in scoring (76.7 ppg), FG% (.453), 3FG% defense (.298), and 3FG made (8.5).
- The Commodores are 12-2 on the season at home and 3-8 in true road games this year, with the three road wins coming at Tennessee, Auburn, and Florida.
- Vanderbilt has won six in a row at home, are averaging 80.2 points per game in 14 home games, and have posted a scoring margin of +17.1 in home games. The Commodores are shooting 48.3% at home, compared to 37.0% by opponents, and are converting on 41.4% of its attempts from three, compared to 29.0% for opponents.
- Luke Kornet’s 10 blocks against Auburn in Nashville set a new program record for blocks in a game – he surpassed three games with seven blocks by Will Perdue (vs. East Carolina, 12/28/87), Festus Ezeli (at Georgia, 2/16/11) and Damian Jones (at South Carolina, 2/13/14). The 10 blocks is also the most in the nation this season.
- Kornet leads the SEC in blocks in all games and in SEC games only, and Jones is seventh in all games and in SEC games only.
- Ten players have scored in double figures in a game this season – Wade Baldwin, Luke Kornet, Damian Jones, Jeff Roberson, Riley LaChance, Matthew Fisher-Davis, Nolan Cressler, Camron Justice, Josh Henderson, and Joe Toye. Baldwin, Kornet, Jones, Roberson, and Fisher-Davis have each posted double-doubles this season.
- Fisher-Davis is first in the SEC in all games in 3-Point Field Goal Percentage (.466).
- Vanderbilt is 11-2 on the season when Kornet attempts more two point baskets than three’s.
- Head Coach Kevin Stallings, the school’s all-time winningest coach, is in his 17th season with the Commodores and 23rd overall as a head coach, and is now the dean of SEC coaches. Stallings has 330 career wins at Vanderbilt and 453 overall as a head coach. He has eight 20-win seasons in the last 12 seasons, with 11 total postseason appearances, six NCAA tournaments, and two Sweet 16’s (2004 and 2007). He is also one of five SEC coaches to win 300 or more games at one institution, joining Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp, Florida’s Billy Donovan, and LSU’s Dale Brown and Harry Rabenhorst, and is in 6th place all-time on the SEC wins list.
- Roberson is tied for fourth in the SEC in all games in free throw percentage at 83.5% and leads the SEC in league games only at 87.5%.
959
Vanderbilt has made a 3-pointer in 959 consecutive games, a streak which began at the inception of the 3-point line in 1986-87. The Commodores rank second only to UNLV for the longest streak in Division I basketball. Vanderbilt, UNLV and Princeton are the only three schools in college basketball to have made at least one 3-pointer in every game played since the 3-point line was implemented.
Academic Success
Eight members of this year’s team were named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll or the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll for 2014-15. Junior Luke Kornet was also recently named to the CoSIDA All-District Three Academic Team.
Damian Jones Coming On
Damian Jones is showing why he is considered one of the nation’s top big men in his last three games, averaging 20.7 points and 11.0 rebounds per game. Jones, a Wooden Award, Lute Olson Award, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list member, who was also named as a preseason All-SEC First Team member, has scored 20 or more points in six different games this year, including in two of his last three games. The engineering major from Baton Rouge, La., leads the SEC in field goal percentage in league games only (62.8%) and second in all games (59.0%).
Schedule Tough
The Commodores have faced eight teams in the top 31 of the current NCAA RPI (Kansas, 1st; Kentucky, 12th; Dayton, 17th; Texas, 21st; Purdue, 22nd; Texas A&M, 24th; Baylor, 26th; South Carolina, 31st)
Block Party
Junior Luke Kornet is 11th in the nation in blocks at 2.87 blocks per game, and he has spurred the team to 155 blocks on the season (already 5th all-time team total in program history) and blocking 10 or shots in a game on three separate occasions. Damian Jones is second on the career blocks list with 163, and his 1.73 blocks per game career mark is the best in program history, while Kornet is fifth in the program’s history in career blocks per game (1.38) and fourth in total blocks (121).
Finishing Strong
The last two Februarys have been very kind to the Commodores, with Vanderbilt posting a combined 11-4 record in the last two years. Vanderbilt has won four of its last five league games this season, and in 2015, the Commodores won their last five regular season league games of the season and eight of their last 10.
Ranked Opponents
The game with Kentucky on Saturday will be the seventh ranked game for Vanderbilt this season, and the seven ranked games is the most a Vanderbilt team has faced in a season since the Commodores had 10 games against ranked foes in 2011-12. The most games against a ranked foe in a single season came in the 2002-03 campaign, when the Commodores faced 12 ranked teams.
About Kentucky
- Kentucky enters the game Saturday with an overall record of 21-7 and atop the SEC standings with an 11-4 mark.
- Jamal Murray leads three players in double figures with 19.4 points per game. Tyler Ulis (16.7) and Alex Poythress (10.2) also average double figures.
- This will be the first meeting between the two schools at Memorial Gym since the 2013-14 season.
- Kentucky has won three straight over the Commodores at Memorial, dating back to the 2011 season (81-77, 2/12/11).