| Vanderbilt Commodores (8-15, 3-13) vs. Texas A&M (8-9, 2-8) |
|---|
| Wednesday, March 10 • 6 p.m. |
| Bridgestone Arena • Nashville, Tenn. |
| Watch: SEC Network (Tom Hart, Jimmy Dykes) |
| Listen: WQZQ 830 AM, 93.3 FM, 101.9 FM Kevin Ingram (play-by-play), Tim Thompson (analyst) |
| Live Stats |
| Game Notes |
| SEC Tournament Bracket |
Reconnaissance
- This will be the 15th all-time meeting between these programs. Vanderbilt holds a slim 8-6 series lead, but the Aggies have won four in a row, including a 69-52 victory over the Dores in the first round of the 2019 SEC Tournament in Nashville.
- Vanderbilt’s last win in the series was a 66-41 victory at the 2017 SEC Tournament. The Commodores swept all three games in the season series that year.
- Vanderbilt is 1-1 all-time in the SEC Tournament against Texas A&M (2017, 2019).
Saturday Debrief
- Vanderbilt used its 17th different starting lineup in 23 games this season—Maxwell Evans, Quentin Millora-Brown, Scotty Pippen Jr., Jordan Wright and Clevon Brown.
- 14 different Commodores have started a game this year. The only three Vandy players who have yet to start a game this season—Drew Weikert, Akeem Odusipe and Max Adelman.
- Wright has the longest active games started streak for Vanderbilt at 13 in a row.
- Coach Jerry Stackhouse: “We’re excited about the possibility of going in and doing something special in the tournament. We haven’t seen (the Aggies) all year, so we’ll start locking in over the next couple of days and hopefully be well prepared to have a good start to the tournament on Wednesday.”
SEC Tournament
- In all, Vanderbilt is making its 60th appearance in the SEC Tournament and owns a 39-57 all-time mark at the conference tourney. Vandy has reached the semifinals 14 times and the finals twice. Vanderbilt’s two trips to the finals have both resulted in SEC Tournament titles, which came in 1951 with a 61-57 win over Kentucky and in 2012 in a 71-64 win over the No. 1-ranked Wildcats.
- Vanderbilt’s SEC Tournament record against each opponent is as follows: Alabama (4-4), Arkansas (1-5), Auburn (2-6), LSU (4-6), Ole Miss (3-4), Mississippi State (8-6), Missouri (0-0), Florida (3-6),Georgia (6-2), Kentucky (5-4), South Carolina (0-0), Tennessee (1-8), Texas A&M (1-1).
The SEC Tournament In Nashville
- The SEC Tournament returns to Nashville this week for the 13th time in tournament history and the third consecutive season. The Commodores have hosted the tournament at Memorial Gym twice in 1984 (1-1) and 1991 (0-1), and the event has been held at the now-Bridgestone Arena in 2001 (0-1), 2006 (1-1), 2010 (1-1), 2013 (2-1), 2014 (0-1), 2015 (0-1), 2016 (0-1), 2017 (2-1), 2019 (0-1) and 2020 (0-1). All-time in SEC Tournament games played in Nashville, the Commodores are 7-12.
Infirmary
- Sophomore Dylan Disu (knee) and freshman Tyrin Lawrence are out for the season. Disu has missed the last five games and Lawrence has been out since Jan. 9 (knee).
- Vanderbilt has had 12 of its 17 players miss games this season due to injury or illness. In all, the Commodores have amassed 58 missed games: Odusipe (2), Wright (2), DJ Harvey (2), Pippen (3), Millora-Brown (3), Weikert (3), Issac McBride (3), Myles Stute (4), Disu (5), Albert (7), Brown (8), Lawrence (15).
Out of Port
- Vanderbilt played three true road game in five days last week—the Commodores were at LSU for a Tuesday night tilt and at Cincinnati on Thursday night.
- Courtesy of Vandy twitter (@AuricGoldfnger and @jakebooks), the last time Vandy played three true road games in one week was 1995—at LSU (Jan. 28), at Wake Forest (Jan. 29) and at Middle Tennessee State (Feb. 1).
- Vandy was the first major conference team to play three road games against three different opponents over a span of five days since Boston College did it in February 2000 (one of the opponents was Vanderbilt).
Fire Away
- The Commodores rank second in the SEC in made 3s per game (9.2). Vanderbilt has made at least four 3s in every game this season and in 38 consecutive games dating back to Jan. 25, 2020 when the Commodores were held without a 3 for the first time in 1,080 games.
Keys to Victory
- In four of five SEC wins under Stackhouse, Vanderbilt has eclipsed the 80-point mark. In all, Vanderbilt has hit the 80-point mark 14 times in the Stackhouse era with a 11-3 record in those games, including 11-1 in regulation (only regulation loss was Jan. 9, 2021 against Mississippi State, 84-81).
- Vanderbilt is 8-2 when tied or leading at the half and 0-13 when trailing at the break this season.
- Vanderbilt is 6-3 when scoring 75 or more and 2-12 when scoring less than 75 this season.
- Evans is averaging 11.9 points per game in Vanderbilt’s wins and just 6.9 points in losses.
Pippen Points
- Pippen Jr. is second in the SEC with 20.6 points per game and 4.9 assists per game.
- Pippen is fourth in the NCAA among sophomores in scoring (20.6 ppg)—first among power conference players.
- Pippen is 16th in the nation with 117 made free throws and seventh in the NCAA with 6.2 made free throw per game. Only 10 players in the country get to the line more often than Pippen who ranks 11th with 7.1 attempts per game.
- Pippen has scored at least 20+ points 10 times and 30+ points three times, including a career-high 36 on Thursday.
- Pippen has matched or upped his career-high point total six different times this season. He has led the team in scoring 11 times, while also leading the Dores in assists 15 times in 20 games.
Pippen Points Part II
- Pippen, who was named preseason All-SEC second team, scored at least 15 points in 11 straight games from Dec. 13 – Jan. 30—the longest streak by a Vanderbilt player since John Jenkins in 2011-12 (19 straight).
- Also earlier this season, against Kentucky and Mississippi State, Pippen became the first Commodore since 2000 with 8 or more assists in back-to-back games, and was the first Commodore since 2005 with 12 assists in a game (Mario Moore) as well as the first Commodore since 2015 to record a double-double with points and assists (Wade Baldwin IV).
- Pippen was the first Commodore in five years with 5+ assists in four straight games (Wade Baldwin IV did so in four consecutive SEC games in February 2016).
In the Archives
- Last Thursday (March 4) was Vanderbilt’s latest regular season nonconference game since March 5, 1959 when Vanderbilt and visiting Baylor played the season finale using experimental rules such as the 24-second shot clock. Vanderbilt trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half, but Doug Yates’ jumper from the top of the circle gave the Commodores a 61-60 triumph. “Frankly, I doubt we would have won the game had we been playing under existing rules,” Vandy coach Roy Skinner said.
Training Time
- With eight new players this season, Vanderbilt didn’t have much tune-up before SEC play. The Commodores played just six nonconference games prior to SEC play.
- This will mark the first time Vanderbilt has played fewer than 30 regular season games since 2005-06 when the Commodores went 16-11 (7-9) prior to the SEC Tournament.
Disu-per Man
- Prior to injury, in his last five games this season, Disu averaged a double-double with 17.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game, and shot 50 percent from the field.
- Disu still leads the SEC in rebounding with 9.2 per game, and ranks sixth among all power conference players this season. He is also tops in the SEC in defensive rebounding at 6.9 per game (next closest SEC player is LSU’s Trendon Watford at 5.7 per game).
- At the time of his injury, Disu ranked third in the league in field goal percentage (.492) and was 10th in scoring (15).
- Disu finished with six double-doubles this season, eclipsing his total of five from last season (11 for his career).
- Disu was named SEC Player of the Week on Feb. 22 after a pair of double-doubles where he averaged 23 points and 15.5 rebounds against Kentucky (Feb. 17) and at Alabama (Feb. 20). Disu was the first Commodore with back-to-back double-doubles since Simi Shittu in November 2018.
- Disu was also the first Vanderbilt player with 10+ rebounds in four consecutive games in the last 25 seasons.
Looking Astern
- Playing its third road game in five days, Vanderbilt couldn’t muster enough to overcome Ole Miss on Saturday in a 56-46 loss at the Pavilion at Ole Miss.
- The Commodores led 10-3 early, but Ole Miss took the lead with a 10-2 run and stretched its advantage to 34-22 at the half. Vandy scored just two points in the first 9 1/2 minutes of the second half and Ole Miss led by as many as 49-24 before the Dores closed to within 53-44 with less than two minutes to play, but the Rebels held on to win their home finale.
A Vandy Victory Would…
- … mark the program’s first SEC Tournament win since 2017 against Texas A&M.
- … make Stackhouse 1-1 in the SEC Tournament.
- … be the third in the last five games overall.
A Vandy Defeat Would…
- … be the fifth in a row to Texas A&M and fourth in a row at the SEC Tournament.
- … be less good than a win.
On Deck
- The winner of Vandy-Texas A&M will play Florida in the second game of the SEC second round Thursday.