Saturday's Senior Night

Reconnaissance

• This will be the 124th all-time meeting between these programs. 
• Vanderbilt leads the series 76-47, but Ole Miss has won two straight and eight of the last 10. 
• Vanderbilt’s last win in the series was March 3, 2018 with an 82-69 victory in Oxford.
• In Nashville, Ole Miss has won four straight dating back to Vandy’s 84-74 win Jan. 19, 2011.

Senior Day

• Vanderbilt will honor four seniors—Maxwell Evans, Ejike Obinna, Isaiah Rice and Clevon Brown—prior to Saturday’s game.
• The quartet has combined to play in 326 games in black and gold.

Tennessee Debrief

• Vanderbilt used its 13th different starting lineup­ in 19 games this season—Braelee Albert, Issac McBride, Quentin Millora-Brown, Jordan Wright and Maxwell Evans.
• 13 different Commodores have started a game.
• Scotty Pippen’s streak of 32 straight starts was snapped. Wright has the longest active games started streak for Vanderbilt at nine in a row. 
• Coach Stackhouse on the lineup without Pippen and Dylan Disu: “We are going to allow guys to play through some mistakes. Young guys will get those reps. It’s the best way to learn to throw them in the fire and see what they can do.”

Infirmary

• Disu (knee) and Pippen Jr. (hip) were each sidelined for Wednesday’s game against Tennessee due to injury while senior center Clevon Brown was also sideline due to a nagging knee injury. Freshman Tyrin Lawrence has been out for the season since Jan. 9 (knee).
• In all this season, Vanderbilt has had 12 of 17 players miss games this season due to injury or illness. The Commodores have amassed 48 missed games: Pippen (1), Disu (2), Akeem Odusipe (2), Wright (2), DJ Harvey (2), Millora-Brown (3), Drew Weikert (3), McBride (3), Myles Stute (4), Albert (7), Brown (8), Lawrence (11).

Trending Dores

• Seven of Vanderbilt’s 11 SEC losses this season are by a combined 30 points. 
• The last six SEC losses have been by an average of six points per game. 
•  Prior to injury, in his last five games this season, Disu had averaged a double-double with 17.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game, and shot 50 percent from the field (31 of 62). 

Keys to Victory

• In four of five SEC wins under Coach Stackhouse, Vanderbilt has eclipsed the 80-point mark. In all, Vanderbilt has hit the 80-point mark 14 times in the Coach Stackhouse era with a 11-3 record in those games, including 11-1 in regulation (only regulation loss was Jan. 9 against Mississippi State, 84-81). 
• Vanderbilt is 6-2 when tied or leading at the half and 0-11 when trailing at the break this season. 
• Vanderbilt is 4-3 when scoring 75 or more and 2-10 when scoring less than 75 this season. 
• Evans is averaging 12.2 points per game in Vanderbilt’s wins and just 6.0 points in losses. 
• All of Vanderbilt’s wins this season have come over the weekend. The Commodores are 0-8 during the week.

Fire Away

• The Commodores rank second in the SEC in made 3s per game (9.4). Vanderbilt has made at least four 3s in 34 consecutive games. The streak began immediately after the Commodores were held without a 3 for the first time in 1,080 games against Tennessee on Jan. 25, 2020.

Disu-per Man 

• Disu was named SEC Player of the Week on Monday after a pair of double-doubles where he averaged 23 points and 15.5 rebounds last week.
• 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 5.5 per game).
• Disu is third in the league in field goal percentage (.492) and 10th in scoring (15). 
• Disu has six double-doubles this season, eclipsing his total of five from last season (11 for his career). 
• Against Kentucky (Feb. 17) and at Alabama (Feb. 20), Disu became the first Commodore with back-to-back double-doubles since Simi Shittu in November 2018.

Pippen Points

• Not only is Pippen Jr. second in the SEC with 20.5 points per game, he is also second in the league with 5.2 assists per game. He is one of just four players in the nation averaging more than 20 points and five assists per game—and one of just three power conference players.
• Pippen is 12th in the nation with 106 made free throws, and 21st in free throw attempts. 
• Pippen has scored at least 20+ points nine times and 30+ points twice, including a career-high 32 at Florida.
• Pippen has tied or matched his career-high point total five different times this season. He has led the team in scoring 10 times, while also leading the Dores in assists 14 times in 18 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). 

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—its fewest since 1952-53 (the first season Memorial Gymnasium opened). At that time, Tulane and Georgia Tech were still in the SEC. 
• 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.

Looking Astern

• Without its top two scorers Wednesday, Vanderbilt gave visiting No. 25 Tennessee all it could handle inside Memorial Gymnasium before falling short 70-58.
• Vandy had a chance to pull out the win as it trailed by just four with 4 1/2 minutes to go and just six with 2:08 left. Tennessee then used its depth down the stretch to pull away for the final margin.
• Trey Thomas led four Commodores in double figures with 14 while Evans had 13, McBride had a career-high 11 and Wright scored 10. Vanderbilt made 13 3-pointers, eight 2s and three free throws while it was held to six attempts from the line.

A Vandy Victory Would…

• … match last season’s SEC win total in four fewer games. 
• … be the first in three games for Coach Stackhouse against Ole Miss.
• … be the first over Ole Miss since March 3, 2018. 
• … mark the first at home against the Rebels since Jan. 19, 2011 (lost last four). 

A Vandy Defeat Would…

• … mark a four-game losing streak overall and third straight loss to Ole Miss.
• … be less good than a win.

On Deck

•  Vanderbilt concludes the regular season with road games at LSU on Tuesday and at Ole Miss on Saturday.