Two More Road Tilts

Cincinnati Reconnaissance

• This will be the eighth all-time meeting between these programs. 
• Cincinnati has won six of the first seven encounters, including each of the previous four in the Queen City.
• Vanderbilt’s lone win was an 86-83 triumph at the Sugar Bowl Classic in New Orleans on Dec. 29, 1970.
• The two programs first met during the 1922-23 season and Cincinnati won the most recent matchup, 67-58, in the first round of the Maui Invitational on Nov. 23, 2009. 
• It has been more than 16 years since Cincinnati last hosted the Commodores. The Bearcats won that matchup, 88-72, on Dec. 9, 2004. Fun fact: Cincinnati SID Andre Foushee was the Vandy SID at that time. 
• Vanderbilt is 52-38 all-time against current AAC competition, including 23-11 against former SEC opponent Tulane. The Commodores dropped their most recent AAC matchup­—67-58 at home to Tulsa last season. 

Ole Miss Reconnaissance

• This will be the 125th all-time meeting between these programs. 
• Vanderbilt leads the series, 77-47, including last Saturday’s 75-70 win on Senior Day at Memorial Gymnasium.
• Vanderbilt’s last win in Oxford was March 3, 2018 (82-69).

LSU Debrief

• Vanderbilt used its 15th different starting lineup­ in 21 games this season—Maxwell Evans, Braelee Albert, Isaiah Rice, Jordan Wright and Clevon Brown made the start.
• 14 different Commodores have started a game. The only three Vandy players who have yet to start a game this season—Drew Weikert, Akeem Odusipe, Max Adelman.
• Jordan Wright has the longest active games started streak for Vanderbilt at 11 in a row. 
• Coach Stackhouse: “The issue for us was not having any physicality from our bigs to start the game. We talk about setting the tone, being physical and we give up three offensive rebounds to start the game … It pretty much was downhill from there.”

Infirmary

• Dylan Disu (knee) and Scotty Pippen Jr. (hip) were each sidelined for the third straight game Tuesday. Freshman Tyrin Lawrence has been out since Jan. 9 (knee).
• Vanderbilt has had 12 of 17 players miss games this season due to injury or illness. In all, the Commodores have amassed 54 missed games: Odusipe (2), Wright (2), Harvey (2), Pippen (3), Disu (3), Millora-Brown (3), Weikert (3), McBride (3), Stute (4), Albert (7), Brown (8), Lawrence (13).

In the Archives

• This will be 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.

Out of Port

• Vanderbilt is set to play three true road games in five days—the Commodores were at LSU for a Tuesday night tilt and will be at Ole Miss for Saturday’s regular-season finale. 
• 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).
• The last time the Commodores played three straight true road games over any time span was 21 years ago—at South Carolina (Jan. 26), at No. 10 Florida (Jan. 29) and at Georgia (Feb. 2, 2000).

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, 2021 against Mississippi State, 84-81). 
• Vanderbilt is 7-2 when tied or leading at the half and 0-12 when trailing at the break this season. 
• Vanderbilt is 5-3 when scoring 75 or more and 2-11 when scoring less than 75 this season. 
• Maxwell Evans is averaging 12.2 points per game in Vanderbilt’s wins and just 7.0 points in losses. 
• All of Vanderbilt’s wins this season have come over the weekend. The Commodores are 0-9 during the week.

Fire Away

• The Commodores rank second in the SEC in made 3s per game (9.5). Vanderbilt has made at least four 3s in 36 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 

• Prior to injury, in his last five games this season, Dylan Disu had 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 10th in scoring (15.0). 
• Disu finished with six double-doubles this season, eclipsing his total of five from last season (11 for his career). 
• Dylan Disu was named SEC Player of the Week on Feb. 22 after a pair of double-doubles where he averaged 23.0 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. The last SEC player with 10+ rebounds in five straight was Ole Miss’ Sebastian Saiz in March 2017 (six games).

Pippen Points

• Not only is Scotty 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 20.0 points and 5.0 assists per game—and one of just three power conference players.
• Pippen is 21st in the nation with 106 made free throws.
• 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). 

Looking Astern

• Jordan Wright scored 13 points in the return to his hometown, but LSU proved to be too much in a 83-68 win Tuesday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The Tigers jumped out to a 17-3 lead, led by as many as 24 and never trailed in the contest. Maxwell Evans finished with a team-high 20 for the Commodores.

A Vandy Victory Would…

• … give Vanderbilt a 5-2 nonconference record this season.
• … be the first road nonconference win since a 82-78 victory at USC on Nov. 11, 2018 (lost last three).
• … be the first regular season sweep of Ole Miss since 1989 (typically play once per season). Vanderbilt won both matchups in 2012 which included the SEC Tournament.
• … mark the first regular season sweep of any SEC opponent since 2017 (Florida, Texas A&M).
• … be the first back-to-back wins over Ole Miss since a five-game winning streak from 2009-12.

A Vandy Defeat Would…

• … mark the fourth straight to the Bearcats.
• … be the ninth in the last 12 meetings with Ole Miss.
• … be less good than a win.

On Deck

•  Vanderbilt heads to the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville, Tenn.