No. 6 Tennessee basketball travels to Nashville, Tennessee, for an SEC matchup against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Read more for a full Tennessee vs Vanderbilt prediction and preview.
Tennessee basketball’s next game is an in-state road trip to Nashville, where it will play Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on SEC Network.
The Volunteers are 13-1 in their previous 14 meetings with Vanderbilt, dating back to January 9, 2018. The only defeat was a one-point road loss, 66-65, on a buzzer-beater on 2/8/23.
General Information:
Teams: Tennessee (16-1, 3-1) and Vanderbilt (14-3, 2-2)
Tip-Off Time: 3:30 p.m. EST
Watch: SEC Network+
Latest on Vanderbilt basketball:
The Vanderbilt Commodores will meet No. 6 Tennessee in one of the most anticipated games of head coach Mark Byington’s inaugural season.
After a successful stint at James Madison, Byington was hired as Vanderbilt’s coach and restarted from scratch. After replacing longtime Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse, he brought in ten transfers to rebuild the roster, with two freshmenand one returning player. JQ Roberts is the team’s only returning player from 2023-24.
“I think he has done a great job going into the portal quickly and getting guys the way he wants to play,” Vols coach Rick Barnes stated.
Vanderbilt’s leadership is built around three transfers. Junior guard Jason Edwards, who transferred from North Texas, averages 17.0 points on an impressive 45/38/86 shooting split. Senior guard AJ Hoggard, a Michigan State transfer, averages 11.1 points and leads the team with 4.3 assists. Devin McGlockton, a former Boston College forward, currentlyaverages 10.9 points and a team-high 8.2 rebounds.
After losing two nearly identical games to No. 14 Mississippi State (76-64) and Missouri (75-66), Vanderbilt rebounded with a last-second triumph over South Carolina on Wednesday.
After AJ Hoggard missed an open pull-up jumper from the elbow, 6’7″ junior Devin McGlockton regained the ball and scored the game-winning three-point play against South Carolina with 0.6 seconds left.
Vanderbilt basketball maintains a balance between taking care of the basketball and preventing opposing teams from doing so.
According to KenPom, the Commodores commit turnovers on 14.3% of their possessions, ranking 17th in the nation. They are even better at forcing turnovers, with 23.2%, the ninth-best rate. They lead the SEC in steals with 179 and rank third nationally with a steal rate of 14.9%.
“They are very aggressive,” Barnes said. “They create a lot of havoc. A really heavy, heavy gap team. They really go for steals. They really turn you over.”
The Commodores’ game against Tennessee kicks off a three-game stretch against top-10 teams in seven days.
Latest on Tennessee basketball:
On Saturday, Rick Barnes and Tennessee basketball face Vanderbilt and new Commodores coach Mark Byington for the first time.
Five Volunteers scored nine or more points against No. 23 Georgia on Wednesday evening. Senior guard Jahmai Mashack scored a season-high 11 points and made all five field goal tries, becoming the first Tennessee player to do so since Feb. 25, 2023. Igor Miličić Jr. dominated the game with nine points, nine rebounds (a career-high seven offensive), three assists, and three steals, tying his previous record.
Tennessee basketball overwhelmed Georgia 26-4 to start the second half, shooting 9-of-13 from the field.
Senior guard Zakai Zeigler was the Volunteers’ most important player throughout their run. As he frequently is, Zeigler was in the center of it all, scoring 11 of his 16 points and dishing out five of his game-high seven assists in the second half.
In addition, the bench scored 29 points for the Volunteers. Tennessee’s bench has scored at least 22 points in two straight SEC games.
Sophomore forward Cade Phillips scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting and a co-career-high three assists and helped key a dominant rebounding effort from the Vols.
Jordan Gainey topped all scorers with 19 points. The senior guard has scored 31 points in the last two games after only 14 in the first two SEC contests.
Rick Barnes’ team forced Georgia to turn the ball over 19 times, which Tennessee converted into 19 points. In contrast, the Volunteers committed only ten turnovers.
Zakai Zeigler, the SEC’s defensive player of the year, led the Vols with six takeaways, breaking Santiago Vescovi’s record by three and also becoming the first Volunteer since Nov. 30, 2021, to record at least a half-dozen steals in a single game.
Chaz Lanier opened SEC play off strong, scoring 29 points and hitting five three-pointers against Arkansas. Lanier has suffered his first slump of the season in the three games since then. He’s averaging 8.3 points per game while shooting a poor 8-of-43 (18.6%) from the field and 4-of-24 (16.7%) from three-point range.
Tennessee has managed to win both of its previous games despite Lanier’s struggles, but if Lanier isn’t playing well, they’ll be in a dogfight with almost everyone on the road. Hopefully, he’ll get out of his slump on Saturday in Nashville.
The Volunteers will aim to stay consistent and win its third SEC matchup in a row as they travel to face the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EST live on SEC Network+.
Tennessee vs Vanderbilt prediction: Volunteers by 10 (72-62)
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