Vanderbilt Commodores Seek Momentum With Winning Streak For Tournament Bid
The Vanderbilt Commodores men’s basketball team faced their first true test of the season this week when they hosted the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Memorial Gymnasium.
They entered that game 13-1 but didn’t face the most daunting of opponents. A solid victory was picked up in their SEC opener, as the Commodores went on the road and defeated the LSU Tigers.
Unfortunately, it was a test that Vanderbilt failed.
They were defeated by the No. 14 ranked team in the country, 76-64, as their normally explosive offense was held in check.
That loss snapped the team’s seven-game winning streak, and the Commodores will be looking to start a new one when they travel to take on the Missouri Tigers on Saturday afternoon. Both teams are 1-1 in SEC action entering the contest, making it an important game.
Given how deep the conference is, you don’t want to drop below the .500 mark or start a losing streak that will be challenging to snap.
However, the overall difficulty of the SEC is a double-edged sword. It will be challenging to pick up victories, but Quad 1 games will be plentiful, giving teams a chance to rack up resume-defining wins.
That is partly why Myron Medcalf of ESPN has placed the Commodores in tier VI of his rankings of the 76 best teams in the conference. He wrote that Vandy's season could go either way and that it's too early to know which side of the bubble the Commodores will land on.
But he did lay out one way Vandy could get there.
“Vanderbilt could get there with the right winning streak,” Medcalf wrote.
LSU is also included in that tier, a team that Vanderbilt will remain ahead of courtesy of their head-to-head victory.
The opportunity for top-50 KenPom wins will be plentiful over the next few weeks. After games against Missouri and the South Carolina Gamecocks, they play 10 out of 11 games against teams currently ranked in the top 25.
Defeating the Tigers and Gamecocks will be imperative to them being able to stay afloat as navigating that gauntlet will not be easy.
For coach Mark Byington’s squad to cement their status as a tournament team, they need to keep up the efficiency on 2-point attempts. It has helped them overcome their underwhelming 3-point shooting; they are currently 249th in the country, making 32.4% of their attempts.
Getting dynamic scoring guard Jason Edwards healthy would be a major boost to their offensive production. Their leading scorer has struggled through the first two SEC games, battling a thigh injury.
Their defense has remained a pleasant surprise. If they can rely on their performance on that end of the court when things aren’t going well offensively, it will help improve their chances of stacking wins together.
