Our Vanderbilt Commodores moved to 13-10 overall and 5-6 in the SEC with a 70-62 victory over the Missouri Tigers before around 8,000 at Memorial Tuesday Night. Missouri dropped to 9-14, and 3-7, but like every other team in the SEC, they are quality, so that was a nice resume building victory. The SEC is the best basketball conference in the country, so any victory is a good victory.
Scotty started a little slow, but, as usual, played well when it counted going for 19 points and 4 assists. Quentin Milliora-Brown had a terrific game with 10 points and 11 boards. Myles Stute finished with 11 and was 2 for 5 from trifecta. Myles is a terrific shooter. Our great point guard and one of our main leaders, Rodney Chatman, scored 10 and pulled down 6 boards. He’s such an awesome defender, too. I love the way we played defense Tuesday Night. They only shot 41% from the field, 25-of-61, only 5 for 25 from trifecta, 20%, and we out-rebounded them 38 to 31. Our great small/power forward combo player Jordan Wright had 11 points and pulled down 11 boards. Jordan is such a quality player for us. He was also 4 of 4 from the line. Scotty was awesome in the second half. Just bucket after bucket in clutch moments of the game. I thought we did better from the line at the end of the game as well. We’ll need to keep progressing in that area going forward. And Liam Robbins played and gave us some great defensive presence. Our 7’er, 250 pounds, blocked 4 shots. He’s a force in the middle. He and Rodney Chatman make us so much better, because we already had a good team to begin with, and Scotty is a superstar, and those 2 just take this team to another level. Hoping Liam can get into the scoring act starting Saturday afternoon at 5 PM CT versus Tennessee at Knoxville at 5 on the SEC Network. Huge game that if we could pull off would be a major building block for this team getting into the conversation of the NCAA Tournament. So we need to take care of business Saturday. It’s a challenge. They’re No.19 in the country and are coming off a 72-63 victory @ Mississippi State last night. They are 17-6 overall and 8-3 in the SEC. Kennedy Chandler is a really good freshman guard. Santiago Vescovi is a scorer. Chandler had 18 points last night and Josiah Jordan-James also had 18. Vescovi had 11. They are a stellar defensive team, so we need to amp up our defense and take it to the level we showed against Missouri, and, of course, hit shots and rebound and still need to take care of the basketball a little better, 15 turnovers Tuesday Night. And I see us starting to get it at the line. Q was 6 of 10 and sank some key ones. Myles hit 2 clutch free throws in the last minute. Scotty was 5 for 9 from the stripe. Would like to see SPJ be as consistent as he has been in the past at the charity stripe. I know he will and he’ll put in the work to do sol. I know we’re a strong enough team mentally and physically to win in Knoxville. We’re one of the scrappiest teams in the SEC, and now, with Chatman and Robbins, I see us as one of the best teams in the SEC, and we now have a legitimate shot to make the NCAA Tournament if we can keep this up. Believe in the guys. We have Auburn on the road next Wednesday at 8 PM on the SEC Network, but that’ll have to wait. Too big of a game this Saturday. We need to get the job done in Knoxville. The guys definitely have it in them. To get to where we want to be, playing deep into March, we need to handle our “business trip” to Knoxville. I know the guys can get this done. Have a great weekend. Will be in touch.