NASHVILLE — No. 22 Vanderbilt will try to win its first Southeastern Conference tournament championship since 2012 when it meets 17th-ranked Arkansas on Sunday.
The Commodores (26-7), playing two miles from their campus, routed fourth-ranked Florida (the tournament’s top seed) by a 91-74 score on Saturday, snapping the Gators’ 12-game winning streak.
“Proud of the guys,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said afterward. “Not really much celebrating. It’s on to Sunday, and that’s what we started this tournament for, is to play for a trophy on Sunday, and that’s what we have a chance to do tomorrow.”
Vanderbilt enters on a four-game winning streak, none of those wins coming on its campus.
Arkansas (25-8) has also won four straight, surviving in a 93-90 overtime win over Ole Miss to get here.
It’ll be the third game in three days for both teams, and Arkansas coach John Calipari was particularly perturbed about tournament scheduling on Friday evening.
After beating Oklahoma in a game that ended around 11:30 p.m. Central on Friday, Calipari lamented a Sunday tip-off that comes less than 19 hours after Arkansas finished off the Rebels.
Vanderbilt knows something about overcoming difficult circumstances lately.
The Commodores struggle against teams with size and rebounding, but in their last three games have knocked off the nation’s top offensive rebounding team in Tennessee (twice) and then clocked the Gators, who rank second.
Vanderbilt was beaten on the glass by Tennessee by counts of 40-31 and 46-34, and then 38-23 by Florida.
But neither team could come close to matching Vanderbilt’s guard play of Tyler Tanner (19.2 ppg, 5.2 apg, 2.4 spg) and Duke Miles (16.5 ppg, 4.2 apg, 2.6 spg).
The two have been a wrecking crew most of the season through their quickness and play-making ability. Tanner was a first-team All-SEC pick and Miles scored 30 in the win Friday over Tennessee.
Arkansas also has elite guards, led by SEC Player of the Year Darius Acuff Jr. (22.7 ppg, 6.5 apg) and Meleek Thomas (15.6 ppg). Acuff scored 24 and dished out seven assists on Saturday and Thomas added 29 and five.
Thomas played all 45 minutes on Saturday, just as he did in an 88-84 win over Missouri when Acuff was out with injury.
“There is no one that would say to Meleek anything that would believe him to believe he’s not as good as good as any player in the country,” Calipari said after Saturday. “He has otherworldly — otherworldly, now — confidence. Like, he could run for president one day. … I’ve gotta let him do some crazy stuff. I get on him but he’ll look at me like, ‘You’re nuts. You don’t have any idea how good I am.’ And I love that.”
The Razorbacks handed Vanderbilt its most lopsided loss of the season with a 93-68 walloping in Fayetteville on Jan. 20.
Arkansas is best in the country at avoiding turnovers (12.2%), per KenPom.
The 6-foot-3 Acuff and 6-5 Thomas also have the height advantage, respectively, on Tanner (6-0) and Miles (6-2), who had just 11 and five points, respectively, in the first game.
–Chris Lee, Field Level Media
