No. 17 Kentucky visits struggling Vanderbilt in SEC matchup

The No. 17 Kentucky Wildcats (15-6, 5-4 in SEC) are in Nashville to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores (6-15, 1-7 in SEC) on Tuesday, tipping off at 8:30 p.m.

The Wildcats are coming off of back-to-back home losses to the Florida Gators and No. 6 Tennessee, hoping to end that skid Tuesday.

Kentucky, now 5-4 in conference play, is sits at No. 6 in the SEC, an uncomfortable position for the perennial contender Wildcats.

On the other side, Vanderbilt got their first win in conference play Saturday with a 68-61 win against Missouri. The Commodores have not won back-to-back games since early November, and rank near the bottom of the SEC standings.

Kentucky – Defensive Struggles

Moreover, it is no secret that Kentucky’s biggest issue currently is weakness on the defensive end.

The Wildcats have allowed 77.8 points per game to opponents this season, good for the 319th best scoring defense in NCAA Division 1 out of 362 teams.

In Kentucky’s losses to Florida and Tennessee, the Wildcats gave up an average of 98.5 points to each team, which earned Kentucky coach John Calipari and his players a fair bit of criticism this past week.

Freshman star Rob Dillingham, who scored 35 points in the 103-92 loss to Tennessee, was sure of what Kentucky needs to do to improve on that end against Vanderbilt and moving forward.

Rob Dillingham on the biggest takeaway from the Tennessee loss.

Kentucky needs to give more effort.

"If we really want to win, we'll dig in and learn from the film. If we don't we're just going to keep playing like it's a joke… Effort for sure." pic.twitter.com/DktRQiaEAn

— Tristan Pharis (@TristanUda) February 4, 2024

Commodores Hope to Compete with Kentucky

Vanderbilt’s struggles this season were a surprise to many after head coach and former 18-year NBA veteran Jerry Stackhouse turned the program around with a 22-15 record last season.

With an 0-7 start to conference play, Saturday’s win over Missouri was a breath of fresh air that the team hopes to build upon against Kentucky.

Ezra Manjon led the team against Missouri with 17 points and leads the team with 14.7 points and 3.4 assists per game.

https://twitter.com/VandyMBB/status/1753894632348647742

In addition, the Commodores have won their last two matchups with the Wildcats, most recently in March when Vanderbilt knocked then No.23 Kentucky out of the SEC Tournament in the quarterfinal stage.

Ranking only above Missouri in the SEC standings currently, Vanderbilt hopes its good luck against the Wildcats continues Tuesday night.

Next Up

After Vanderbilt, Kentucky hosts Gonzaga on Saturday in a highly anticipated out-of-conference matchup of struggling powerhouses.

Vanderbilt go on the road to face No. 15 South Carolina on Saturday.

Following Tuesday’s matchup, the Commodores and Wildcats will face-off in Lexington on Mar. 6.