College sportswriters and broadcasters voting in the AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll won’t put some respect on the name of the Vanderbilt Commodores, slotting Mark Byington’s team 10th despite their undefeated record and No. 3 ranking in adjusted efficiency ratings.
Be sure that Texas head coach Sean Miller has done so with his team preparing for Wednesday’s matchup against Vanderbilt at the Moody Center in Austin as the Longhorns try to maintain the momentum generated from Saturday’s upset of then-No.
13 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
After a solid first season in Nashville, second-year head coach Mark Byington has his second Commodores squad playing at high levels on offense and defense and consistently well throughout its 16-game unbeaten streak that has launched Vanderbilt to its best in-season ranking since finishing the 1992-93 season ranked eighth — Vanderbilt has trailed for only 22:02 of its 645 minutes played this season, 3.5 percent.
The team’s biggest deficit? Five points against Western Kentucky and Memphis.
The biggest win of the season was last Wednesday’s 96-90 victory over Alabama in Nashville, one of five Quad 1 wins for Vanderbilt so far this season, although SMU is the only other top-30 opponent in adjusted efficiency that the Commodores have faced to this point with the other two conference wins coming against the Gamecocks and Tigers.
That’s more of an acknowledgement than a criticism of the nation’s No. 84 non-conference schedule — Vanderbilt has taken advantage of its opportunities by limiting turnovers, scoring with ruthless efficiency inside the arc, keeping opponents from producing second chances on the offensive glass, and defending at an elite level at the rim and at the three-point line.
Leading the well-balanced attack for the Commodores are guards Tyler Tanner and Duke Miles.
Tanner is the breakout star for Vanderbilt in his sophomore season, leading the team at 17.2 points and 5.4 assists per game while shooting 38.8 percent from three. Against the Crimson Tide, Tanner scored a career-high 29 points while adding seven assists and four steals, marking the fifth 25/7/4 or better performance in an AP top-15 matchup in the last 30 years, joining Trae Young, Chris Paul, Mike Bibby, and DeAndre Kane. With a phenomenal assist rate of 30.6 percent and a minuscule turnover rate of 13.4 percent, Tanner consistently makes the right decisions with the basketball. He’s also explosive — at 6’0, Tanner has converted all 13 of his dunk attempts this season, second on the team behind 6’10 center Jalen Washington.
Miles is on his fourth program in six years with previous stops at Troy, High Point, and Oklahoma, providing Vanderbilt an experienced veteran and secondary playmaker who is averaging 17.2 points and 4.4 assists per game. Like Tanner, Miles has an impressive assist rate to turnover rate, although he’s not quite as efficient from beyond the arc at 34.8 percent.
Both players are turnover catalysts for the Dores with each hitting the 40-steal mark already.
Three other players average double-digit scoring for Vanderbilt, including sharpshooter Tyler Nickel, who hits at 47.5 percent from three while taking 80 percent of his shot attempts from beyond the arc. Last year, Nickel made four threes in Vanderbilt’s win over Texas, but went 1-of-7 shooting from three in the late-season loss to the Longhorns. How well Texas can limit his open looks from deep could determine Wednesday’s outcome.
The success on the defensive glass comes thanks to the ruggedness of a frontcourt led by Washington and 6’7, 230-pound forward Devin McGlockton.
If there’s a glaring statistical weakness for Vanderbilt, it’s a high free-throw rate for opponents that ranks No. 318 nationally, a concerning area for Byington going into a game against Texas sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis, who draws 10 fouls a game.
The ability of the Longhorns to run the offense through Vokietaitis in the post is a key storyline on Wednesday, as well as the determination of which Jordan Pope will show up for Texas. Will it be the aggressive version of the senior guard who chewed up Alabama’s defense with 28 points in 30 minutes? Or the passive version who went scoreless in 13 minutes against Tennessee to earn a benching for almost the entire second half?
With Pope’s well-documented defensive struggles and extremely mediocre assist rate, virtually all of his value to a Texas team with thin margins comes from his scoring, an area where the Longhorns need Pope to contribute in order to beat top opponents — it’s not a coincidence that the other top-25 win for Texas came in another game when Pope scored 28 points to beat NC State in the Maui Invitational.
Securing consistency from such a mercurial scorer was clearly a difficult task for former head coach Rodney Terry, too, as Pope careened from performances like a 27-point outing in a road win over Oklahoma to scoring two points against Florida in the next game. Miller has even seen it himself from the opposing sideline, as his Xavier team held Pope to three points in 15 minutes when the Musketeers beat the Longhorns in the NCAA Tournament to officially end the Rodney Terry era.
For a team that Miller was openly and roundly criticizing after the two losses to open SEC play, the ability to play with consistent effort for a second straight game is another extremely open question. At the least, to capitalize on a 23-percent win probability, Texas will need a smart performance from junior wing Dailyn Swain, who fouled out of the Mississippi State loss and dealt with foul trouble against Alabama. In the other conference game, the bad road loss to Tennessee, Swain was also benched in the second half after turning the ball over seven times.
The good news is that there has been some joy in Austin the last few days.
“It’s important that you can get some joy, and you only can get joy through the win. So happy for our team,” Miller said after the upset of Alabama.
Wednesday’s tip is at 8 p.m. Central on ESPN2.
