The Vanderbilt Commodores made the most of facing Kentucky this past weekend in Southeastern Conference basketball.
Now it's Florida's opportunity.
The Gators host the No. 22 Wildcats tonight at 7 on ESPN desperately needing a win to improve their NCAA tournament prospects. Vanderbilt was listed among ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi's first four teams out of his projected 68-team field until Saturday's 74-62 downing of Kentucky at Memorial Gym.
Vandy (18-11, 10-6) is now a 10 seed in Lunardi's latest projection, with Florida (17-12, 8-8) an 11 seed and pegged for a play-in game in Dayton, Ohio.
"Kentucky is arguably the best team in our league," Florida first-year coach Mike White said Monday. "We didn't have a lot of success up there, so we have to be much better just to be competitive. They're playing well offensively and defensively and have pretty staggering numbers in just about every statistical category.
"We just want to be competitive, and we'll see where that leads."
The first meeting between Florida and Kentucky took place Feb. 6, and it was over before halftime. The Wildcats cruised to an 80-61 victory in Rupp Arena behind guards Jamal Murray and Tyler Ulis, who combined for 53 points, with Murray going 8-for-10 from 3-point range.
Lunardi has five SEC teams in his latest projection for the NCAA tourney, with Kentucky a 3 seed, Texas A&M a 5 seed and South Carolina a 9 seed. Alabama is among his first four out, while LSU is among his next four out.
Vanderbilt fans stormed the court following Saturday's win, and the school on Monday was fined $100,000 for violating league policy.
A 'laughable' idea
Missouri is 19-42 overall and 6-28 in league games during Kim Anderson's first two seasons as coach, and there is speculation he may not be given a third year in Columbia to clean up the mess left by predecessor Frank Haith.
"That would be almost laughable to me to even have to think about that," Vandy coach Kevin Stallings said when asked about Anderson's predicament. "When you take over something that decimated, anybody that thinks that you can resurrect that in two years has never, ever, ever put a whistle around their neck and tried to coach and build a basketball program.
"It takes four and sometimes five years just to put things in place if it's bad enough, especially if you're trying to build it the right way from the ground up with character and integrity."
The Tigers play at LSU tonight before closing their regular season Saturday against visiting Florida.
Frazier on fire
Georgia junior guard J.J. Frazier scored 29 points in last Wednesday's 84-81 loss at Auburn and had 26 in Saturday's 80-66 victory over Ole Miss. The 5-foot-10, 155-pounder was 8-for-12 in 3-point attempts in those two games, and he's 12-for-19 from long range in his last three contests.
"J.J. Frazier has emerged as a very consistent performer for us," Bulldogs coach Mark Fox said. "His ability to shoot and score is probably getting more attention this year, and we feel like he's just become a more complete player as a junior. When some guys become upperclassmen the game slows down for them, and I think J.J. recognizes situations offensively and defensively much earlier than he did as an underclassman."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.