Vanderbilt is hoping to use Nashville to its advantage for a change

This week's Southeastern Conference men's basketball tournament contains four teams assured of playing in the NCAA tournament and nine that likely have to win the league event to get into March's most desired athletic extravaganza.

Then there is Vanderbilt, which could be in the NCAA's 68-team field regardless of what transpires Thursday night against Texas A&M, but why take that chance?

Bryce Drew's Commodores capped an impressive closing stretch to the regular season with Saturday's 73-71 upset of No. 12 Florida at Memorial Gym. Vanderbilt will venture downtown to Bridgestone Arena later this week hoping not only to secure an NCAA tournament bid but to avoid a second straight trip to Dayton, Ohio, and a play-in game.

"Our guys are fully aware of the situation, and we talked about it last week," Drew said Monday on a league teleconference. "We'll have another conversation about where things are right now, but our main focus is to control the things that we can control, which is having a great week of practice and being as focused as we can for our game."

Vanderbilt trailed Florida by 11 midway through the second half Saturday before rallying for a season sweep of the Gators, who are No. 5 in the Rating Percentage Index.

The Commodores finished the regular season 17-14 overall and 10-8 within the SEC, having won nine of their last 13 games. ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi moved Vanderbilt up one spot Monday to his last team receiving a bye and thus avoiding Dayton.

Vanderbilt went to Dayton last March and was trounced 70-50 by Wichita State, which turned out to be the final game for Kevin Stallings as Commodores coach.

"Last year, when we were playing, there were times when we felt like we deserved to be in it, and we were kind of playing more not to lose than to win sometimes," Vandy senior forward Luke Kornet said Saturday in a news conference. "This year, we decided to put everything down and bond together as a team and just go win games. I think that describes our focus on going down the stretch.

"We are just excited to go out there and win."

The seventh-seeded Commodores defeated 10th-seeded Texas A&M 68-54 at College Station in January and 72-67 last month in Memorial. Vanderbilt has not exactly made the most of SEC tournaments in Nashville, getting upset by Tennessee in each of the past two events during Thursday's second round.

Avoiding a third consecutive one-and-done so close to campus is the obvious objective, but Bridgestone doesn't always offer the Commodores a home-court advantage with the multitude of Kentucky fans in attendance.

"If this was in Memorial, I would probably feel different," Drew said. "Nashville is a great city, and teams are going to bring their fans. This is my first time, and I know we haven't fared well the last couple of times, so hopefully we can play a whole lot better this year.

"Our guys have worked together and become unified. We don't have guys thinking too much or not being excited to play. Our guys are in a good place. They enjoy playing with each other, and they're really having a fun time playing right now."

Maten update

Georgia coach Mark Fox said Monday that junior forward Yante Maten, who suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain in the early moments against Kentucky on Feb. 18, has not practiced since his injury but has been shooting some. Maten is scheduled to meet with team doctors before the team leaves for Nashville, which Fox added was an appointment that already had been set up.

The eighth-seeded Bulldogs face ninth-seeded Tennessee on Thursday afternoon.

"I don't know if I can put odds on it - 50-50, maybe - but that's probably unfair for me to even guess," Fox said. "We won't put him out there unless he's cleared to play, and I am confident that the following week he would be ready to go."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.