The Vanderbilt Commodores may not have to wait until “Selection Sunday” to learn their NCAA basketball tournament fate.
Not with a schedule this week that includes tonight’s game at No. 9 Kentucky and Saturday’s home contest against No. 12 Florida.
Bryce Drew’s Commodores have won four consecutive contests and are the latest Southeastern Conference team this winter to reside squarely on the NCAA bubble. The USA Today’s latest tournament projection has Vanderbilt facing Illinois in a matchup of 11 seeds at a play-in game in Dayton, Ohio, while ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi has the Commodores (16-13, 9-7) as his last team in the 68-member field, facing Providence in Dayton in a pairing of 12 seeds.
“We know we have a tough stretch ahead with two ranked teams and then the SEC tournament,” Drew said in his news conference following Saturday’s 77-48 home drubbing of Mississippi State, “but what a great opportunity to have these two teams left on our schedule and, at this time, to still be able to play for something. We’re encouraged and excited that we have something to play for now in this final stretch.”
Two weeks ago, the Commodores appeared to be playing out the string, falling to 12-13 overall and 5-7 in the conference with an embarrassing 72-52 defeat at Missouri. They had three of their next four games in Nashville and took advantage of that, and last Wednesday’s 67-56 win at Tennessee avenged a home loss to the Volunteers in January.