Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner (3) pushes up the court with Georgia guard Jordan Ross (3) during the second half at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. Vanderbilt has clinched a berth in the NCAA Tournament, but has had mixed results over the past two months after one of the most competitive starts in college basketball.
The 24th-ranked Commodores (22-7, 9-7 Southeastern Conference) play two road contests to close the regular season, starting with a game against Ole Miss (12-17, 4-12) on Wednesday night in Oxford, Mississippi.
Vanderbilt lost 91-77 at Kentucky on Saturday, dropping its record to 6-7 after winning its first 16 games of the season.
Nonetheless, entering Monday’s game, the Commodores were ranked 18th in the NCAA NET rankings and 19th in Wins Above Bubble. These are two important metrics that help explain why ESPN projects the Commodores as a No. 5 seed.
But the loss to Kentucky showcased glaring deficiencies in a defense that Vanderbilt knows needs improvement if it is to have any chance of making a deep run next month.
Kentucky shot 58.8% from the field, including 50% from 3-point range, and committed just 11 turnovers.
“A lot of times it wasn’t just our defense,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said. “At times it was a stupid offense and it hurt our defense. Bad shots or turning them over all over the place. And when you do that, this place (Rupp Arena) gets loud.”
Starting forward and leading rebounder Devin McGlockton fouled out after going scoreless for 15 minutes, and received a dead-ball technical foul in the second half for a hard hit with Kentucky’s Brandon Garrison. Fortunately for McGlockton, officials did not determine this was a flagrant foul after review.
The Wildcats’ scoring marks the sixth time Vanderbilt has allowed an opponent to score at least 90 points. That offset a solid performance from Tyler Tanner, who knocked down all nine field goal attempts from inside the arc and led the Commodores with 19 points. Tanner is averaging a team-high 18.5 points and 5.2 assists per game.
Tanner scored 24 points in the first meeting of the season between Vanderbilt and Ole Miss on Jan. 31 in Nashville, with the Commodores winning 71-68.
The Rebels’ only hope of making the NCAA Tournament is winning the SEC Tournament in two weeks. Ole Miss will look to capitalize on Vanderbilt’s recent defensive struggles while building on one of its best offensive performances of the season. The Rebels snapped a 10-game losing streak with an 85-79 win at Auburn on Saturday. This is their first win since January 17th.
Ole Miss recorded its second-best shooting performance of the season (53.4% from the floor) and 40% of 3-pointers. Freshman Patton Pinkins scored a career-high 26 points and AJ Storr added 26 points.
Storr leads Ole Miss in scoring, averaging 15.1 points per game, while Malik Dia averages 14.0 points.
“It was definitely a good win for us in a year filled with a lot of adversity. We haven’t been very high-scoring the last few months,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. “I’m proud of our guys, I have a lot of respect for the Auburn program, so I think it really speaks highly of our guys to beat a team like this at this time of the year.
“We’ve had a lot of pretty good games over the last month or so. We’ve just not been able to come out on top, playing against the best teams in the country.”
–Field level media
