What to Know About Vanderbilt Ahead of Gators' Bout with Commodores

Florida travels to No. 10 Vanderbilt on Saturday in search of its fourth-straight win.

Vanderbilt Commodores guard Duke Miles leads the team in scoring. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

The No. 19 Florida Gators have their fourth top-10 matchup of the season and second straight SEC road test on Saturday, traveling into the state of Tennessee to face off against the No. 10 Vanderbilt Commodores in Memorial Gymnasium. 

Vanderbilt has proven to be one of the more talented and well-coached teams in the 2025-26 season, sitting at 16-1 on the year. They are coming off their first loss of the season, though, falling to the Texas Longhorns in Austin, 80-64. 

Despite the loss, the Commodores have picked up a pair of quality wins through their first 17. They took down the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia, 83-71, and the Alabama Crimson Tide, 96-90, at the start of the month. 

The selling point for this Commodores team is their dangerous offense, headlined by the trio of Duke Miles, Tyler Tanner and Tyler Nickel. 

Miles is an experienced guard who has had stops at Troy, High Point and Oklahoma before transferring to Vanderbilt. With the Commodores, he is leading the team in scoring, averaging 17.5 points per game on 46.9/36.6/87.5 shooting splits. 

Tanner slightly trails Miles in scoring – averaging 17.2 points – but has been very efficient in his work on the court. He is making 50 percent of his shots overall and 39.2 percent of his 3-point attempts. The Vanderbilt guard is much more than just a scorer, though. He is also leading the team in assists, averaging 5.2 per contest. 

The most dangerous shooter for Vanderbilt is Nickel. He is knocking down 47.2 percent of his triples on the year and scoring 14.7 points per game. 

Powered by these three, Vanderbilt’s offense is sitting at No. 11 in the country in scoring offense (91.3 points per game). Moreover, Vanderbilt is tied for 19th in assists (18.4 per game), 26th in field goal percentage (49.6 percent) and 47th in 3-point percentage (36.8 percent). 

Vanderbilt’s frontcourt is most likely where its weakness is. There are just three Commodores players who are listed at or above 6-foot-10. And, of those three, only Jalen Washington is playing double-digit minutes per game. 

That means the frontcourt, like almost every game for Florida, is where the Gators must take advantage of. Reuben Chinyelu, Alex Condon, Micah Handlogten and Thomas Haugh have been dominant down low and on the glass this season, throttling the Gators inconsistent offense. 

Furthermore, Chinyelu has been one of the best bigs in the SEC through the first four games. He is averaging 13.5 points per game and 10 rebounds to go along with three blocks and two steals. He also has back-to-back double-doubles in league play, posting 17 points and 16 rebounds against Tennessee and 19 points and 12 rebounds against Oklahoma. 

Tip-off for the contest between Florida and Vanderbilt is at 2 p.m. on Saturday, with ESPN broadcasting the contest.