Vanderbilt's biggest strength matches up with Kentucky's greatest weakness

Kentucky is on their way to Nashville to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores, who are off to their best start in over a decade. As they look to bounce back after their 102-97 loss to #4 Alabama, there are some things that they will need to hone in on, especially defensively, if they want to come away with the victory.

Vanderbilt, who is 6th in the SEC in scoring and 32nd nationally, averaging 82.3 points per game, loves to create points off turnovers. Obviously that is a major key heading into Saturday's matchup, but the Commodores are excellent at one specific thing that Kentucky happens to be really bad at, and that is ball-screen defense. KSR's Brandon Ramsey pointed out on social media that Kentucky is 352nd out of 364 teams at guarding the pick-and-roll ball handler, according to Synergy. On the other hand, Vandy is 46th in scoring with the pick-and-roll ball handler and 24th in scoring with the player who rolls off the screen. Kentucky 285th in guarding the one who rolls.

Kentucky ranks 352nd out of 364 team in guarding the Pick-&-Roll Ball Hander, per Synergy. The 'Cats are 285th in guarding the PnR Roll Man.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt is 46th in scoring with the PnR Ball Handler and 24th with the Roll Man.

That'll be the battle to watch tomorrow.
— Brandon Ramsey (@BRamseyKSR) January 24, 2025

As has been pointed out for much of the season, Kentucky's ball-screen defense has been an issue, and the numbers speak for itself. Mark Pope actually touched on Kentucky's emphasis at improving ball-screen defense.

"It's better than it was against Ohio State, so that's a positive. As a general philosophy, what we'd like to do is have people take mid-range two's. That's what all the numbers say and that's where you're trying to live. ...Sometimes we'll pre-switch things or trying to switch the switch after the fact. There's just so many ways that you're trying to manage ball-screens, and then trying to do it in live play. Situations arise sometimes, and that's the beautiful challenge. Can you do it without a timeout? Can you make an adjustment on the fly, and can you do it personnel wise? It's a major component of the game. It's something that everybody wrestles with and everybody's trying to get better at."
Pope on ball-screen defense struggles.

Kentucky will look to take that strength away from Vanderbilt and show some big improvements in that area on Saturday.