Jarring Stats From Vanderbilt Basketball's Blowout Loss to Arkansas

Vanderbilt basketball fell to Arkansas on Tuesday. Here's where it went so poorly.

Jan 20, 2026; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores guard Duke Miles (2) drives against Arkansas Razorbacks guard D.J. wagner (21) during the second half at Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas won 93-68. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

Mark Byington said it, and it appears to be the best way to describe what happened to Vanderbilt basketball in its 93-68 loss to Arkansas on Tuesday. 

“Just kind of speaking from the heart, that was embarrassing,” Byington said in his postgame radio hit. “That's the first time this year that I felt like we didn't compete, and we weren't tough and we got on our heels right away. They’re an athletic team who plays great in this building, we know it, but at the same time,, I got to do a better job with our guys, 'cause that wasn't who we are.”

Here’s some context as to why Byington feels that way. 

Contextualizing Vanderbilt’s loss to Arkansas

Vanderbilt trailed by as much as 31 on Tuesday–which was its largest deficit of the season. 

Arkansas outscored Vanderbilt 21-8 on the fastbreak on Tuesday. 

Arkansas led for the entirety of Tuesday’s game. 

Vanderbilt was outshot 57.8%-to-37.9% from the field.

That was a disaster, a nightmare and whatever you want to call it for Vanderbilt basketball. Vanderbilt was outclassed in just about every way on Tuesday night. One team on the floor looked like a second-weekend team while the other one didn’t. 

Spoiler alert, Vanderbilt wasn’t the team that looked like a second-weekend team. 

By the first media timeout, Vanderbilt guard Mike James was on the floor rolling around in pain, Vanderbilt was trailing 9-2–and could’ve been trailing by more had Arkansas made more open looks–and the contingent of Arkansas fans on hand was calling the Hogs. The scene was reminiscent of a superhero in the moments after it lost its powers. 

Rebounding and defensive struggles 

Vanderbilt was outrebounded 39-27 by Arkansas on Tuesday night. 

Arkansas outrebounded Vanderbilt 10-9 on the offensive glass

Vanderbilt is now last in the SEC in defensive efficiency through conference play, last in opponent two-point percentage and is 13th in effective field goal percentage. 

Vanderbilt’s numbers on the glass on the season don’t indicate it has a problem, but its SEC metrics indicate that this wasn’t a fluke. The Commodores are last in the SEC in offensive rebounding percentage and eighth in defensive rebounding. They’ve been outrebounded by 7.16 rebounds per game in league play. 

It’s past time to worry about those obvious deficiencies.

SEC regular season title implications

In the past 10 seasons, the SEC winner has lost two league games or more in a row just three times. Every team has lost two-games or more, but only six league winners have lost three or more games in conference. Three league winners have lost four-games or more.

Vanderbilt has now lost three-consective games and has seemingly fallen out of the SEC title race–at least for now. Only one SEC champion in the past 10 years has endured a three-game losing streak, now Vanderbilt has. 

KenPom has this season’s projected league winner–Florida–projected to lose four games by the time this is all said and done. No team is projected by the model to come within a game of Florida–Vanderbilt and Alabama were projected to finish in a tie for second with six losses prior to Tuesday night.