Live Blog: No. 4 Seed Vanderbilt Basketball vs. No. 5 Seed Tennessee, SEC Tournament

Get your popcorn ready. We have a rubber match at Bridgestone Arena this afternoon.

No. 4 seed Vanderbilt takes on No. 5 seed Tennessee for the third time this season as the Commodores play its first game at this year’s SEC Tournament on quarterfinal Friday. The first two meetings between the schools were just about what fans would expect from a heated rivalry: tightly contested, tense and full of ramifications that led to today’s game.

Tennessee got the best of Vanderbilt in the first game of the season, beating the Commodores in Memorial Gymnasium 69-65. But Vanderbilt got revenge on Tennessee’s senior day a week ago, taking down the Volunteers 86-82 in Knoxville. The win for Vanderbilt was paramount to how the Commodores were able to secure a double-bye while knocking their rivals out of double-bye contention.

That brings everything to today, where it is a fresh start for every team in college basketball this week as the calendar shifts to postseason basketball. What happened in the past does not matter today. What matters is the present. For Vanderbilt, the Commodores are hoping that a win over Tennessee helps get them firmly into the conversation for a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament next week.

Tipoff between Vanderbilt and Tennessee is set for approximately 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN following the game between Kentucky and Florida.

Follow the live blog here for live updates from today’s Vanderbilt-Tennessee game.

Live Blog

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2nd Half

My oh my Duke Miles is just going off. He is now 9/9 from the floor today with 23 in the game, 10 in the second half. He's hitting threes, driving into the lane, everything. Miles seems like he is 100% back and fully in rhythm. Tennessee leads 45-43.

Duke Miles is a perfect 7-for-7 still with 18 points as Vanderbilt only trails Tennessee by a point at the first media timeout. Okpara is going to the line on the other side of the break.

This has got to be the longest first minute to any half of a game I have experienced. Vanderbilt won an out of bounds challenge and now there is an issue with the clock. We are finally back to playing.

1st Half

HALF: We are all knotted up at 31 going into halftime. These two teams have struggled from long range, but Vanderbilt has found rhythm on offense inside the arc. Duke Miles has played incredible, we'll see if he can keep that up in the second half.

Vanderbilt is up 31-29 with 43.5 seconds to go in the half. Tyler Nickel just banked in a three for his second of the day. Duke Miles continues to lead the way with 13 points on 6/6 shooting. He is just oozing confidence today.

Tennessee leads 27-25 at the final media timeout of the half. Duke Miles is a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor while Tanner's got nine points to his name. After what was a slow offensive start for both teams, it seems that both teams have started to establish some rhythm.

Vanderbilt trails 19-18 at the under-eight timeout. Shots have started to fall a little more for both teams as Duke Miles is leading the way with nine points.

Not a lot of shotmaking going on so far. Vanderbilt is down 8-6 at the under 12 timeout.

It is 6-4 Tennessee at the 14:44 mark. Officials are going to the monitor to look at a possible cylinder foul on Jalen Washington. After the review, because it was a cylinder foul, the foul that was originally placed on J.P. Estrella has been changed to a foul on Washington.

Both Vanderbilt and Tennessee are off to slow starts offensively, shooting a combined 3-for-13 to start this game. Vanderbilt trails 6-2 at the first media timeout. Certainly a different start compared to last weekend.

Pregame

The official start time is indeed listed at 3 p.m. on ESPN.

Florida beats Kentucky in game and Vanderbilt and Tennessee have now entered the floor. Tip off will be right around 3 p.m. CT.

Florida leads Kentucky 62-50 at the under four-minute timeout. It certainly seems like Vanderbilt's tipoff will be around 3, but we will get an official time once this game concludes.

This Florida-Kentucky game is running pretty late. It is 2:12 p.m. and there is still 5:37 left in this game. I'd bet Vanderbilt does not start until closer to 3 p.m. or so.

This game is scheduled to tipoff at 2:30 p.m. CT. However, the game really begins 25 minutes after the conclusion of the Kentucky-Florida game. I would not be surprised if the tipoff ends up being more like 2:45-3 CT. I will have live updates of tip time for Vanderbilt.

This game is very interesting because of the fact that this is the first time Vanderbilt has seen Tennessee at full strength. The first meeting, Tennessee was without J.P. Estrella and the second time around the Volunteers were without Nate Ament. Today. Vanderbilt will see both on the floor together.

Vanderbilt On SI is of course in the house today for Vanderbilt’s SEC Tournament run, starting today. It is a huge game for Vanderbilt as it takes on Tennessee for the third time this season. Yesterday, Tennessee used a 20-0 run to knock out Auburn and create today’s matchup.

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