Takeaways From Vanderbilt Basketball's 88-56 Win Over Mississippi State

The losing streak is over for Vanderbilt basketball.

Vanderbilt blitzed Mississippi State early on Saturday and never looked back as it coasted to an 88-56 win over the Bulldogs in Starkville. For the first time in a few weeks, Vanderbilt basketball has something to smile about as it gets on the plane home.

Here's a few takeaways from the performance.

Vanderbilt needed to get right, and it did

For as good as Vanderbilt looked in its 16-0 start, it wiped away most of its positive momentum as it went to Texas and lost, fell in a shootout to Florida and lost to Arkansas. It didn’t need to fix everything on Saturday–and it didn’t–but it needed to get something positive going for it.

That it did.

Vanderbilt didn’t leave this thing up to chance. It blitzed Mississippi State early, indicated that it was significantly better than it showed in that three-game stretch and has something to celebrate on its flight back home to Nashville.

Perhaps this group has its flaws, but it sent out a reminder that it’s still one of the SEC’s best.

Evidently Mark Byington’s ball-busting film session translated

Byington called Vanderbilt’s blowout loss to Arkansas "embarrassing" and said that Vanderbilt’s Wednesday film session wouldn’t be enjoyable for just about anyone. In the hours before the film session, the Vanderbilt head coach got on the plane back from Fayetteville and got to work with some film that he likely didn’t want to. He did, though, and it looks like his deep dive worked.

At the very least, it lit a fire under this Vanderbilt team.

Before Mississippi State could blink, Vanderbilt was up 22-4 and had clearly demonstrated that it was tired of hearing about what it couldn’t do. Saturday demonstrated that Vanderbilt should still be taken seriously.

Forget the rebounding. Forget the defensive efficiency for a second. How about that offense? Don’t forget that it’s good enough to win a lot of games.

Vanderbilt is what it is, but that’s still a heck of a team

Here’s a sign that Vanderbilt can win as is. Mississippi State only had two less rebounds than it, but Vanderbilt never had any chance of losing this thing.

Vanderbilt won Saturday on the back of elite guardplay, actions that utilized five players on the floor that can all score it and a transition-oriented identity.

Perhaps its inherent deficiencies weren’t fixed on Saturday, but it didn't matter. Vanderbilt can win without fixing them.

Vanderbilt’s defensive metrics will normalize now

Vanderbilt’s underlying metrics always indicated that it was better on the defensive end than it showed through the first six games of league play, but Vanderbilt still had the least efficient defense in the league.

Saturday, it normalized those numbers as it shut down Mississippi State and held it to a season-low 56 points while forcing 17 turnovers.

Vanderbilt’s best defensive feat was holding SEC leading scorer Josh Hubbard to just seven points on 2-for-10 shooting. Give Chandler Bing and Vanderbilt’s go-to guards plenty of credit for that.

Duke Miles and Tyler Tanner made a statement

Think that’s the SEC’s best backcourt? Well. You just got some evidence to back up your case.

Tanner outdueled Hubbard as he went for 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting and recorded five assists. It wasn’t Tanner’s strongest outing of the season, but it was good enough to re-establish him as one of the league’s best guards.

Miles was a capable co-star on Saturday as he went for 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting and four assists, as well. His seven steals on Saturday were the most in program history since James Strong went for the same number in 1998.

Consider what those two did defensively, too, and this was a heck of a showing for Vanderbilt’s backcourt—which indicated that they can propel Vanderbilt’s to some special places.

They certainly did today.