Takeaways From Vanderbilt Basketball's SEC Semifinal Win Over Florida

NASHVILLE—Vanderbilt basketball just put on a show.

Vanderbilt pulled off a 91-74 win over No. 4 Florida and had played perhaps its best game of the season, now it's on to the SEC Championship.

Here's a few takeaways from that outing.

That was the best win of the Mark Byington tenure

This wasn’t Vanderbilt just beating Florida. This was it proving that Todd Golden’s team–which had won 11 games in a row prior to Saturday’s game–isn’t invincible. This was Vanderbilt punking the No. 4 team in the country on a neutral floor.

Florida appeared to be invincible in the midst of a 11-game winning streak, but those days are over.

Vanderbilt was the better team from start to finish on Saturday. It’s had big wins under Byington—it’s even had two in the last week—but none of them stack up to this.

Vanderbilt just re-affirmed that it can play with the best teams in the country

Florida entered Saturday’s SEC semifinal on an 11-game winning streak–which has become one of the country’s longest all season. That stretch featured it looking immortal for a significant portion of its season and cemented the Gators as a one seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Vanderbilt proved that it isn’t, though. In doing so, it did something for itself.

This group indicated Saturday that it isn’t limited to an NCAA Tournament ceiling if it has it when it needs to. Vanderbilt just made a statement that it can compete with a one seed if it gets itself to the point in which it gets on the same court as one.

Tyler Tanner just immortalized himself in a way

As Tanner ripped Florida big man Alex Condon at the three-point line and went the other way for a score, he became this program’s leader for steals in a season with 78. Former Vanderbilt guard James Strong previously held the record. Vanderbilt still has at least one more game left, too.

Tanner’s ability to get out and attack at the initial contact point is paralleled only by Duke Miles on this Vanderbilt team. In the program’s history, there’s very few that have the point of attack acumen or saviness off the ball that Tanner has.

None of those players can say they’ve done what he has.

Vanderbilt’s bigs answered the call

Florida’s frontocourt has long appeared to be the best in the country because of Alex Condon, Reuben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten, but Vanderbilt made a statement that indicated that it can hang with groups like that.

The Gators’ three-headed monster took Vanderbilt’s lunch money on the glass as it outrebounded Vanderbilt 38-to-23, but that didn’t define the matchup.

Vanderbilt big man Devin McGlockton went for 12 points on 3-for-4 shooting from 3-point range while Jalen Washington went for 17 points on eight shots. That changed the dynamic of Saturday’s game.

The difference; the turnover battle

Vanderbilt was outrebounded significantly by Florida, but it really didn’t matter all that much.

The Commodores still took more shots than Florida as a result of winning the turnover battle 14-to-8. When it got the extra shots, Vanderbilt scored 24 points off of turnovers while Florida went for just 14.

Vanderbilt’s defensive identity centers on being disruptive, and this one affirmed it.

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