Takeaways From Vanderbilt Basketball's SEC Tournament Win Over Tennessee

NASHVILLE—Something just happened for the first time since 1951.

Vanderbilt basketball hadn’t won against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament since that year, but here it is celebrating a win over the Volunteers. The Commodores are moving onto Saturday in the SEC Tournament.

Here’s a few takeaways on the magnitude of the win.

A signature win for Vanderbilt basketball

Vanderbilt’s players knew that they’d been considered little brother in this series for a significant amount of time, but those days are gone.

This Vanderbilt team can say they’re the best college basketball team in Tennessee as a result of winning Friday’s game and taking the season series from the Volunteers. The parity is real in the rivalry, as proven by the 12 lead changes on Friday, but it’s Vanderbilt who gets to declare itself as the victor.

That matters around these parts.

What a moment for Duke Miles

That looked like the Duke Miles that everyone around here knows is in there. That was better than anyone around here has seen, too.

Miles put together his best game since returning from injury late last month against Tennessee, and the best game of his Vanderbilt career. That changed the dynamic of Saturday’s game. Miles was patient, explosive, crafty and had stretches of Saturday’s game in which he was the best player on the floor.

Vanderbilt is still good without Miles at his best, but this group is significantly more dynamic with him at his best than it is without him operating at a high level. Miles will seemingly always be in double figures, but it’s a matter of efficiency these days.

Miles had that as he started the game 9-for-9 from the field and looked like an artist performing when he put the ball on the floor. When it was all said and done, Miles went for 30 points on 11-for-14 shooting from the field, 4-for-5 shooting from 3-point range and was Vanderbilt’s leading scorer on Saturday.

That makes Vanderbilt far more dangerous down the stretch.

The way this thing was played favored Tennessee more than the previous two matchups

It was pretty clear early on that this was going to be a game played to Tennessee’s liking, and Vanderbilt was going to have to fall in line and embrace it.

The scoring droughts and long stretches with a few field goals in a row missed kept this thing tight, and low scoring nearly the entire way. It was a margins game, unlike the up-tempo ones that Vanderbilt generally wants to play.

Tennessee also outrebounded Vanderbilt 46-to-34 on Saturday and flexed its muscles by grabbing 23 offensive rebounds for 24 second-chance points.

It didn’t matter, though.

Vanderbilt was better at the free throw line

Here’s the difference in the game; Vanderbilt and Tennessee both got to the free throw line 26 times on Friday.

Vanderbilt made 22. Tennessee made 16.

That’s how a series like this swings Vanderbilt’s way, even in a game that had fingerprints of a classic Tennessee performance all over it. Vanderbilt found a way because of what it did at the line.