Three Takeaways From Vanderbilt Basketball's Upset Over No. 24 Ole Miss
The Vanderbilt basketball (18-9, 6-8) program put it's three-game losing streak to bed on Saturday with an important home victory over the No. 24 Ole Miss Rebels (19-8, 8-6). The Commodores moved into 10th place in the SEC with the win and with four games remaining in the regular season appear poised to shame the media that slotted them to finish last in the league.
The Commodores' win keeps them on the positive side of the NCAA Tournament bubble as the season comes to it climax. Let's look at three takeaways from Vanderbilts 77-72 win over No. 24 Ole Miss.
Memorial Magic
The Vanderbilt Commodores claimed their third ranked victory of the season on Saturday, adding No. 24 Ole Miss to the resume along with No. 6 Tennessee and No. 9 Kentucky. The 'Dores got all three wins at home as head coach Mark Byington and his program is restoring Memorial Gymnasium as a house of horrors for the opposition.
Vanderbilt's home crowd helped the Commodores jump into a 10-point advantage by the first media timeout. The home side didn't let up eventually stretching the lead out to 19-points before Ole Miss began to find its footing. The energy at home sent the Commodores into the break with an eight-point advantage as the crowd fueld the upset win.
Memorial is ROCKIN' 🔊🔊 pic.twitter.com/g7qC5we1ql
— Vanderbilt Men's Basketball (@VandyMBB) February 22, 2025
The Commodores are 13-2 inside Memorial with losses coming early in the year to Drake and last week to No. 1 Auburn. Five of Vanderbilt's six conference wins have come at home this season and the Commodores welcome a ranked Missouri team and a quality Arkansas team into Memorial to close out the home schedule.
Second Half Lesson Learned
The Commodores have struggled in SEC play closing out games as they've found themselves with leads in multiple conference games this season only to see Vanderbilt end up on the wrong end of the scoresheet.
That wasn't the case on Saturday as the Rebels bridged Vanderbilt's eight-point halftime advantage to wrestle the games advantage back and forth throughout the second half. However, instead of folding late, like the Commodores did in losses to Tennessee, Florida and Oklahoma, Vanderbilt went on a 9-0 run in the games's last five minutes to seize control and ultimately claim victory.
"I think sometimes too it's road and home and the crowd was great today," Byington said. "They've been supportive all year, the student section was tremendous. They lift us up in a down time and we need that. There's a lot of adversity on the road. Kentucky got us, we played well enough to win at Tennessee. I don't care if you want to say first-half, second-half, we had a lot of bad breaks go against us that were unfortunate that we played good enough basketball to win that game. But there's some other times where you can do your best and the other team makes a run. Everybody's going to have urgency in the second half. My staff and I - about a week and a half ago we had a long meeting and we were writing down all these ideas for second half and adjustments and different things we might need and listed all our problems, ended up being a long meeting. I think we're addressing some of them, got some more to fix. I do think we're still learning along the way. We're situational. Got to do better situational and also stopping runs. Our second half defense probably been the biggest hole."
Vanderbilt got the stops in the second half needed to win, holding Ole Miss to just three-of-12 from the floor in the game's final eight minutes.
Chris Mañon's Moment
The Commodores are usually led offensively by Jason Edwards or Devin McGlockton as the pair led the team in scoring. Edwards and McGlockton still had 15 and 10 respectively, but it was Chris Mañon who shoulded the biggest load on Saturday scoring 16.
Mañon came to Vanderbilt by way of Cornell where he averaged double-digit points in the Ivy league for the last two seasons. His Saturday effort was his highest scoring output in a Vandy uniform and his second time in double-digits in conference play after he scored 10 against Missouri in January.
"Coach always says 'Wake up in a stance'," Mañon said. "So I kind of felt that today and just tried to let the game come to me and do what I do best which is drive and get to the rim."
He was highly efficient in his action making four-of-five from the floor including both his 3-point attempts, but scoring wasn't his only impact. Mañon chipped in seven rebounds, four steals, three blocks and an assist to earn the headline.
The Commodores return to action on Wednesday as they hit the road heading west to take on the No. 7 Texas A&M Aggies at 6 p.m. CT in Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.
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Joe Gaither oversees videos and podcasts for Alabama Crimson Tide On SI/BamaCentral. He began his sports media career in radio in 2019, working for three years in Tuscaloosa covering the University of Alabama and other local high school sports. In 2023 he joined BamaCentral to cover a variety of Crimson Tide sports and recruiting, in addition to hosting the “Joe Gaither Show” podcast. His work has also appeared on the Boston College, Missouri and Vanderbilt web sites.