Vanderbilt Basketball's Win Over Kentucky Was A Win For Fit, Role Allocation and Coaching; Column

NASHVILLE—Jayden Leverett pranced towards the basket as standout Kentucky freshman Malachi Moreno trailed and gained ground on him, but as Leverett turned and delivered a pulverizing slam over Moreno it appeared as if Moreno was too late.

Moreno was a five-star recruit, is a USA Basketball product and is has enough of a brand to carry over 28,600 followers. Leverett–by comparison– has 1,957 and is the rare power-five big man in college basketball that didn’t require a bank-breaking payday. He was a three-star recruit that many evaluators questioned the pedigree of because of the limited nature of his high school competition, yet here he was slaying a proverbial dragon that seemingly has all the physical tools needed to hear his name called in the NBA Draft when this is all said and done.

The Leverett, Moreno comparison is as drastic as it gets between these two teams. Bringing up the perceived difference in weight class between the two bigs isn’t to say that Vanderbilt hasn’t had money to spend and hasn’t turned the corner in recruiting. Saying that would be painting a disingenuous narrative. With that being said, though, Kentucky had the biggest player-personnel budget in college basketball and has the biggest brand in the sport. Its head coach is a darn good recruiter, too.

Kentucky coach Mark Pope and company had their pick of the crop after a standout first season of his tenure. Vanderbilt’s three retained scholarship players included a three-star point guard, a talented frontcourt tweener and a sharpshooter who had yet to find a consistent home prior to this place.

Its transfer portal class included a Cornell transfer, a point guard with an obvious perimeter shooting deficiency, a piece in which it wanted to be a go-to scorer that had yet to take on that role at the power-five level and a former go-to guy on a historically bad Louisville team that hadn’t played competitive basketball in over a year. Its freshman class included Leverett, a three-star public school player from Georgia and a three-star project guard.

Yet there it was taking it to college basketball’s most expensive roster.

“It was huge, just to keep our momentum going,” Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner told Vandy on SI. “We just wanted to have energy and come in and that's a big game.  Obviously, Kentucky being a rival. It was a must win for us, and we came in with that attitude. It went our way.”

Vanderbilt ultimately took down Kentucky 80-55 on Tuesday night with a big-blue crowd on hand, led by as much as 28, held the Wildcats to 32.2% shooting from the field, scored 1.191 points per possession itself and ended the five-game winning streak that had quieted the hot seat conversation surrounding Pope. It did it without starting guard Duke Miles and consistent ballhandler Frankie Collins.

How’d it do it? By playing the same way that Pope’s team did a season ago when it was rolling–playing fast, sharing it, knowing defensive coverages, running good actions and demonstrating clear role allocation. This isn’t about Vanderbilt’s big-picture commitment to athletics or its increased investment in the basketball program, this is about basketball. Vanderbilt has a better coach and although its roster may not be more talented than Kentucky’s, Byington is getting more out of this group than Pope is with his group. Perhaps some of that has to do with its mindset.

“To do it this way was huge,” Vanderbilt wing Tyler Nickel told Vandy on SI. “I saw some stuff on social media before the game today talking about how they were going to out tough us. I think Justin Jackson said something about how were going to whoop us at Memorial or whatever crazy, dumb thing he said. But all of that just fuels the fire. We came out with something to prove.”

Despite its price tag, Kentucky’s roster wasn’t able to do what it wanted to as well as Vanderbilt could on Tuesday. It didn’t do it anywhere near as well as Vanderbilt did. It hasn’t all season. That’s why Vanderbilt was favored by 6.5-points on Tuesday, is ranked 15 spots higher in KenPom and has four more wins than this Kentucky team does. As unlikely as it seemed to be when each of these rosters got together in the summer, Vanderbilt is the type of team that Kentucky wants to be but isn’t.

Perhaps that says more about Kentucky than it does Vanderbilt–who is anyone kidding, of course it does–but it also says something about Vanderbilt. It says something about Byington.

This doesn’t happen in this fashion without complete belief in scheme, defined role allocation, a head coach with a pulse for the game and a smooth operator at point guard that can take this thing over.

Vanderbilt has all those things and it knows it. That’s why there was no court storm on Tuesday. That’s why no Vanderbilt player appeared to be looking over their shoulder when they went up by 20+ points on a traditional blue blood on Tuesday.

This Vanderbilt team is better than this Kentucky team. If anyone doubted that based off of the two team’s bodies of work, they figured it out on Tuesday.

“They played a great game,” Pope said. “They came out with a ton of fire and energy and intensity. They're dealing with some injuries and they came out and just played with a ton of fight. Put us on our heels right away and we never responded.”