What Went Wrong For Vanderbilt in Its First Loss of the Season

The Commodores lost to Texas Wednesday night in what was a game full of struggles on both sides of the floor.

Jan 14, 2026; Austin, Texas, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores guard Chandler Bing (7) reacts to a loss against the Texas Longhorns after the game at Moody Center. Mandatory Credit: Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

There was no history that was accomplished by No. 10 Vanderbilt in Austin, Texas Wednesday night as the Commodores took a 80-64 loss to Texas for its first loss of the season. For Vanderbilt, the loss was a missed opportunity to create a game of separation from the rest of the SEC early on in conference play, but the game did not play out the way Vanderbilt wanted it to.

The Vanderbilt team that showed up to Texas was uncharacteristic compared to the team that fans have seen the first 16 games this season. For Vanderbilt, there were struggles mostly defensively, but also offensively as they gave way to the loss and the manner in which it lost.

Defensively, there were multiple things that went wrong for Vanderbilt. Firstly, the Commodores got hammered in the battle on the glass. Texas outrebounded Vanderbilt 42-24 in the game, which includes losing the rebounds 31-14 on the defensive glass. The defensive rebounding stat is indicative of something: Vanderbilt was unable to give itself second chance opportunities and therefore left plenty of opportunities to score on the table.

“Our defense wasn’t as good as it has been tonight. Now, they made some tough shots, but still our defense needs to be better. I’m disappointed in our rebounding. We did not do what we’re supposed to,” Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington said.

Another thing that was a consistent issue for Vanderbilt throughout the game was the inability to keep Texas out of the paint. From the first minutes of the game, the Longhorns made it pretty obvious that they were going to attack Vanderbilt’s big men and try to get into the paint early and often. Vanderbilt simply had no answer. Texas finished the game with 30 points in the paint to Vanderbilt’s 14. Texas was 7-for-14 at layups and 5-for-7 on dunk attempts in addition to a few floaters on its short range shooting.

One of the players that was a constant problem for Vanderbilt defensively was Texas center Matas Vokietaitis. Vokietaitis was the main culprit that caused havoc in the paint offensively for Texas. He finished with 22 points on 7-for-9 shooting and was able to get to the free throw line nine times, making eight of his attempts. Vokietaitis’ size seemed to be a problem all night for Vanderbilt’s bigs and allowed him to take control of the paint throughout the game.

Vanderbilt’s foul trouble with guys like Jalen Washington and Devin McGlockton was a contributing factor as to why Texas was able to get into the paint and give Vanderbilt fits on defense, but even with the two of them on the floor the Commodores still struggled to stop Texas’ offense.

“Devin McGlockton’s second foul I think was a really hard call to take. Losing him for a majority of the half was tough. As a team we didn’t do well enough. But the big fella inside did cause us some problems,” Byington said.

Offensively, it was the first game where Vanderbilt failed to establish much of a rhythm at all scoring-wise. Its 64 points was by far the lowest output offensively this season and the first time Vanderbilt has scored under 77 points in a game. Of course, shooting just under 37 percent when the opponent shoots nearly 53 percent will never do a team any favors, and such was the case for the Commodores Wednesday.

What was most concerning to see from Vanderbilt on offense during the game was the multiple scoring droughts throughout the game. On three separate occasions, Vanderbilt went on a scoring drought of 2:30 or more. Add all that time up and see that Vanderbilt struggled to score for nearly a quarter of the game.

All in all, it is not a day to necessarily panic over Vanderbilt, but the rebounding struggle and lack of frontcourt depth could be a trend to follow if it is unable to get out of foul trouble more often.