Where Do Vanderbilt Basketball's Metrics Stand Ahead of Matchup With Tennessee?
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Mark Byington’s Vanderbilt team is still without Duke Miles and Frankie Collins in the lineup, yet it’s 4-2 without those two on the floor. It’s starting to appear to be stretched too thin without Miles, though.
The Commodores took the floor on Wednesday as the No. 19 team in the AP Top with a top 15 offense in KenPom as well as the No. 20 defense before losing to Missouri in a heartbreaker. Prior to that outing, Vanderbilt’s last five performances outside of its loss to Oklahoma demonstrated its staying power on both ends. The most recent one saw it lead nearly the entire way against a well-coached A&M team.
That looked like the same Vanderbilt team that went up by as much as 28 points on their way to an 80-55 win over Kentucky, held the Wildcats to 25.0% shooting from 3-point range and 32.2% shooting from the field.
“We have a chance to have a good team,” Byington said after the Commodores’ opener. “When you’re a coach you want hope for the season, you want optimism for the season. Some people lie about it, but I can say the truth and say I’m excited about this group. We’ll get better and better.”
As Vanderbilt has taken a leap 2025-26–Byington’s second year at the helm–it’s does so with a roster including just three returning scholarship players in Tyler Tanner, Devin McGlockton and Nickel. All three of which have taken on significant roles on a team that possesses an eight-man transfer class headlined by Collins, North Carolina big man Jalen Washington, Washington transfer Tyler Harris, Miles and Cornell wing AK Okereke.
“The priority this recruiting season was to gain some more length, size,” Vanderbilt assistant coach Xavier Joyner told Vandy on SI over the summer. “We knew going into last year we were maybe the smallest team in the SEC regarding length, size so we wanted to upgrade that, which we did.”
That class has given the Commodores a chance to be a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament than they’ve ever been. Here’s where their rèsumè stands these days.
Quad wins and losses:
Quad 1A: 1-3
Wins: UCF
Losses: Florida, Arkansas, Texas
Quad 1: 7-4
Wins: Kentucky, Alabama, UCF, Wake Forest, Saint Mary’s, VCU, Auburn
Losses: Texas, Arkansas, Florida
Quad 2: 6-1
Wins: LSU, Memphis, South Carolina, SMU, Mississippi State, Texas A&M
Loss: Oklahoma
Quad 3: 2–0
Lipscomb, Western Kentucky
Quad 4: 5-0
Eastern Kentucky, Texas Southern, Arkansas Pine Bluff, Central Arkansas, New Haven
Other valuable metrics:
NET: 15th
Torvik: 12th
KenPom: 12th
Strength of record: 12th
KPI: 9th
Wins above bubble: 17th
BPI: 14th
NCSOS: 138th
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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