NASHVILE– The Kentucky crowd was shocked Friday night as the No. 10 Vanderbilt Commodores put on an encore from last year’s Southeastern Conference tournament, defeating the No. 2 seeded Kentucky Wildcats 64-48.
The Commodores superior intensity as well as hot shooting pushed them to victory.
A baseline three pointer from Vanderbilt’s Rod Odom could summarize the night. With three minutes left in the first, which pushed the Vanderbilt lead to nine. The ball hit the rim three times before bouncing in. Everything was falling for the Commodores.
“We laid an egg and they played well,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said about his team’s performance tonight.
The Commodores knocked down their first three-point attempt; a crucial part of their game. Vanderbilt struggles to compete without the three ball.
As the first half wore on, a raucous Kentucky crowd couldn’t do anything about the 36 percent Kentucky shot from the field in the first half, which left the Wildcats trailing by as many as 14 in the first. Kentucky shot a dismal 35 percent from the field for the game.
Kentucky and Vanderbilt battled back and early in the half. The underdog Commodores led the almost the entire half. With the Wildcats consistently trailing, the blue crowd that filled the arena got quieter and quieter as the half went on.
Whenever Kentucky managed to put together a run, a Commodores bucket promptly followed it. Kentucky just could not get anything going in the first.
Kentucky forward Willie Cauley-Stein found himself in foul trouble early, which hurt Kentucky’s performance on both ends of the floor.
With 4:43 left in the half the Commodores won a loose ball steal that nearly silenced the arena. Vanderbilt’s hustle and intensity was superior to the Wildcats in the first.
Vanderbilt finished the first half with a 16-5 run, putting the team up by 12 with under a minute to go. The Commodores capped off the half with a jumper from the left corner my Shelby Moats, putting the team up by 14.
Kentucky gave their home-like crowd some life at the beginning of the second with an opening possession three by guard Julius Mays. Vanderbilt countered with a shot-clock buzzer beating layup.
Calipari took a timeout less than two minutes into the half after a Vanderbilt steal and layup, putting the Commodores up 15. Calipari called another timeout less than a minute after the first; following a Vanderbilt three that increased the Commodores lead to 18.
The Vanderbilt lead grew to 20 with 17 left in the second, leaving the angry blue crowd nearly silent.
“It was really fun just to, like, hear that crowd, hear all those people not say a word. All you could hear was our Vandy fans,” Vanderbilt guard Kyle Fuller said.
After the under 16 media timeout the Wildcats switched to a 2-3 zone that held the Commodores scoreless for five straight possessions. During this time the Wildcats put together a 10-0 run, which ended with a monstrous slam by guard Archie Goodwin, followed quickly by a Commodore timeout.
The Commodores switched to a 2-3 zone after the timeout, which helped the team put together a 5-0 run of their own. The run forced Calipari to use his third timeout with 10:55 left in the game. The Wildcats switched out of the zone after the timeout.
“We had no choice,” Calipari said in reference to his decision to switch out of a zone defense. “We had to try something different.”
Despite a valiant second half effort, Kentucky could never came closer than 11.
Vanderbilt took a 17-point lead into the last media timeout that it never relinquished, as the Commodores upset the Wildcats in front of a stunned Kentucky crowd.
“VU! VU!” rang out from a small group of Commodores fans in the closing minute of the game.
“I couldn’t be any more proud of our players,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stalling said, “We were not a very good team two-three months ago, and that team that I watched play tonight looked like a pretty dog-on good team to me.”