Two teams coming off wins over top-10 opponents meet in Tuscaloosa, Ala., when Vanderbilt travels to No. 4 Alabama on Tuesday evening.
The Crimson Tide (15-3, 4-1 SEC) excelled with a 102-97 win at then-No. 8 Kentucky on Saturday, marking Alabama's fifth straight road win. That followed a rare home loss (74-64) to Ole Miss four days prior, snapping an eight-game home winning streak.
"I told our guys after the loss Tuesday, we didn't deserve to win with our preparation going into the game and our effort in the game," coach Nate Oats said. "We need to deserve to win from now on, and it better start with guys putting so much time and effort in they're just not going to surrender." The Commodores (15-3, 3-2) got their biggest home win in years with a 76-75 home defeat of sixth-ranked Tennessee on Saturday.
It was a marquee win for first-year coach Mark Byington at Vanderbilt, who admitted to "thinking about things we got to do next," as fans stormed the floor following the upset. "It's so daunting when you look at everything and Alabama's a Final Four team," Byington said. "I don't think it's impossible to overlook them.
A tough environment, road environment. So what we'll do is what we'll do. Same things.
We chop wood, carry water. Come back tomorrow, let's figure out what we did right. Figure out what we did wrong.
Prepare the best we can for Alabama." Both teams like to play fast (Alabama is No. 1 in KenPom.
com 's adjusted tempo metric, Vanderbilt is 52nd) and use a lot of pla.