One of the most surprising teams in the country this season has been Vanderbilt, which is a contender in the SEC that you can consider in the College Basketball Betting.

Are the Commodores for real? We should get an idea Tuesday when they visit No. 4 Alabama, with the Tide as double-digit favorites on the NCAAB odds.

College Basketball Betting: Vanderbilt vs Alabama & TV Info

NCAAB Moneylines: Alabama -909 / Vanderbilt +573
When: Tuesday, 7 PM ET
Where: Coleman Coliseum
TV: SEC Network
Stream: ESPN+

College Basketball Betting Analysis: Vanderbilt

The Commodores come off one of their biggest wins in decades, a 76-75 home upset of No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday. The Volunteers went on an 8-0 run in the last 11 seconds, but Chris Mañon came up with a game-saving block on Chaz Lanier to keep Vandy’s lead. Tennessee was fouled with two seconds remaining, but missed the second free throw to bring the final to 76-75.

Masterpiece 🖼️ pic.twitter.com/ouSbogtr8H

— Vanderbilt Men's Basketball (@VandyMBB) January 19, 2025

Against Ranked Teams

The last time the Dores took down a ranked opponent was against No. 23 Kentucky (March 10, 2023). The last time Vandy took down a top-10 team was No. 6 Tennessee during the 2023 season at Memorial. Mark Byington, Vandy’s fourth different coach to face off against Rick Barnes during his 10 years with the Vols, matched the lone win by Jerry Stack house and Bryce Drew each. Only Kevin Stallings left Vandy with a winning mark over Barnes’ Vols.

Top Players

Vanderbilt (15-3, 3-2 SEC) had four scorers in double figures, led by Jason Edwards’ game-high 18 points, while Jaylen Carey earned his second double-double of the year with 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Tyler Nickel added 13 points on 4-of-7 from range for the Dores and AJ Hoggard posted 11 points, dishing a team-high six assists. Vandy’s bench dominated Tennessee, outscoring the Vols 20-8.

In addition, Vandy had its way with Tennessee in the paint despite being one of the shortest teams in the country. The Commodores won the rebounding battle, 29-25, and outscored the Volunteers in the paint, 34-28. Vandy grabbed 12 offensive rebounds for 18 second-chance points.

Rick Barnes

“They had a high level of emotion going, which is what you would expect, being at home and playing Tennessee,” UT coach Barnes said. “I thought we should have made them see if they could have made some shots there. And they cleaned it up on the backside. But again, you got to give them credit for carving out that position to be there. And I didn’t think we had the same thrust on the offensive boards. I looked at a few clips at halftime, that we normally need to have. But tough game. Hard fought. And again, I got to give Vanderbilt a lot of credit. I think Mark (Byington) had his guys ready to play.”

The Sanction

Fans stormed the court for the first sellout at Memorial Gym since 2019 after the Commodores won for only the second time in the last 14 games of the series. It was a costly win, as Vanderbilt was fined $250,000 by the Southeastern Conference for allowing fans to storm the court. The school was penalized for a second offense under the conference’s revised access to competition area policy. The first violation — and a $100,000 fine — came when fans stormed the football field after a 40-35 victory over Alabama in October.

Against Non-Conference Teams

With a non-conference strength of schedule ranked 347th nationally by KenPom.com, the Commodores needed something more than victories over conference bottom-feeders LSU and South Carolina to prove their legitimacy following a 13-1 start. On Saturday, it came in memorable fashion. Vandy is now 103-269 all-time vs. ranked teams, and 72-90 at home in such matchups.

Mark Byington

“I’m an even keel guy, so you’re not getting much out of me,” Byington said after the big win. “I’m on to the next. I’m on to Alabama. I walked off the court, didn’t want to get run over, and then I was thinking about things we got to do next. You celebrate things like this as a staff in the spring and the off season. But right now we know it’s a challenge coming next.”

The Rankings

Vanderbilt ranks 18th in the nation in turnover rate, committing a TO on just 14.5 percent of its possessions this season. On the flip side, the Dores’ defense creates turnovers on 22.9 percent of opposing possessions, which ranks eighth nationally. Vanderbilt sits seventh among all D-I teams with a 14.5 percent steal rate. Vandy ranks 29th nationally, committing just 10.2 turnovers per game. The Commodores rank fifth nationally in turnover margin (+5.9) and seventh in steals per game (10.2). In SEC action, Vanderbilt ranks third in steals with 43 through five games. The Dores are also third in turnover margin at +3.4.

Vanderbilt is searching for back-to-back wins over Top 10 teams for the first time since 1993.

Alabama Basketball Analysis

The Crimson Tide also comes off a big win, 102-97 at No. 8 Kentucky, on Saturday. UK grabbed a 56-52 lead on Brandon Garrison’s dunk with 16:13 left. But Alabama responded with a 14-2 run. All-American guard Mark Sears started the big sequence with a jumper. He also picked up an assist when Aden Holloway’s 3-pointer made it 66-58 with 12:33 remaining. Kentucky had more second-chance points (20-15), bench points (31-24) and points in the paint (44-34). However, Alabama made 29 of 34 at the free throw line, compared to just 16 of 20 for UK.

Grant Nelson

The Tide’s Nelson recorded a double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds, while Sears added 24. It marked UA’s first win in Rupp Arena when playing a top 10 UK team since 2002. For Nelson, it marked his fifth double-double of the year, while Sears added a game high nine assists compared to just one turnover in the win. Together, Nelson (9-10) and Sears (5-5) also came up clutch at the free throw line, combining to go 14-15 in the win.

Nate Oats

“Couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys after the poor showing (last Tuesday). They kind of bounced back and played the way we did here today. This is an excellent team we beat. They’re a high-powered offensive team. We gave up too many threes there late, but up until we were up there nine, eight or nine and there at the end of the game, I thought we’d done a pretty good job outside the one stretch we’d given up the five in the first half,” Coach Oats said.

#RollTide | @TheHoopHerald pic.twitter.com/25Zgb4i7a6

— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) January 19, 2025

Mark Sears

He moved to No. 14 on Alabama’s all-time scoring list with 1,600 career points, passing Robert Horry. Sears is the second player in school history with 1,500 points, 300 assists and 200 three-pointers in their career, along with Brian Williams. Since 2004, Sears is the 29th player in Division I history to have 60 career games scoring 20 points or more, and currently the only active player in Division I.

Sears is the only player in the SEC to rank in the top-five in both scoring (No. 3, 18.6 ppg) and assists (No. 5, 4.5 apg). During conference play, Sears ranks second in points (20.1 ppg) and assists (6.3 assists apg) in the SEC. Aden Holloway is shooting a league-best 69.0 percent from the field during SEC contests.

The Record

Saturday’s win was Oats’ 24th over a top 25 team during his tenure at UA, placing one victory from tying the program’s record for victories over AP Top 25 teams for a head coach (Wimp Sanderson, 25).

Against Ranked Teams

Alabama now has six top-25 wins on the season, one shy of matching the 2022-23 squad’s school record of seven such victories. It was Alabama’s third 100-point game versus an AP-ranked team this season, the most in a season since the 1948-49 season. The Tide’s three AP top-10 wins are the most in a season since the 1982-83 season.

The Ofensive

Since Oats arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2019-20, Alabama has won a league-best 66 games during SEC play. The Tide boast the No. 1 scoring offense in the country, averaging 90.2 points per game. Since the start of last season, Alabama has scored 100 points or more in 15 games, which ranks No. 1 throughout Division I.

Series History

This is the only scheduled meeting this season if you want to think to plan this game in the College Basketball Betting. Last year they also played just once and both were unranked when the Tide won 78-75 in Nashville. — Mark Sears scored 21 points, and Rylan Griffen added 16 points, and Alabama held on in the final minute. Vanderbilt was led by Lawrence and Jason Rivera-Torres with 20 points each. Ezra Manjon added 16 points. Overall, Alabama leads 77-71 and has won the past three. Vandy is searching for its first win in Tuscaloosa since 2015.

POLL ALERT: Auburn a unanimous No. 1 in AP Top 25, Duke up to No. 2; Michigan State into top 10, Louisville ends 4-year poll drought.

Full poll: https://t.co/ZJG5mgWrsa pic.twitter.com/ubdzCEut4W

— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) January 20, 2025

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