How Vanderbilt Basketball Took Its Third Consecutive Loss

It is still not time to panic yet, but Tuesday night was not an encouraging sign to the eyes of Vanderbilt fans. No. 15 Vanderbilt went to No. 20 Arkansas and suffered its third straight loss by a score of 93-68.

From the getgo, Arkansas jumped on Vanderbilt early with a 18-4 lead in the early minutes and opened up a 20-point lead midway through the first half and Vanderbilt could not recover from it. The Commodores did throw a couple punches against Arkansas, but they were never able to generate enough momentum or a big enough run to put any doubt in Arkansas’ mind. From both sides of the ball, there were a multitude of things that went wrong for Vanderbilt in the loss.

Paint Defense

First and foremost, Arkansas made it apparent from the beginning that it was going to attack the pain. The Razorbacks did their homework on Vanderbilt’s trip to Texas a week ago because Arkansas drove to the hoop early and often. Whether it was driving to the basket, putting up floaters or throwing up alley-oops, Arkansas was sharp from close distance.

In fact Arkansas shot 9-for-12 on layups and was 13-for-15 on dunks in the game. In total, Vanderbilt allowed 50 points in the paint. If Vanderbilt thought its paint defense against Texas was bad, then Tuesday’s performance was even worse.

Vanderbilt just could not stand up to Arkansas’ physicality in the paint. When Vanderbilt stood face-to-face with a Razorback driving the ball, it simply did not match the intensity and physicality that Arkansas was running down the floor with.

"There was nothing we could do to stop them. We tried two different forms of man-to-man. We tried a zone. We were just on our heels and didn't compete on defense. When you're backing up the whole time, you're not getting into somebody and playing aggressive defense," Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington said.

Two guys that Vanderbilt could not slow down were the guys it needed to slow down: Arkansas guards Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas. Acuff Jr. finished with 17 points and Thomas finished with 13. Acuff was the main culprit in attacking Vanderbilt’s defense with intensity and physicality.

Lack of Offensive Rhythm

Vanderbilt could not establish any rhythm in the game. The offense was consistently inconsistent and it was mostly inconsistent. The Commodores came out of the gates shooting 1-for-9 and getting themselves into the early 20-point hole.

A big reason for that was the availability of guard Duke Miles. Miles committed two fouls in the first seven minutes of the game and set Vanderbilt back on offense and defense. Accordingly, Arkansas capitalized and defended well. Vanderbilt did find a stretch in which it made six of eight shot attempts and helped cut the deficit to 11 by halftime thanks to Tyler Nickel hitting five three-pointers in the first half.

But in the middle eight minutes – the final four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half – Vanderbilt only showed up offensively for the first half of the most crucial minutes of the game. By the time the under 16-minute media timeout came in the first half, Arkansas had gotten its lead up to 17 points.

"I just thought we were so passive in the first five minutes. We did not make good decisions with the ball. We weren't connected on offense," Byington said on his team's offensive performance.

General Defense And Rebounding

Rebounding was once again a concern in Vanderbilt’s loss. The Commodores were bothered by Arkansas’ length and it was apparent from the beginning. Vanderbilt allowed Arkansas to build its lead off rebounds as the Razorbacks got 12 of the first 14 rebound opportunities.

In this three-game losing streak Vanderbilt is on, it has been out rebounded by 10 or more in all three games. In fact it is the fourth time in six conference games that Vanderbilt has been minus-10 or worse in the rebound margin. Vanderbilt’s size in the paint has become a growing disadvantage on the boards.

Generally, Vanderbilt allowed Arkansas to put on an offensive show. The Razorbacks shot 57.8 percent for the game and hit 9-for-22 from three-point land.

"That was embarrassing. I didn't do a good job prepping them. We came into the game with the wrong mentality. That's the first time this year I felt like we didn't compete and we weren't tough," Byington said.

The time to panic over the season is not yet here. However, Vanderbilt has continued to have growing concerns looming over its head. Vanderbilt does have a favorable stretch on its schedule coming up and should have chances to stack wins and get right. But for now, Vanderbilt has got to answer the call against the size of some teams in the SEC.

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