Jerry Stackhouse confident Vanderbilt can ruin Senior Night for Kentucky

The Vanderbilt Commodores haven’t won a game inside Rupp Arena since January 20, 2007. They haven’t beaten Kentucky in general in 14 consecutive matchups, eight straight losses in the series for VU coach Jerry Stackhouse. John Calipari is 25-4 against the Commodores overall, zero losses at home and just two outside of the SEC Tournament.

Historically, the matchup has favored Kentucky by an overwhelming margin. This season alone, the Wildcats went down to Nashville and pulled off a 16-point road win on Jan. 24, one of the team’s six consecutive SEC wins between Jan. 14 and Feb. 4.

That Vanderbilt team, though, isn’t this Vanderbilt team. The Commodores have won six of their last seven, scoring at least 74 points in five of those games (four in wins). Since February 4, Stackhouse’s squad is ranked No. 5 in the country in offensive efficiency.

“Right now, Vandy is playing as well as anybody in our league,” Calipari said Monday evening. “They’re going to shoot 25-30 3-point shots, and if they make 11 or 12, 13, it’s gonna be a hard game for us to win.”

On that note, the Commodores are shooting 33.6% from three on the year on 25.1 attempts per contest, but have hit the 40% mark from deep four times in their last seven games. And in that same stretch, star big man Liam Robbins — who missed the first Kentucky matchup — is averaging an absurd 22 points and 10 rebounds per game. On the year, he’s averaging 15.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.3 blocks.

“They’re good, playing well, shooting well,” Calipari said. “Their big man (Robbins) is playing probably better than anybody in the league right now, shooting threes and scoring around the basket, blocking shots and rebounding. He’s really playing well.”

Stackhouse knows the history and how the first head-to-head battle went in Nashville. He knows how difficult it is to play inside Rupp Arena, especially when players like Oscar Tshiebwe, Jacob Toppin, Antonio Reeves and CJ Fredrick are behind honored on Senior Night — all players who have beaten him in the past. He gets it.

But he also understands that his team is playing as well as anyone in the SEC right now and are on the cusp of winning 10 games in the league for the first time since 2016-17. Kentucky is in sole position of third in the conference standings, but Vanderbilt is tied for fifth.

If there was ever a time for Stackhouse to get his first win against the Wildcats, he believes it’s now. And he’s confident the Commodores will be able to do what it takes to make that happen.

“We’re focused on Kentucky, going into a tough environment against a team that’s playing well,” Stackhouse said following his team’s win vs. Florida on Saturday. “But I’m confident in my group that we can go in there and get another one and hopefully get back home and close out our season the right way.”

Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt is set to tip-off inside Rupp Arena at 7 p.m. ET, live on SEC Network.