Kentucky will see a different Vanderbilt in the rematch

Wednesday night, Kentucky Basketball will play a different Vanderbilt than the one it beat by 16 points in Nashville, 69-53, back in January. This time around, the Commodores have their star player available and they are one of the hottest teams in the conference entering the rematch in Lexington. The season finale in Rupp Arena, Vanderbilt hopes to spoil the Senior Night fun with a tenth conference victory. Vanderbilt hasn’t reached double-digit SEC wins since the 2016-17 season.

Here’s why it’s a completely different matchup than the first meeting on January 24:

Vanderbilt on fire

Believe it or not, Vanderbilt is playing like one of the best teams in the Southeastern Conference right now after starting conference play with six losses in the first nine games. In the last four and a half weeks, Vanderbilt has won six of seven, including victories against No. 10 Tennessee, Auburn, and two against Florida. The one loss in the seven-game run came against LSU, oddly.

Vanderbilt is in a tie with Auburn and Missouri for fifth place in the SEC standings.

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

Liam Robbins is healthy (and on fire, too)

One of the major turning points in Vanderbilt’s season has been the return and the play of Liam Robbins, the team’s star big man. The seven-footer is averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds in the seven games since Vanderbilt turned a corner following losses to Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Alabama, currently the top three teams in the league. Robbins missed the Kentucky and Texas A&M games.

Calipari said he is, “playing probably better than anybody in the league right now, both shooting threes, scoring around the basket, blocking shots, rebounding. He’s really playing well.”

Not Kentucky’s first run-in with Robbins, he played in two of the three Kentucky-Vanderbilt games last season. In fact, Robbins, a Minnesota transfer, made his Vanderbilt debut with 14 minutes off the bench in Rupp Arena. He grabbed two rebounds and did not score in the loss.

Robbins ran into Oscar Tshiebwe again in Tampa when Kentucky knocked Vanderbilt out of the SEC Tournament in the quarterfinals. In his 12th career game at Vanderbilt, Robbins played 23 minutes with four made baskets, four rebounds, and four blocked shots.

Malik Dia no longer on fire

Though Kentucky won by 16 in Memorial Gym, the Wildcats couldn’t stop Vanderbilt freshman Malik Dia from a breakout performance with his four three-pointers and a career-high 14 points. Before his star was born against Kentucky, Dia had only made more than one three-pointer in a game one time, against Morehead State in the second week of the season, and he’s made only one other three-pointer in SEC play for a total of five. Further, Dia has one other game with more than five points, that game against Morehead State, and he hasn’t seen the floor since Vanderbilt’s loss to Alabama on January 31.

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We’ll have lots more on the Cats’ matchup and what to expect on Senior Night as the countdown to home finale continues…