Vanderbilt has quietly given Kentucky issues at SEC Tournament

John Calipari owns the SEC Tournament. The 13th year head coach is 23-5 at the postseason event and Kentucky will be chasing its seventh time since 2010 this weekend in Tampa. However, the Vanderbilt Commodores have quietly been a thorn in UK’s side.

Kentucky will enter Friday’s night contest owning a 12-game winning streak in the series with the Commodores and Calipari is 22-4 against Vanderbilt since taking over the Kentucky basketball program. Jerry Stackhouse is 0-6 against Kentucky with three consecutive regular-season sweeps.

Despite all of that, history tells us that the quarterfinal matchup could be sneaky.

Unranked vs. ranked success

Since the SEC Tournament’s rebirth in 1979, Vanderbilt owns a 3-2 record against Kentucky. Two of those wins were when an unranked Vandy squad knocked off a top-10 Kentucky team.

In 1981, Vanderbilt beat Joe B. Hall’s Kentucky team 60-55 in the SEC Tournament. The Commodores entered the game with a 13-13 mark on the season but found a way to pull off a big upset to stun a good UK team led by Sam Bowie.

A decade ago, Kentucky was a college basketball juggernaut in 2012. The Wildcats had an unblemished record as Anthony Davis and Co. moved onto the SEC title game in New Orleans. However, Kevin Stallings’ team led by John Jenkins found a way to pull the upset to give the Commodores their first SEC Tournament title since 1951.

In the latest SEC Tournament meeting, an unranked Vanderbilt team will face No. 5 Kentucky. The Wildcats will attempt to avoid the same fate as the 1981 and 2012 teams.

Opening round victory

After Oklahoma defeated Baylor, UK is now just three wins away from claiming a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2015. The Wildcats could be headed to Chicago for the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. However, the Wildcats must take care of business in Tampa first.

In 2013, Kentucky also just needed a win to lock up an NCAA Tournament bid in a game they were favored against Vanderbilt. Coming off a season sweep, the expectation was that UK would take care of business.

Well, Vanderbilt thumped Kentucky 64-49 sending Calipari’s third team at Kentucky to the NIT.

For some strange reason, Vanderbilt has been a problem for Kentucky at the SEC Tournament. Calipari has yet to beat the Commodores in the postseason. The Big Blue will look to change that on Friday.