How and what to watch for Vanderbilt vs. No. 10 Tennessee

After a week hiatus, the No. 10 Tennessee Volunteers will return to the hardwood floors of Thompson-Boling Arena on Saturday when welcoming the Vanderbilt Commodores for an in-state, SEC showdown.

The Vols (9-1, 3-1 SEC) were last seen dominating Texas A&M for a 68-54 victory in College Station last Saturday, a game in which sophomore guard Santiago Vescovi dropped 23 points and five rebounds.

So far this season, Rick Barnes’ club has been effective on both ends of the floor while taking care of the basketball with an SEC-leading 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio. On the offensive end, they have four players (Vescovi, Victor Bailey, John Fulkerson, Jaden Springer) averaging double-digits in points while on the defensive end, they’re limiting opponents to just 38 percent shooting on 20.2 shot attempts per game, good for 19th and sixth in the nation in those respective categories.

Vanderbilt (4-5, 0-3) has stumbled out of the blocks in SEC play with three-straight league losses to open up the conference schedule. They’re getting lit up by yielding a league-worst 53.7 field goal percentage and 84 points a game through those contests.

Their silver lining is the shooting of sophomore guard Scotty Pippen Jr., who is averaging 21.6 points per game. The son of the NBA Hall of Famer put up a double-double effort of 18 points and 12 assissts in the Commordores’ 84-81 loss to Mississippi State last Saturday.

Vanderbilt giving up 84 points a game on an SEC worst 55 percent FG%

Game Time/TV Channel/Streaming

You can watch Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee on Saturday, January 16th at 6:00 p.m. ET on the SEC Network, or you can stream it via the ESPN app with a cable or streaming service login that has the channel.

If you don’t have a cable login to access the SEC Network app, you can get a free trial from YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, AT&T TV Now, FuboTV, or Sling TV to stream it.

Point Spread, Totals, Odds, Trends

Point spread: Tennessee -18
Point Total: 137
Money line: Vanderbilt (+1200), Tennessee (-3335)

The Best Bet

Vandy is quite bad, but they’re getting better as the season continues. There’s not a lot of evidence the Jerry Stackhouse experiment is going well, but last season his team played hard and improved each week. Just too many points to concede here.

Pick: Vandy +18

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