The 2019 SEC Tournament gets started on Wednesday night in Nashville, and the Texas A&M Aggies will meet up with the Vanderbilt Commodores in first round action.
While Texas A&M made improvement down the stretch, it wasn’t enough to pull the Aggies out of the No. 11 seed in the conference as they lost back-to-back games to finish the regular season.
The struggles have led to plenty of speculation about Billy Kennedy’s future with the team, with a recent report from The Houston Chronicle suggesting that he won’t return next season.
Meanwhile, the Commodores battled through one of the worst regular seasons in SEC history, as they became the first winless team in league play in 65 years.
Let’s run through what to watch for in this matchup.
Game Details
- No. 11 Texas A&M (13-17, 6-12) vs. No. 14 Vanderbilt (9-22, 0-18)
- Location: Bridgestone Arena – Nashville, TN
- Game Date: Mar. 13, 2019
- Game Time: 9 p.m. EST
- Watch: SEC Network
Game Preview
- Spread: Texas A&M -3.5
- Over/Under: 132.5
- KenPom Projection: Texas A&M, 58 percent chance to win
- ESPN BPI Projection: Texas A&M, 60.7 percent chance to win
Both coaches find themselves having to deal with outside distractions heading into this one, so the mindset of each team will play an important role here.
The Aggies won the only regular season meeting between the two teams by earning a seven-point victory a week and a half ago, and it was a game that saw Vanderbilt go 5 of 30 from 3-point range.
Obviously, the Commodores simply can’t afford another one of those shooting performances if they want to win. Bryce Drew’s team hasn’t scored more than 67 points in a game since the Jan. 23 overtime loss to Tennessee, and that trend is certainly a huge reason for their struggles this season.
This is one of those situations where it’s tempting to pick Vanderbilt due to the Kennedy rumors.
However, the Commodores lost their last two regular season games by a combined 57 points, and that makes them difficult to rely on.
I’ll take the Aggies in what should be a pretty close game.
Season Predictions Record (straight up): 219-77
Prediction: Texas A&M 73, Vanderbilt 69
For more SEC basketball coverage, follow me on Twitter @theblakelovell.