Bruce Pearl knows that No. 1 Auburn will be challenged at Vanderbilt as the Tigers try to bounce back from their first Southeastern Conference loss on Tuesday in Nashville, Tenn.
A 90-81 defeat to Florida on Saturday was also Auburn’s first home loss since Feb. 17, 2024, but it didn’t drop the Tigers (21-2, 9-1 Southeastern Conference) from their perch atop the Top 25.
Vanderbilt (17-6, 5-5) has built a 12-1 home record after knocking off Texas 86-78 on Saturday. The Commodores’ lone home loss came Jan. 7 against then-No. 14 Mississippi State.
“You’ve got to embrace the grind,” Pearl said. “There’s no question it’s a grind. It’s a grind for everybody. We go to Vanderbilt where they’ve only lost once at home and have beaten Kentucky, Texas and Tennessee. We know that is going to be a tough place to win.”
Auburn senior forward Johni Broome leads five Tigers players in double figures with 18.1 points per game. He also pulls down a team best 10.9 rebounds. He had 18 points, 11 rebounds and six assists against Florida and Miles Kelly scored a game-high 22 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Gators’ sharp shooting.
Even though the Tigers had their 14-game winning streak snapped, Pearl saw the potential for a loss was creeping up on the horizon.
“We’ve had greater effort-energy or have matched the effort-energy of every team that we’ve played,” Pearl said. “I knew we were due for a letdown.”
Against Texas, Vanderbilt overcame a 39-35 halftime deficit to scrap their way to victory. Neither team lit it up from the field — both barely shot 40 percent from the floor — but the Commodores held a 25-11 advantage in second-chance points.
Vanderbilt also held a 26-17 edge in bench points, where it was led by Jaylen Carey’s breakout performance. The James Madison transfer followed coach Mark Byington to Vanderbilt and had a double-double with game-high tallies of 18 points and 14 rebounds.
“I’m just trusting my guys more,” Carey said. “I’m kind of like the guy who knew the whole system, so it was kind of rough for me at first because I’m having to teach everybody, like if we just trust the offense it’s going to come to all of us. That was my frustration at the beginning of the year, but now it’s starting to come through more, just putting everybody in positions that I know they can excel at for sure.”
Tyler Nickel and Jason Edwards each tallied 17 points for Vanderbilt. Edwards leads the Commodores in scoring at 17.6 points per game.
Byington noted there are no easy games on the rest of the Commodores’ schedule, and effort matters for Vanderbilt.
“I think we’ve got to be gritty and pesky,” Byington said. “Like, we’ve got to play hard, extremely hard. If we don’t do that, we’re not going to win any games or many more games. So we understand that. We coach that way, our guys get it and they’re built that way. They’re competitive. They’re going to play really, really hard and compete.”
