Vandy Planned to Get Physical and it Worked

Vanderbilt's physical play limited UK guard Denzel Aberdeen to 6-for-15 shooting in Tuesday's game. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Sometimes the truth can be painful.

Vanderbilt forward Devin McGlockton admitted after his team’s 80-55 over visiting Kentucky that the Commodores wanted to bully the Cats and they did.

“We thought we’d just be physical with them. That was our main goal, was on the rebounding on the ball. So yeah, Coach just told us that that was one of their weaknesses, and we could exploit that, and that’s what we did,” McGlockton, who had 11 points and 12 rebounds, said.

Vanderbilt out rebounded UK 40-37. That’s not a huge difference but the Commodores had lost the rebounding battle to most SEC teams in part because they have only one player over 6-foot-7. Yet Kentucky was only 4-for-13 on LAYUPS in the loss.

“It probably was key number one in the game,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said about the physical play. “We wanted to do better with the rebounding, and without Duke Miles, we started a bigger lineup. AK Okereke was kind of our shooting guard. And we’re going to lose some things, but we hopefully gain some things there.

“That was really key number one, whether it’s going to be screening physically, rebounding physically, and then challenging stuff around the rim. That was a major key.”

Kentucky coach Mark Pope did not disagree. He said physical play was a “major weakness” and that his team lacked the commitment it takes to be physical.

“That’s an area where we’ve struggled a little bit and where we have to continue to develop better answers,” Pope said.

Kentucky had no answers for Vandy’s defense. Kentucky again could not score early and finished the game only 19 of 59 — 32 percent — overall from the field and 6-for-24 — 25 percent — from 3. The Cats got very few open looks.

“They do a good job of reading in the dribble handoff actions. And I thought we did a good job of pushing them out in those actions,” Vandy coach Mark Byington said. “The second half, they kind of went to baseline staggers and then high ball screens. That got us a little bit. But the biggest thing was not having to over-help.”

Pope described it as a “disastrous effort” from his team while UK fans called it far worse because of the team’s perceived lack of effort and focus.

“We have to pick up the pieces and be better. We’ve done that before. We’ve been here before. We ran off five straight in the SEC. We had the longest winning streak in the league coming into this game, after having some tough, tough games before.” Pope said.