Vanderbilt (18-3 straight up, 12-9 against the spread) senior guard Duke Miles will have a “cleanup surgery” in his knee this morning, but head coach Mark Byington said he “doesn’t expect him out too long.”
ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes said on Tuesday’s telecast of Kentucky at Vanderbilt that Miles would “miss 2-3 weeks.” Byington didn’t give a timeline for Miles after Vandy’s dominant 80-55 win over Kentucky as a 5.5-point favorite last night.
In 18 games this season, Miles is averaging 16.6 points, 4.3 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game. He’s made 45.1 percent of his field-goal attempts, 34.1 percent of his 3-pointers and 88.7 percent of his free throws.
Miles leads the SEC and is sixth in the nation in steals. He’s ranked fifth in the league in free-throw percentage, sixth in assists and 12th in scoring.
The Commodores have also been missing Frankie Collins, another senior guard who missed his 10th straight game against the Wildcats. Collins, a transfer from TCU, has only played in nine games, averaging 7.8 points, 4.7 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.4 SPG. He has a 42/20 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Collins was listed as ‘doubtful’ Saturday at Mississippi St., but he remained ‘out’ in Starkville and last night. His return remains unclear as well.
Whatever the case, it didn’t matter at Memorial Gym in Nashville last night. Tyler Tanner and Tyler Nickel led Vandy to a 20-point halftime lead, and the Commodores built the lead to as many as 28 points in a blowout.
Tanner had 19 points, five assists, four steals and four rebounds, while Nickel finished with 19 points, three boards and a pair of steals. Devin McGlockton contributed 11 points and 12 rebounds, draining 3-of-5 attempts from 3-point range.
Freshman Chandler Bing scored a career-high 11 points to go with two steals, two blocked shots, one rebound and one assist. He knocked down 2-of-4 launches from downtown.
Vandy won the rebounding battle by a 43-37 margin and blocked nine shots. UK was led by Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen, who scored 20 and 15 points, respectively.
Vandy is now #12 in both the NET and KenPom’s rankings. Byington’s team is 5-3 in Quad-1 games and 6-0 versus Quad-2 foes. The Commodores play Saturday at Ole Miss before a one-week break ahead of a Feb. 7 home game vs. Oklahoma.
Kentucky fell to 14-7 SU and 8-13 ATS. The ‘Cats will be in a back-to-back road spot Saturday at Arkansas. They’re playing without three key players in Jaland Lowe, Kam Williams and Jayden Quaintance, who might return soon.
Lowe is out for the season, while Williams hopes to return at some point in March.
Mark Pope’s team is #35 in the NET rankings with its 3-6 record against Quad-1 opponents and 2-1 mark versus Quad-2 competition. The ‘Cats are #32 at KenPom.
FanDuel has Vandy with +750 odds to win the SEC’s regular-season title. Those are the fourth-shortest odds behind Florida (-110 ‘chalk’), Arkansas (+420) and Alabama (+700). Kentucky is a 35/1 longshot.
FanDuel has Vandy with 40/1 odds to win the 2026 NCAA Tournament. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had Vandy as a #4 seed in his updated version of ‘Bracketology’ on Tuesday, listing Kentucky as a #7 seed.