Tennessee and Vanderbilt are set to square off in an SEC in-state rivalry clash on Saturday afternoon in Nashville’s Memorial Gymnasium. The Volunteers are coming off three straight wins against Mississippi State, LSU, and Oklahoma, while the Commodores are looking to bounce back from a road loss to Missouri on Wednesday night.
Vanderbilt is currently ranked No. 19 in the nation, while Tennessee is unranked. The Vols and the Commodores have extremely close spots in ESPN’s latest round of power rankings heading into Saturday’s showdown, though.
ESPN’s Jeff Borzello put out his latest power rankings on Thursday with the Commodores landing at the No. 19 spot and Tennessee at the No. 20 spot. It’s an eerily similar ranking for the two rivals that are set to clash on the near horizon.
“Another hot SEC team, Tennessee has won seven of its past eight games, with the lone loss coming on the road at Kentucky,” Borzello writes. “The biggest key in the Volunteers’ turnaround has been the play of freshman Nate Ament, who has gone from an inconsistent first-year player to one of the elite newcomers in college basketball. He had 29 points in Wednesday’s win over Oklahoma, when he also grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists. He has scored at least 20 points in seven of his past 10 games, averaging 23.4 points over that stretch.”
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While Vanderbilt has gotten down big in its last two losses against Oklahoma and Missouri, the Commodores made ferocious comebacks in both games to nearly win. Vanderbilt was down by 20 to Oklahoma and down by 16 to Missouri, but ended up losing both games by just one point. Tennessee, meanwhile, has flirted with blown leads in its last few games, despite still picking up three straight wins. It’s definitely a storyline that’ll be worth watching if the Vols build a big lead at some point in the game.
The other big story heading into Saturday’s game is the return of Jaylen Carey to Vanderbilt’s court. Carey played for the Commodores during the 2024-2025 season and averaged 8.0 points and 5.7 rebounds last season. He’s currently averaging 7.8 points and 6.0 rebounds for the Volunteers this season.
Tennessee is currently a point underdog in its game against Vanderbilt, while the Commodores are given a 60.3% chance to win, according to ESPN Analytics.
No. 19 Vanderbilt (21-5, 8-5 SEC) will host Tennessee (19-7, 9-4 SEC) at 2:00 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon in Nashville. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage of the game from Memorial Gymnasium.
