No. 19 Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball (21-4, 8-4 SEC) returned to action against the Texas A&M Aggies (17-8, 7-5) on Saturday, Feb. 14, for some Valentine’s Day hoops in Memorial Gymnasium. The Commodores cruised to victory over a formidable Texas A&M squad, 82-69, a strong win for both their resume and the SEC standings. 

The Commodores faced a tough new style of basketball on Saturday that Texas A&M head Bucky McMillan is known for: Bucky Ball. Relying on a consistent full court press, a high volume of 3-point attempts and a quick tempo, the Aggies jumped out to an early lead in the first half. Eventually, though, Vanderbilt became accustomed to the quirks of Texas A&M’s game plan, running away with the game in the second 20 minutes. Tyler Nickel, in particular, had a big game, dropping 25 points on 45% shooting from beyond the arc. 

He touched on the challenge of Texas A&M’s style of play and what Vanderbilt did to prepare in his postgame presser.

“I mean, we just tried to simulate their pressure [in practice],” Nickel said. “It’s hard to simulate their pressure for 40 minutes like that, but we did some drills. We had six guys on defense and on the court, just forcing ourselves to be poised and patient. [Coach Byington] says, ‘calm in the storm’ when they’re trying to track the pressure, so [it was important] just putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations leading up to the game.”

With Duke Miles and Frankie Collins still out to due injury, head coach Mark Byington rolled with lineup he’s used the last several games of Tyler Tanner, Nickel, AK Okereke, Devin McGlockton and Jalen Washington.

Byington touched on how he felt the game went in his postgame press conference.

“I mean every game is an adventure and some things you prepare for and get ready for, and some things are out of your control,” Byington said postgame. “I just thought our guys played exceptionally hard. They were excited to play. They had tremendous respect for Texas A&M and what they’ve done so far in the SEC and their style. We kind of got off to a little bit of a choppy start, but then I thought we really played well.”

First half 

Texas A&M’s Rashaun Agee hit an early layup on the first possession of the game to kick off the scoring, before Marcus Hill hit a triple to give the Aggies the early 5-0 lead. The Commodores fought back with an 8-0 run, led by buckets from Okereke and Tanner, bringing Vanderbilt’s lead to 11-8 at the first media timeout at 15:14.  

Both teams traded several buckets out of the break, before Pop Isaacs hit a big 3-pointer to give the Aggies the lead back at 15-13. Ali Dibba followed it up with a quick layup to make it 17-13, capping off a 7-0 run for Texas A&M as the second media timeout hit at 10:07.  

It was neck-and-neck as the clock continued to wind down, but Vanderbilt continued to find ways to get around Bucky Ball and break the full court press. McGlockton earned a huge triple to reduce Vanderbilt’s deficit to 19-18 as a timeout hit at 7:44, with neither team able to take control of the game yet.  

There was immediate excitement out of the break, though, as Nickel slammed down an emphatic dunk which induced a roar from the Memorial crowd. He followed it up with a deep triple, too, forcing McMillan to call a quick timeout to reset with Vanderbilt up 25-19 with 5:35 left in the half.   

The game was then tied up at 29-apiece after the Aggies hit their last four field goals, before Okereke splashed a triple to take a momentary lead. Washington hit two free throws with five seconds left in the half, giving Vanderbilt a 36-32 lead as the buzzer sounded.  

The Commodores shot the ball relatively poorly throughout the first 20 minutes, converting just 35% from the field and 22% from beyond the arc. Surprisingly, Tanner dropped just 2 points in the first half, but McGlockton and Nickel picked up the slack with 11 points each. It helped that Vanderbilt won both the rebounding margin and turnover battle, too, allowing them to take an early lead.

Second half 

Nickel immediately had the hot hand out of halftime, cashing in two 3-pointers to expand Vanderbilt’s lead to 7 points at 44-37. It seemed that Nickel’s sharp-shooting was infectious, as Bing then hit a deep ball of his own to bring Vanderbilt’s lead to 47-39 as the first media timeout hit at 15:41.  

The quick break didn’t make Nickel cool off any, though, as he immediately hit another deep ball to get Vanderbilt’s lead to 11. The Commodores had hit six of their last six field goals at this point while Texas A&M was 0-for-5, as the lead was now 13 with 11:31 to go in the game. Texas A&M’s Federiko Federiko then hit a much-needed dunk on the offensive end to stop the bleeding. 

Tensions began to rise in Memorial Gym, as both Tanner and Federiko were given technical fouls after an altercation at mid-court. Agee and Rylan Griffen then hit back-to-back shots, one of which was a 3-pointer, to shrink the lead to 8 points once again. As the under-eight media timeout hit, Vanderbilt led 60-50 as the energy rose in the gym. 

Hill then hit back-to-back layups before Zach Clemence nailed a 3-pointer to bring Vanderbilt’s lead down to 7 points. The Commodores consistently got to the line, though, as both Okereke and Nickel made the Aggies pay from the charity stripe. Another media timeout arrived at 4:23, with Vanderbilt’s lead back to 10 points at 69-59.  

Several made free throws were the difference-maker late in the game, as the Commodores continued to sink them after some careless possessions by the Aggies. Chandler Bing threw down an emphatic dunk, followed by a triple from Okereke, which sent the crowd in Memorial into a craze. The Commodores had a 78-63 lead as the final media timeout came with 1:31 left in the game.  

Vanderbilt ran down the clock to victory on its last few possessions, eventually taking down Texas A&M, 82-69, to improve to 21-4 on the season. Nickel led the way in terms of scoring in this game, dropping 25 points in the victory. While it wasn’t the most efficient offensive game of the year for Vanderbilt, it did plenty to secure another SEC victory at home. 

Vanderbilt returns to action on the road at Missouri on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 8 p.m. CT.