The unbearable awkwardness of Vanderbilt facing (Jarred) Vanderbilt

For the first time this season and in his young career, Kentucky forward Jarred Vanderbilt will face the Vanderbilt Commodores, and from best we can tell (i.e. a quick search in Sports Reference) this is the first time a member of the Vanderbilt clan has taken up arms against his own family.

We kid. The Wikipedia article on the Vanderbilt family makes no mention of young Jarred, and in any case Jarred bears a certain non-resemblance to Cornelius, so we can safely assume he is not actually a scion of the benefactor of Vanderbilt University.

Still, we can’t help but notice that in addition to being named Jarred Vanderbilt, among the 134 people that Jarred Vanderbilt follows on Twitter: Darius Garland, Maxwell Evans, and Samir Sehic.

That said, we have an easy answer for how Jarred Vanderbilt ended up at Kentucky. Among his 15 scholarship offers claimed on his 247 Sports profile is not an offer from Vanderbilt. That’s right: a five-star recruit came along named Jarred Vanderbilt who played high school ball with Jeff Roberson’s younger brother, and Vanderbilt apparently didn’t bother to offer him a scholarship.

Whatever, tonight is going to be very awkward. Jarred Vanderbilt didn’t play in the first game between Kentucky and Vanderbilt due to an injury, so tonight, perhaps for the first time in our lives, we will have to do something that we never thought we would do in our lives.

Boo Vanderbilt. But only the Vanderbilt who plays for Kentucky.