Game 27: Alabama Crimson Tide at Vanderbilt Commodores — Open Game Thread

With four games left in the regular season, Vanderbilt’s chances to make a postseason tournament (maybe a longshot for the NCAA, but more likely the NIT) are hanging on by a thread.

Beating Alabama, a Top 25 team according to basically everyone, would go a long way to help. For one thing, it would mean that Vanderbilt can finish no worse than .500 going into the SEC Tournament. For another thing, it would add another Quad 1 win to help a resume that’s fairly light on them — a road win at Arkansas and a home win over LSU are the highlights, with a neutral-court win over BYU in December having declined in value as the Cougars struggle in WCC play.

For a long time, Alabama just didn’t win at Memorial Gym — the Tide lost 11 straight here between 1991 and 2011. But their last two visits to Memorial have ended in Alabama wins in both 2019 and 2020, though somehow Vanderbilt won at Alabama in the last week of the 2019-20 season. And last season, Vanderbilt took Alabama to the wire in an 82-78 loss in Tuscaloosa.

Have fun, expect to win.