Vanderbilt basketball vs. Kentucky: Score prediction, scouting report for SEC rivalry

Last year, Vanderbilt basketball broke a longtime losing streak against Kentucky that stretched back seven years.

The Commodores eventually notched two wins over the Wildcats: one on the road and one at Bridgestone Arena in the SEC Tournament. But Vanderbilt still hasn't beaten Kentucky at Memorial Gymnasium since 2016 entering their matchup Tuesday (7:30 p.m. CT, SEC Network).

The Commodores (6-15, 1-7 SEC) finally got the proverbial monkey off their backs with a win over Missouri on Saturday, ensuring they won't finish with a winless conference season. The Wildcats have a talented roster that got a neutral-court win over North Carolina, but Kentucky (15-6, 5-4) has lost three of its past four games and given up 90 points in each of its past two.

Here's what to know about the matchup:

A very young team

Jerry Stackhouse often talks about how young Vanderbilt's team is, but when it comes to an inexperienced roster, Kentucky is on a different level.

Three of the Wildcats' five leaders in minutes per game are freshmen (though one, DJ Wagner, has missed time with injury and it's unclear if he'll be available against the Commodores). These are some of the most talented freshmen in the country, but the inexperience has shown at times in the biggest games on the schedule.

The best freshmen of the group have been Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard. Both players primarily come off the bench, but they play starter's minutes. Dillingham averages 15.3 points and 3.1 rebounds per game, and Sheppard averages 12.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. Both players are tall guards, which could make them hard to defend for a Vanderbilt team that doesn't have big size at that position.

Defensive struggles

Kentucky's inexperience has manifested in struggles on the defensive end. While the Wildcats have the nation's seventh-ranked offense according to KenPom, their defense is outside the top 100. During conference play, Kentucky has the 13th-worst defense in the league, only ahead of Missouri. (Vanderbilt is seventh.)

The Wildcats aren't terrible at defending the rim, but where they particularly struggle is forcing turnovers and rebounding, both on the offensive and defensive end.

This could help the Commodores, who are a poor shooting team but who can avoid turnovers and rebound well against defenses that struggle in that aspect: the Missouri game showed as much.

MISSOURI WIN Why Jerry Stackhouse believes win vs Missouri could be catalyst for Vanderbilt basketball

Can Vanderbilt get a top-100 win?

In the 14-team SEC era, there have been 16 SEC programs that finished the season outside the top 150 in KenPom. All 16 of those teams still got at least one win against a team in the top 100, and 12 of the 16 got a win against a team in the top 50.

The Commodores have wins over Missouri (No. 125) and UNC Greensboro (No. 130) but neither of them are likely to finish in the top 100.

Score prediction

Kentucky 85, Vanderbilt 76: Kentucky has more offensive firepower than Vanderbilt is likely able to handle, though the Wildcats do have some volatility that could help the Commodores as an underdog.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt score prediction vs. Kentucky in SEC basketball