Through games of Nov. 24, SEC teams have combined to score at least 100 points 18 times this season. Eleven of the league’s 16 teams have reached triple figures at least once, and one has racked up four 100-point games.
Which one could that be?
If you guessed Alabama, you would be wrong. In its first five games, Vanderbilt has scored 100 or more points four times, including 105 against Lipscomb, 105 against UCF, 104 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and 109 against Texas Southern. Its average of 103 points per game leads Division I.
The competition hasn’t been the greatest so far, but the Commodores are shooting 39.1 percent from three-point range, 66.1 percent inside the arc and just as importantly, are stingy with the basketball. Per KenPom, their turnover percentage of 10.2 percent is No. 2 in the nation. The strength of this team has been its balance; six players are averaging in double figures and a fourth, TCU transfer Frankie Collins, is scoring 9.7 points per game.
Much of that firepower has come from the what the media has dubbed the “Tyfecta” — Tyler Tanner is leading the team in scoring (16.0) and shoot 52.2 percent from three, Tyler Nickel is averaging 15.2 points and shooting 47.2 from behind the arc, and Tyler Harris is averaging 13.8 points. Harris, a transfer from Washington, is shooting 32.3 from three, but last season he shot 49.5 percent and would have led the nation if he’d had more makes per game.
And then there’s Duke Miles, who played at Oklahoma in 2024-25 before taking a winding road to Vanderbilt. After the season Miles entered the transfer portal and landed at Virginia. He abruptly left there and headed for Texas A&M. But after new Aggies coach Bucky McMillan, hired to replace the departed Buzz Williams, rebuilt his roster with 13 transfers, Miles decided he wanted to play for a team that had a chance to compete in the NCAA Tournament. Vanderbilt turned out to be the perfect fit. Miles has started all five games and is second on the team in scoring while shooting 52.0 percent from the field and 40.7 from three. He leads the team in assists (28) and is tied with Tanner with 13 steals.
Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington knew he had a potentially potent combination of players, but perhaps not this potent. The last time Vanderbilt scored 100 or more points more than once in a season was 1975 (twice). Unselfishness, Byington says, has been the key. “I know we’re passing the ball well,” Byington said after the Texas Southern game. “Guys are playing the right way. We don’t have guys playing selfish or ‘me’ basketball. Our efficiency has been good because of the way we’re playing, the style we’re playing. And we’ve got terrific players. … They want to win. I have some guys that have won (at other schools). I have some guys that have not won. We’re all flying in the same direction right now and trying to get this team as far as it can and be successful.”
So far so good. Heading into the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, the Commodores landed in the Associated Press Top 25 (No. 24) for the first time this season.
Jake Wilkins is wowing the crowds at Georgia just like dad used to
Long-time fans of Georgia basketball are experiencing mass déjà vu this season. That’s because Jake Wilkins, son of college and NBA legend Dominique Wilkins, has the same incredible vertical game his father did.
On a team filled mostly with transfers from other Division-I schools, the younger Wilkins, a 6-foot-9 freshman, has already made his mark. Through seven games for the 6-1 Bulldogs, Wilkins is third on the team in scoring (9.7 points per game) and, befitting the son of The Human Highlight Film, has already begun working on some highlights of his own, like this nifty little windmill number.
“I was flabbergasted,” Georgia guard Jeremiah Wilkinson told the media after witnessing that dunk, which came in a 120-81 wipeout of Morehead State. “I knew he was going to dunk it, because, you know, it’s Jake. But the windmill, I didn’t see that one coming. My jaw dropped.”
Wilkins has many other slams to his credit, which was not unexpected. He was rated a Top 50 national high school recruit and No. 4 in Georgia. And then there’s the whole good-genes thing.
“No one that I’ve coached is more physically gifted than he is,” Georgia coach Mike White told Hoops HQ. “He plays above the rim. He has elite length and speed. He’s got a quick, high release on his shot that’s hard to get to. He also does a good job of playing within himself.”
Wilkins can do much more than dunk. In a 30-point win over Florida A&M, he led the Bulldogs in scoring (14 points) and set career highs with 4 steals and 4 blocked shots. His three-point stroke (2 of 19, 10.5 percent), needs some work, but he’s not alone; Georgia is shooting just 26.5 percent from behind the arc, 339th in Division I.
As long as Wilkins keeps playing hard and throwing down those crowd-pleasing jams, White isn’t worried so much about perimeter shooting.
“He’s locked in, has positive energy, and he plays with joy,” White said after the Morehead State game. “There’s an infectious motor.”
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Around the rim
• The SEC hasn’t dominated in quite the same fashion it did last season, but it hasn’t gone away, either. The league led all conferences in the Nov. 25 AP poll (No. 8 Alabama, No. 10 Florida, No. 17 Tennessee, No. 19 Kentucky, No. 21 Auburn, No. 22 Arkansas and No. 24 Vanderbilt). The 16 SEC teams combine to lead the nation in scoring (89.7 points per game), rebounding (42.0 per game) and points per possession (1.046).
• J.P. Estrella, Tennessee’s redshirt sophomore, avoided disaster in a Nov. 17 game against Rice after trying to grab a loose ball and getting knocked over by one of the Owls. His left leg bent back, and he lay on the floor for several minutes until being helped off by two members of the Vols’ medical staff. Estrella had already missed most of the 2024-25 season after surgery to repair a nagging foot injury. Could this freak accident have ended another season prematurely?
Fortunately for the Vols, and for Estrella, it didn’t. True to the predictions of coach Rick Barnes and his assistants, who have said since the day Estrella walked on campus as a freshman that he was the team’s best low-post scorer, Estrella began this season looking the part. He started the season with a then-career-high 12 points against Mercer, followed that performance with 17 points, on 8-of-11 shooting, 11 rebounds and 3 assists against Northern Kentucky, then racked up another double-double with 23 and 10 against North Florida.
Then came the scare against Rice. But Tennessee’s training staff determined soon after the injury Estrella’s knee was structurally sound, and he was later diagnosed with a bone bruise. He missed one game and Barnes wasn’t sure when he would return, but he was back on the floor in the Player’s Era Championship against Rutgers on Nov. 24. The Tennessee staff had Estrella on a minute limitation, but he quickly returned to the form he showed early, scoring 10 points, including a monster two-handed slam in transition, in just 10 minutes. The next night, Estrella played 13 minutes and didn’t miss a shot (3 of 3 from the floor, 2 of 2 from the free-throw line) in scoring 8 points and grabbing 5 rebounds in an upset of Houston.
Nothing Estrella has done so far has caught Barnes off guard.
“I don’t think we’re surprised because we told him, from the day that we recruited him, what we thought he could be,” Barnes said after the North Florida game. “And we do think, as a staff, the last two weeks, his mindset has changed. I mean, I think missing a year. We knew that would take a little bit of time, but he’s gotten so much better with his focus in practice.”
• So far, Oklahoma guard Nigel Pack, a 5-foot-10 redshirt senior, is proving to be one of the SEC’s better backcourt pickups from the portal. After six games, he’s averaging a team-high 18.5 points and is ripping it from three-point range (48.1 percent). In the 4-2 Sooner’s victory over Alcorn State on Nov. 23, he drained 5 of 12 from three en route to a game-high 17 points. He also handed out a game-high 5 assists and equaled his career high with 4 steals.
In his last four games, Pack is 20 of 36 (55.6 percent) from behind the arc. He’s scored at least 15 points all six games.
• Missouri coach Dennis Gates told Hoops HQ that Mark Mitchell would put his versatility on display this season, and so far, the 6-foot-9, 230-pound junior has done just that. After six games, he’s leading the Tigers in scoring (18.7 points per game) and rebounding (6.2 per game) and is second in assists (3.0 per game).
Mitchell, who began his career at Duke, has plenty of tools in his bag.
“He can play one through five,” Gates says. “He can rebound. He can defend. He can switch. He can bring the ball up. He can initiate offense. He’s able to see the game in a different way. The best part is his leadership, and how unselfish he is. That’s infectious in the locker room.”
Games to watch
Vanderbilt vs. USF or VCU in the Battle 4 Atlantis on Nov. 27 (ESPN2)
As we noted above, the Commodores have been putting the ball in the bucket with alarming regularity. All those points could lead to an in-season tournament title in Vanderbilt’s first week as a ranked team.
Arkansas vs. Duke in CBS Sports Thanksgiving Classic on Nov. 27 (CBS)
Neither No. 4 Duke nor No. 22 Arkansas can be accused of playing cupcake schedules. So far, the Blue Devils, No. 1 in KenPom’s ratings, have taken on and beaten Texas and Kansas, and after Arkansas, they play No. 10 Florida, No. 11 Michigan State and No. 20 Texas Tech. Arkansas has already played Michigan State, and will face No. 6 Louisville, Texas Tech and No. 3 Houston before SEC play begins.
Florida vs. TCU in the Rady Children’s Invitational on Nov. 27 (FS1)
After a season-opening loss to Arizona, the Gators haven’t played a taxing schedule — just four games from Nov. 6 to this matchup against TCU. Florida might have the best and deepest front line in the game, but its new backcourt of transfers Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee has been slow out of the gate. As a result, Florida is struggling from the three-point line; at 25.7 percent, the Gators are 340th in the country.
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