How big was Kentucky's win over Vanderbilt? Let me tell you the ways.

One month ago, Vanderbilt embarrassed Kentucky at Memorial Gymnasium 80-55, a win that Mark Byington and the Commodores dedicated to the city of Nashville, which was dealing with the aftermath of an ice storm. Thankfully, there were no natural disasters in the Bluegrass this week, but Kentucky’s 91-77 win over Vanderbilt boosted spirits just the same, a dominant performance when the Cats — and their fans — needed it the most.

The win was big for a variety of reasons. Let’s break them all down.

Largest margin of victory over a ranked opponent in the Mark Pope era

Today was Kentucky’s 13th win over an AP-ranked opponent in the Mark Pope era. It’s also the largest in terms of margin. The Cats’ 14-point win over the No. 25 Commodores edges out last season’s 12-point win vs. No. 11 Texas A&M and the 12-point win over No. 22 St. John’s in the CBS Sports Classic earlier this year. Kentucky is now 5-7 vs. ranked opponents this season, with at least one matchup remaining, against No. 7 Florida a week from today. They are 13-13 in the Pope era.

No Wednesday game at the SEC Tournament

The most immediate reason why this win is big is that it pretty much rules out Kentucky playing on Wednesday in the SEC Tournament. The Cats are now 10-6 in SEC play, tied with Missouri behind Florida (13-2), Alabama (11-4), Arkansas (11-4), and Tennessee (10-5) in the standings. All of those teams still have to play tonight. Texas A&M (9-6) is currently playing Texas (8-7). Vanderbilt is 9-7 with games vs. Ole Miss and Tennessee to go. After today’s win, the ‘Dores no longer have a head-to-head tiebreaker vs. the Cats.

Even if the Cats lose their remaining games vs. A&M and Florida, they probably won’t fall below the No. 8 seed, saving the embarrassment (and potential fatigue) of playing on Wednesday in Nashville. Even more exciting? The path to a double bye remains a possibility. If Alabama beats Tennessee tonight and Kentucky beats Texas A&M on Tuesday, the Cats could have a good chance of getting the No. 4 seed in the tournament — even without beating Florida. That would be wild.

Better chance at a No. 6 seed in NCAA Tournament

Looking further into the future, today’s win is even bigger. It’s Kentucky’s sixth in Quad 1 this season, bringing its Quad 1 record to 6-8 this season. The Cats have two more opportunities at Texas A&M and vs. Florida at home. The latter is a Quad 1A contest, meaning it could join the road wins at Tennessee and Arkansas and the neutral site win over St. John’s as the most impressive on Kentucky’s resume.

Even if the Cats don’t upset the Gators and fall at Texas A&M, today is big. Any Quad 1 win you can get in the final weeks of the season is significant. Kentucky started the week trending as an No. 8 seed in NCAA Tournament projections, which would set up a second-round game vs. the No. 1 seed. Joe Lunardi had the Cats as a No. 7 seed this morning. Today’s win is the start of the climb to a No. 6 seed, which would mean staying in the bottom half of the bracket, far away from the No. 1 seeds, which have separated themselves from the pack in recent weeks.

Momentum

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Kentucky play this well. You’d probably have to go back to the win over Oklahoma on Feb. 4 or, factoring in competition, the win over Arkansas in the game prior. Since then, the Cats climbed back into the Top 25 by sweeping Tennessee, just to come crashing back to Earth with a three-game losing streak. The Cats stopped the bleeding at South Carolina, but really returned to form today, leading Vanderbilt by 15 at halftime and by 22 with four minutes to go.

The way Kentucky won was the most reassuring. The Cats shot 58.8% from the field and 50% from three, both highs during SEC play. After making just six threes in the first meeting in Nashville, the Cats hit 11 today, nine in the first half. Collin Chandler had six of those, cementing himself as one of the hottest shooters in the country. Chandler has made at least five 3-pointers in three of the last five games. He’s now shooting 48.8% during SEC play. With the postseason fast approaching, that’s exactly what you want to see from Captain Clutch.

The same goes for Otega Oweh, who rebounded from an off night at South Carolina to start a new streak of 20+ point games. Oweh finished with 23 points, scoring 17 of those in the second half. He’s scored at least 20 points in 12 SEC games this season and 20 in his Kentucky career, the most since any Wildcat since the 1996-97 season. Add in a 15-point, 4-assist, 0-turnover performance by Denzel Aberdeen, and Kentucky’s backcourt is rolling at the right time.

On the inside, Malachi Moreno and Mo Dioubate held down the fort, helping Kentucky outrebound Vandy 29-22. The Cats lost the battle of the boards in Nashville. Moreno, who got pushed around in the first meeting, led the team in rebounding (6) and assists (5), and was the plus/minus champ (+17). The future is bright for Georgetown’s finest.

Morale

As Mark Pope said in his press conference, March is just minutes away. It’s usually the happiest time in the Bluegrass, but given the highs and lows of this season, particularly the last few weeks, it had started to loom on the horizon, the Cats primed to be the punchline, or simply not in the conversation at all.

This team didn’t earn the nickname The Unpredictables for nothing, so time will tell if today’s win was a flash in the pan or the start of something special. We know this team still has its faults. Either way, it was really good to see Kentucky defend its home court against a ranked opponent in dominating fashion, playing with pride against a team that embarrassed them a month ago.

If even just for one day, it was good to have that back, especially as the calendar flips to March.