The Texas Longhorns take on the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville, Tennessee. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
Vanderbilt is favored by 2.5 points on the spread with a moneyline of -148. The total is set at 149.5 points.
Here are my Texas vs. Vanderbilt predictions and college basketball picks for February 8, 2025.
Texas vs Vanderbilt Prediction
My Pick: PASS | Lean Under 149.5
My Texas vs Vanderbilt best bet is on the under, with the best odds currently available at DraftKings. For all of your college basketball bets, find the best lines using our live NCAAB odds page.
Texas vs Vanderbilt Odds
| Texas Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
+2.5 -112 | 149.5 -110 / -110 | +124 |
| Vanderbilt Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
-2.5 -108 | 149.5 -110 / -110 | -148 |
- Texas vs Vanderbilt spread: Vanderbilt -2.5
- Texas vs Vanderbilt over/under: 149.5 points
- Texas vs Vanderbilt moneyline: Vanderbilt -148, Texas +124
- Texas vs Vanderbilt best bet: PASS | Lean Under 149.5
Spread
I'm passing on the spread.
Moneyline
I'm passing on the moneyline.
Over/Under
I'm passing on this game altogether. But if I had to bet it, I'd bank on the under.
My Pick: PASS | Lean Under 149.5
Texas vs Vanderbilt College Basketball Betting Preview
I’ve been impressed with both Texas and Vanderbilt lately.
The Longhorns’ defense is elite thanks to Kadin Shedrick’s rim protection and their bevy of lengthy perimeter on-ball defenders.
Of greater importance, the offense has started to play better lately, as Tre Johnson has started scoring at will (averaging 21 points in his past eight games).
Meanwhile, Mark Byington has built a dangerous up-tempo spread pick-and-roll offense behind AJ Hoggard and Jason Edwards. It’s your typical guard-friendly Byington team, and it’s led to conference wins over Tennessee and Kentucky.
In this particular matchup, I don’t see Vanderbilt scoring much. Texas is elite in transition denial (seven fast-break points per game allowed, second in the SEC, per CBB Analytics) and excellent in ball-screen coverage (.83 PPP allowed, 75th percentile, per Synergy).
The Longhorns are the perfect defense to stop the Vanderbilt attack.
Meanwhile, I believe Vanderbilt’s defense is crazy undervalued. The Commodores aren’t world-beaters, but conference opponents have shot an unsustainable 42% from 3 against them. Based on the “quality” of their attempts, ShotQuality projects that opponents should shoot closer to 33%.
Once that positive regression hits, Vandy’s defense should trend up, and I think the Dores are undervalued based on that alone.
Vanderbilt is weak on the interior, ranking second-to-last in the SEC in paint points per game allowed (36, per CBB Analytics).
However, Texas runs a hero-ball, isolation-heavy offense that relies heavily on winning one-on-one matchups. Thus, the Longhorns rarely scheme interior offense, ranking last in the SEC in paint points per game (25, per CBB Analytics).
Texas is elite in transition, but Vanderbilt won’t turn the ball over much and hand the Horns easy run-out buckets.
In fact, I think the Commodores’ press-happy defense could bother Texas and force it to slow the game way down.
Of course, that’s not a problem for Texas, which has been a snail in conference play (65 possessions per game, per CBB Analytics).
Ultimately, I don’t expect either team to turn the ball over and hand transition buckets to the opponent. I also don’t expect either team to earn many second-chance buckets, given these are two lackluster offensive rebounding teams.
Instead, I expect plenty of well-covered half-court shot attempts, making me think we’ll see a lower-scoring grinder.
Unfortunately, the total opened up a few points too high for my liking — I make the number closer to 151.
