After a home win to open SEC play this past Saturday afternoon, the Alabama Crimson Tide traveled Wednesday to Nashville for their first conference road game of the season against the undefeated Vanderbilt Commodores.
A Top 15 matchup per the latest USA TODAY Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll, this contest certainly delivered on the hype it garnered going in as well, even despite a shorthanded Alabama team which was without center Aiden Sherrell, as well as star guard Labaron Philon Jr. missing essentially all of the second half.
The contest originally began with a sizable lead for Vanderbilt early in the first half, but Alabama erased that deficit to tie the game entering halftime, 43-43. Alabama fell behind once again during the second half though, but this was a deficit the Crimson Tide could not overcome, eventually coming away with a 96-90 road loss.
A game in which there were a combined 88 free throws shot between the teams, Alabama struggled a bit from deep in the loss by going 9-of-40 (22%) from three-point range, but did outrebound Vanderbilt without Sherrell, 49-38.
Amari Allen also led the way for Alabama on the stat sheet with one of the top performances of his collegiate career, as the freshman had a double-double at 25 points, 11 rebounds, and four assists on 12-of-12 shooting from the free throw line.
Following were some reactions on social media late Wednesday night to the Crimson Tide’s road loss in Nashville.
Final. pic.twitter.com/4gxNZTUTOZ
— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) January 8, 2026
The 62 combined fouls in the Vanderbilt Alabama game is the most fouls in any D1 game this season. Yikes.
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) January 8, 2026
Tyler Hansbrough on @TheFieldOf68 after Vandy’s win over Alabama:
“I still think Bama’s better. You’ve got to give Vanderbilt credit…I’m just not buying them. There’s something about them when I watch them play. I don’t see much length.” pic.twitter.com/Fy1TtXM7BY
— Billy Derrick (@billyderrick10) January 8, 2026
“They played better than us. Bottom line… A lot of the stuff you’ve got to do to win big basketball games, we didn’t do well enough tonight.” – Nate Oats after Alabama’s loss at Vanderbilt pic.twitter.com/XHgYYZtv2f
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) January 8, 2026
That loss hurts league title chances considerably, but I’m not discouraged by Alabama tonight at all. Vanderbilt is a really good team that played really well in a really good environment. Officiating made it difficult for anyone to make a huge run. By far their worst shooting…
— DGB (@DGiddensBurner) January 8, 2026
Alabama shot 9-for-40 from deep vs. Vanderbilt in the loss. The 23% is a season low.
Previous low was 28.1% in win over UTSA
— Nick Kelly (@_NickKelly) January 8, 2026
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion.
This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama basketball reactions to loss vs. Vanderbilt Commodores