Welcome to “The Daily Scoop”, an article to bring you up to date with the latest news from college basketball and a preview of the day ahead.

Daily Headlines

Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma all in action along the bubble in SEC play

There’s been plenty of talk about the SEC across the country this week, with good reason, as the conference continues to deliver night in and night out. Last night, four of the conference’s schools that are very much a part of the bubble conversation were in action. Vanderbilt traveled to Texas A&M, Texas and Arkansas met in Fayetteville, and Oklahoma hosted Kentucky. The only SEC bubble team not in action were the one and only Georgia Bulldogs, fresh off their stunning win over Florida on Tuesday night.

There was plenty of drama in the SEC on Wednesday night as well though, headlined by Vanderbilt picking up a stunning win over Texas A&M in College Station. Tyler Nickel was the man of the hour for the Commodores on the road, as the 40.5% three-point shooter cashed in four first half triples, the fourth of which gave Vanderbilt a 28-16 lead. Texas A&M has had troubles defending the three-point line all season, and it hurt the Aggies once again on Wednesday. Texas A&M continued to fight though, bringing the deficit to just two going into halftime, scoring 12 of the first half’s final 14 points behind two threes of its own from CJ Wilcher.

Both teams came out firing to begin the second half, as seven early points for Pharrel Payne pushed Texas A&M in front 44-42. Halfway through the second half, MJ Collins Jr. and Tyler Tanner connected on back-to-back buckets, pushing Vanderbilt’s lead to six points as the Commodores responded. Vanderbilt kept Texas A&M at arms’ length the rest of the way, as Nickel’s seventh three-pointer of the night gave him a final total of 21 points, making the score at the time 68-60 with just over four minutes left.

The final score looks a lot closer than it was to finish after Wilcher and Zhuric Phelps each hit threes in the final 15 seconds, but Vanderbilt nonetheless took home a massive Quad 1 road victory by a score of 86-84. Along with Nickel, Collins Jr. scored 16 points and Jason Edwards added 15 to round out Vanderbilt’s double-digit scorers. As a team, the Commodores shot 10-24 from behind the arc, aided tremendously by Nickel’s 7-10 night and the fact that A&M has allowed opponents to shoot nearly half of their attempts from three and 32.7% to go through the net.

Shortly after Vanderbilt’s win, the rest of the SEC bubble teams got into action, as Arkansas outlasted Texas 86-81 in overtime despite Tre Johnson breaking the Longhorns’ single-game freshman scoring record with 39 points. Oklahoma found itself in a dramatic finish as well, falling 83-82 after former Sooner Otega Oweh hit the game-winner and sealed the game with a late block to cap a 28-point night in his return to Norman.

Coming into Wednesday on the good side of the bubble, Vanderbilt’s big road win combined with other results should push the Commodores closer to a nine seed than the cutline, and it’s becoming easier and easier to count Vanderbilt into the tournament in Mark Byington’s first season than it is to say the opposite.

Other Things to Note:

• #1 Auburn handles Ole Miss 106-76 behind 24 points from Johni Broome
• #7 St. John’s clinches first share of Big East regular season title since 1992 with 76-70 win at Butler
• #8 Michigan State stuns #16 Maryland 58-55 as Tre Holloman sinks half-court buzzer-beater
• Dain Dainja scores 24 as #18 Memphis scores 14 of the game’s final 16 points to beat Rice 84-72
• #15 Michigan looks to get its offense rolling once again as it hosts Rutgers (9:00 ET, Peacock)