Jarred Vanderbilt earns SEC award; on pace for record-setting season

Jarred Vanderbilt has picked up his first SEC honor.

On Monday, the league announced that Vanderbilt was named SEC Freshman of the Week. The freshman forward averaged a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds in the Kentucky Wildcats’ wins over Arkansas and Missouri.

Vanderbilt began the week by scoring a career-high-tying 11 points with nine rebounds on the road at Arkansas. He followed it up with his first career double-double, notching 11 points and a career-high 15 boards against Missouri.

For the week, Vanderbilt shot 80 percent from the field. His 15 rebounds against the Tigers matches a team high for a single game this season. He also blocked a career-high three shots in the win over the Tigers.

Vanderbilt’s rebounding rate has been ridiculously good this season, so much that he’s actually on pace to set a school record.

This season, Vanderbilt is averaging a rebound per every 2.1 minutes played. His ratio of rebounds per minute is the best single-season mark in school history (minimum 100 minutes played, with minutes statistics available since the 1962-63 season). So if he keeps up his current pace, he’ll go down as one of the best rebounders in school history.

That’s an insane level of rebounding, especially with how many he’s getting in so little time. In wins over Alabama and Arkansas, Vanderbilt managed to grab nine rebounds in just 19 minutes of action in both games.

Perhaps his best rebounding game was in the upset win at West Virginia, where he grabbed 11 rebounds in just 11 minutes of action. His 7.8 rebounds per game rank fourth-best in the SEC.