AJ Hoggard had a bad February, but when he woke up on Saturday, the Vanderbilt basketball guard felt like he had a clean slate. After all, the calendar had just turned to March.

During a stretch running from Jan. 25 to Feb. 26, Hoggard scored in double digits in just two of nine games. In both of those games, he was inefficient, shooting less than 30% from the floor.

Now that it's March, though? Hoggard led Vanderbilt (20-9, 8-8) to a 97-93 overtime win over No. 16 Missouri (21-8, 10-6) at Memorial Gymnasium. He scored 21 points on 6-for-12 shooting while also going a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. He also had three rebounds, six assists and two steals.

"AJ was the best teammate last game when we beat Texas A&M, and tonight, the final 10 minutes, was the best player on the court, and he deserves this for for the way he's stuck with it and everything else," Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said. "And so we need everybody."

Byington pointed out that Hoggard was constantly cheering on his teammates during the win against the Aggies, in which Hoggard did not score a point.

And after some previous games in which he'd made costly turnovers in crunch time, this time it was Hoggard with the ball in his hands as the Commodores were down three in the final seconds of regulation. The defense's focus on him allowed him to find Tyler Nickel on the perimeter, where he knocked down a 3-pointer to send the game to overtime.

"It's March 1, and I struggled in February, so I had to figure out a way to help my team keep rolling," Hoggard said. "Chris (Manon) started off with energy. Kind of followed his lead and and the ball finds energy. I think that kind of helped us both out tonight."

Hoggard, a transfer from Michigan State, is one of just two players on the roster who have experience playing in March Madness. Jaylen Carey is the other. With Vanderbilt now a near-lock to make the NCAA tournament, the Commodores will need Hoggard's experience.

Even more importantly, the Commodores are beginning to find more options beyond Jason Edwards. Edwards is still Vanderbilt's leading scorer, but he hasn't been the one who stepped up in either of the last two games. Against Texas A&M, it was Nickel who hit seven 3-pointers. On Saturday, Manon had 23 points and 11 rebounds.

"I'm the only one, Coach and Jaylen and the staff, who's been playing in March," Hoggard said. "So a lot of guys got that chip of wanting to get there, wanting to make it consistently. I just happen to be blessed to do it over a period of time, and I want to share with my guys so each and every night I could go out there, help get us closer to that, even though, when the jobs not done yet, we still got games ahead of us, still got work to put in, but it's definitely something that we're looking forward to, not looking ahead past nobody."

Games like this are exactly what Hoggard had in mind when he decided to commit to Vanderbilt, where he hoped he could help lead a team to March that hadn't been there in a long time. And just as the calendar flipped, Hoggard had the game he's been looking for.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at or on X, formerly Twitter, @aria_gerson .