Jordan Wright stepped up for Vanderbilt on Tuesday
The Vanderbilt Commodores are a young basketball team and have had moments where some of that youth has stepped to the forefront with big games.
That was the case on Tuesday night in Knoxville when true freshman Jordan Wright posted a new career-high, scoring 23 points in the Commodores 65-61 loss to Tennessee.
It was the second game time this season Wright has established a new scoring mark, the first coming in his 11 point performance in the upset of LSU and then tying that mark the next game against Mississippi State in Starkville.
Wright has scored in double figures five times on the season, showing the potential to be able to provide another option offensively for the Commodores.
Fellow true freshman Scottie Piten Jr. and Dylan Disu have also had their moments to shine and lead the Commodores in scoring in a single game.
For Pippen Jr., it came early in the season against Davidson, where he tossed in 18 points. That was one of his 13 games in which he scored ten or more points so far this season.
Disu had his breakout moment, dropping 21 on Alabama in Nashville as one of his five games to top double figures.
Junior Maxwell Evans also set a career mark this season when he scorched the nets for 31 points against LSU. His previous high had been 16 against Arkansas, also this season. He has six times surpassed the double-digit plateau this year.
Of course, sophomore Saben Lee has been the number one scoring option since the season-ending injury to Aaron Nesmith.
Over the 12 games, since Nesmith went down, Lee has scored in double-figure all but once, the first game without Nesmith where he was held to just four points by Texas A&M.
During those 12 games, Lee has surpassed twenty points five times, which is not surprising as he has been known as a scorer throughout his Vanderbilt career.
The next step in the evolution of this team is to become consistent and have two or three of these young men step up to support Lee on an every game basis.
When the Commodores find that, perhaps not until next season, but when they do, this team might finally turn the corner to correct what has been wrong over the past two season.
