Takeaways From Vanderbilt Basketball's 105-82 Win Over Memphis
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NASHVILLE—Perhaps this Memphis fan summed Tuesday night up best as he left Memorial Gymnasium.
"A lot to a little," he said.
Vanderbilt basketball trounced Memphis Tuesday night for a 105-82 win in its best performance to date and one of the best performances of the Mark Byington era. On this night, everything was going for Vanderbilt basketball.
Here's what to take away.
What a night for Ace Glass
Tuesday was Glass’ night and he wasn’t going to let anyone take it from him.
Glass went for 23 points on 8-for-14 shooting and 5-for-10 shooting from 3-point range. Here’s the crazy part. He didn’t score in the first half. Glass went nuclear in the second half and all but the game away singlehandedly.
He made stepback heat checks. He got open and couldn’t miss when he got a look. When Glass did miss, he finished through contact later in the possession. Glass was nearly unstoppable when he got it going Tuesday night.
Welcome to Vanderbilt, Ace Glass.
The concern heading into the year was Vanderbilt’s shooting, but Vanderbilt has been better than expected in that way
It’s true that Vanderbilt doesn’t have a lot of proven shooting on its roster and that it may have some spacing issues with certain lineups, but it sure hasn’t looked that way through the first three games of the season.
Vanderbilt entered Tuesday shooting 37.0% from 3-point range, even with uncharacteristically poor shooting starts from Tyler Tanner and Bangot Dak. As the law of averages loomed heading into Tuesday, Vanderbilt showed no signs of regression.
It started 7-for-11 from 3-point range and generated an open look just about anytime it wanted one–which said more about Memphis, but also something about how Vanderbilt was running good offense rather than just flying by the seat of its pants and hoping talent would win out.
Vanderbilt got some uncharacteristically good shooting performances from T.O. Barrett–who went 2-for-3 with a late-clock make in the first half–Berke Buyuktuncel–who went 2-for-2–and Sebastian Williams-Adams–who went 2-for-3–but it won a game in large part because of its perimeter shotmaking. Its 3-point shooting was why.
Who would’ve thought.
Mark Byington clearly got through
Byington was upset about Vanderbilt’s offense after its Thursday win over Wake Forest, not necessarily with the point total but also with its flow and the way it lacked cohesiveness. That didn’t look like a Byington offense and Byington saw right through the result.
He knew Vanderbilt had to work on itself over the weekend and into its Memphis prep. Clearly it did that effectively.
Vanderbilt actually ran what Byington drew up, shared it, made good decisions in regard to when to shoot it and when to keep the possession going and reaped the benefits of more open shots as a result. That’s what Byington thought this could look like offensively when he assembled this team a few months ago. He had a plan to get it out of this group and it worked.
Byington's team shot 57.1% from the field, 46.9% from 3-point range, got 10+ points from five different players and points from 10 different scorers as a whole. Something like this was always in there for this Vanderbilt team, but it finally came out on Tuesday when this group started playing within structure.
Vanderbilt did that without Tyler Tanner’s best
Tanner could’ve gotten to 20 points had he made a few of the open looks he had from 3-point range, but he missed almost all of them and went for just 17 on 8-for-14 shooting from the field. He also didn’t defend at the level he’s capable of.
Vanderbilt didn’t really need Tanner to be Tanner on Tuesday, though.
He was pedestrian for his standards, but seemingly everyone else in Vanderbilt’s backcourt stepped up and Vanderbilt did the things to Memphis that Memphis normally does to it. That’s the mark of a team that can make a push down the stretch. That’s the mark of a team that’s more than just its superstar.
Vanderbilt outclassed Memphis physically
Imagine hearing this after Memphis mucked the game up and kept in it against Vanderbilt because of its physicality.
Vanderbilt out-rebounded Memphis 44-to-29, had 18 second-chance points to Memphis’ eight, outscored its frontcourt 41-to-12 with its frontcourt and grabbed 12 offensive rebounds.
Imagine hearing this, too.
Vanderbilt forced Memphis to turn it over just six times, lost the points in the paint battle 40-38, put Memphis on the foul line 34 times and still won the physicality battle significantly.
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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