Three Keys and a Prediction: Vanderbilt Vs. New Haven

Vanderbilt basketball hosts New Haven on Monday night as Mark Byington's team looks to move to 13-0 for the first time since 2007-2008 and to finish off non-conference play undefeated.

New Haven is 5-7 on the season in its first Division-I season. Its schedule has been littered with buy games against UConn, Penn State, Boston College and Seton Hall. It's ranked No. 348 in KenPom and appears to be a team in which Vanderbilt should defeat handily.

Here's what it has to do to leave Memorial Gymnasium with a decisive win.

Dictate the tempo

More possessions in Monday night’s game means more opportunities to really get out and break this thing open like Penn State and Seton Hall did against New Haven.

New Haven’s only chance at keeping this thing close is slowing this thing down–which it will try to do if its No. 337 ranking in tempo and No. 339 ranking in time of possession indicates anything–and turning Vanderbilt over, thus making the margin smaller throughout the course of the evening.

The Chargers are 362nd in 3-point percentage and doesn’t appear to present much of a threat to Vanderbilt’s high-powered offense if it doesn’t muck the game up.

Keep Tyler Harris trending up

Harris has slumped significantly–shooting 5-for-25 from 3-point range since Nov. 20–down the stretch of non-conference play, but his 14-point outing against Wake Forest appeared to indicate that he may be turning a corner. The game still seemed a tad fast for Harris, but he appeared to be on a track towards improvement.

If Vanderbilt is going to finish the season as the best team in the SEC, it needs Harris to become a consistent shotmaker–at least off the catch–and Monday could be a start to the shotmaking ability that he has showing up more consistently.

Vanderbilt needs Harris to get it going like he’s capable of. That is more important than anything that happens in terms of Monday night’s results.

Mix Duke Miles and Mike James in as secondary ballhandlers effectively

Knowing Mark Byington’s tendencies to toy with lineups in buy games and the circumstances surrounding Frankie Collins–who will miss the game with a torn meniscus–he’ll likely have James on the ball significantly more than he would in an SEC game and will turn to Miles at the one as he looks to find what works in Collins’ absence.

Collins is tied for a team-high 4.7 assists per game and appears to be a fixture in Byington’s two-point guard lineups. Vanderbilt upgrades its shooting on paper without Collins, but risks a lack of penetration at times without the veteran guard. The area in which Vanderbilt will miss the veteran guard most is perhaps his defensive intensity.

Here’s James’–who isn’t a point guard by trade–chance to earn himself some minutes alongside Tanner and Miles as Byington looks to replace Collins.

Prediction: Vanderbilt: 103, New Haven: 61

Vanderbilt has generally been excellent when it’s up against a team that tries to slow it down, and this doesn’t appear to have potential to be much of an outlier.

Even if the possessions are limited, New Haven likely doesn’t have the length and athleticism to turn Vanderbilt over all that consistently. It’s also not a team that’s built to shoot itself into the game or play from behind.

Vanderbilt appears to be the easy pick to win significantly here as it finishes non-conference play undefeated.