Vanderbilt Basketball Quick Hitters: Tennessee Edition
Vanderbilt Basketball Quick Hitters
• The Commodores dropped to 8-8 overall and 0-3 in league play after a 75-55 loss at Arkansas Wednesday night. Junior Saben Lee scored 17 points, all in the second half, to lead Vanderbilt, while fellow junior Maxwell Evans tied a career-high with 16 points, which all came in the first half. Freshman Scotty Pippen Jr. added 11 points, his 10th game in double figures this season.
• Lee has 997 career points after his 17-point performance against Arkansas. If he reaches the 1,000-point mark, he will be the 49th Commodore to join the elite 1,000-point club.
• It was announced before the Texas A&M game that Vanderbilt’s leading scorer Aaron Nesmith would be out indefinitely with a right foot injury. Prior to the injury, Nesmith led the SEC in scoring with 23.0 points per game and was fifth nationally. He also led the SEC and nation in 3FG/game with 4.29 and 3FG% at .522. He had also made an SEC-best 60 threes this season through 14 games. He also ranked eighth in free-throw percentage (.825) and field-goal percentage (.512) prior to his injury.
• With Nesmith out indefinitely, junior guard Saben Lee emerges as the team’s scoring leader. He is averaging 15.8 points and 5.1 assists per game, which ranks 10th and 3rd in the SEC in all games, respectively. Lee is also fifth in field goal percentage (.514).
• Lee claimed SEC Player of the Week honors after his performance against Buffalo, becoming the first Commodore to win the award since Jeff Roberson on Feb. 19, 2018. Lee joins Scotty Pippen Jr. as weekly honorees from the SEC this season. Pippen Jr. was named the SEC Freshman of the Week on Nov. 25 when he averaged 17 points, 5.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game in two Commodore wins over Austin Peay and South Carolina State, respectively.
• Scotty Pippen Jr. is ranked in the top 10 in the SEC in assists/game (7th, 4.5), free throws made (6th, 63), free throws attempted (5th, 89), and assist-to-turnover ratio (4th, 1.89).
• The Commodores are a youthful bunch - in the last game against Arkansas, Vanderbilt started three true freshmen (Pippen Jr., Disu, Albert), a redshirt sophomore (Obinna), and a junior (Lee). True freshmen have accounted for 37% minutes played, and with Nesmith’s minutes taken away, freshmen have played 44% of minutes played. According to KenPom.com, Vanderbilt has 1.13 years of experience on its roster, which ranks 320th in Division I basketball.
• Nesmith and Tennessee freshman Josian Jordan-James each played at Porter-Gaud School in Charleston, S.C. James was the 2019 South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year, while Nesmith claimed the 2018 honor, beating out Duke phenom Zion Williamson for the award.
• Nesmith scored 34 points twice this season - against UNC Wilmington on Dec. 21 and earlier this season at Richmond on Nov. 14. Nesmith’s performance against the Spiders was the most points by a Vanderbilt player since Shan Foster vs. Miss. State (3/5/08), and the most points by a Vanderbilt player on the road since Billy McCaffrey at Georgia (35, 2/24/93). Nesmith was the first Vanderbilt player since Shan Foster in 2008 to score 30 or more points in multiple games in a season.
• New head coach Jerry Stackhouse is the 28th men’s basketball coach in the history of Vanderbilt basketball. He is the first African American Commodore men’s basketball head coach and is one of two current African American head coaches in the Southeastern Conference (Cuonzo Martin, Missouri).
• As a team, the Commodores are first in the SEC in 3-point field goal percentage (.369) and second in threes made/game (9.3). Vanderbilt has been to the charity stripe 364 times this season, which ranks fourth in the SEC.
• The Commodores are one of only three schools (UNLV and Princeton) to have made a three-point basket since the inception of the three-point line in the 1986-87 season. With a made three against Tennessee, Vanderbilt will move to 1,081 consecutive games with a three-pointer.
• The Commodores have had five first-round NBA Draft picks since 2012, the second-most in the SEC in that time span - Darius Garland (5th, Cleveland Cavaliers), Wade Baldwin IV (17th, Memphis Grizzlies), Damian Jones (30th, Golden State Warriors), and John Jenkins (23rd, Atlanta) and Festus Ezeli (30th, Golden State). Garland, Jones, and former standout Luke Kornet (Chicago Bulls) are all active players in the NBA.
Series Information
Series Record: Tennessee leads, 122-75
Last Meeting: Tennessee - W, 58-46
Feb. 19, 2019 - Knoxville, Tenn.
At Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt leads, 54-42
Jerry Stackhouse vs. Tennessee: First meeting
Tennessee Series Records/Important Dates
• Tennessee leads the all-time series with Vanderbilt, 122-75. The Volunteers are the Commodores’ most-played opponent in program history.
• Vanderbilt leads the series, 54-42, but the Volunteers have won three consecutive meetings at Memorial Gym.
• Vanderbilt lost a heart-breaking, 88-83 overtime decision to the Volunteers last year at Memorial Gym. Tennessee was ranked No. 1 at the time of the game.
• 2.26.08 - The Commodores knocked off No. 1 Tennessee, 72-69, in front of a sellout crowd at Memorial Gym. All-time leading scorer Shan Foster led Vanderbilt with 32 points.
• 1.10.07 - Shan Foster scored on a putback as time expired, and Vanderbilt snapped Tennessee’s nine-game winning streak by upsetting the No. 20 Vols, 82-81.
• 2.19.00 - The unranked Commodores defeated No. 9 Tennessee, 85-72, behind Anthony Williams’ 22-point, 12 rebound performance.
• 2.17.68 - The No. 9 Commodores knocked off No. 7 Tennessee, 75-63, at Memorial Gym.
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