Vanderbilt Hosts Austin Peay Tonight

The Vanderbilt men’s basketball returns home to take on Austin Peay at Memorial Gym on Wednesday night to begin a stretch of three games in six days. The game will begin at 7 p.m. CT, with a live stream of the game airing on SEC Network+. Commodore fans can also tune into the game on the Vanderbilt Radio Network from Learfield/IMG College with Joe Fisher and Tim Thompson on WLAC 1510 AM and 98.3 FM, and online on VUCommodores.com and the VUCommodores app.

Vanderbilt Basketball Quick Hitters

• The Commodores dropped to 2-1 on the season after a heartbreaking 93-92 overtime loss at Richmond on Nov. 14 at the Robins Center. Commodore sophomore Aaron Nesmith scored a career-high 34 points, while junior Saben Lee chipped in 20 points.

• Nesmith leads the SEC in scoring and is ranked sixth nationally. He also leads the conference in threes made per game (5.67, 2nd nationally) and total threes (17, 8th nationally).

• Nesmith (26.7) and Lee (20.0) are tied for the highest-scoring duo in the nation (Hampton’s Jermaine Marrow (29.7) & Ben Stanley (17.0)).

• Nesmith is ranked in the top 10 in 12 different categories in the SEC - Scoring (1st, 26.7), Total Points (80), Threes Made per Game (1st, 5.67), Total Threes (1st, 17), Total Field Goals Made (1st, 28), Threes Attempted (1st, 30), Three-Point Field Goal Percentage (2nd, 56.7), Blocks per Game (9th, 1.67), Defensive Rebounds per Game (7th, 6.0), Field Goal Percentage (6th, 62.2), Minutes Played (6th, 34.59), Total Field Goal Attempts (5th, 45).

• 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).

• Stackhouse has been a star player at every level of basketball. He was a 1993 McDonald’s All-American in high school and an All-American at North Carolina in 1995. He was the No. 3 overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, a two-time All-Star and earned the 2000-01 scoring title. In his 18-year NBA career, he scored 16,409 points while playing for the 76ers, Pistons, Wizards, Mavericks, Bucks, Heat, Hawks and Nets.

• His prior coaching stints have all come in the NBA or the NBA G League. He was an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2018-19, and was the head coach of the Toronto Raptors’ G-League franchise, Raptors 905, in 2016-17 and 2017-18, where his teams won one championship (2017) and advanced to the finals (2018) in another. He was also named the G-League Coach of the Year in 2016-17.

• As a team, the Commodores are first in the SEC in blocks per game (6.7, 11th nationally) and three-point field goals made per game (12.3, 4th nationally). Vanderbilt is also second in three-point field goal percentage (40.7).

• Lee is ranked in the top 10 in the SEC in Assist to Turnover Ratio (6th, 2.5), Assists per Game (6.7), Scoring (4th, 20.0), Total Assists (4th, 20), Total Field Goal Attempts (3rd, 46), Total Field Goals Made (5th, 22), Total Points (7th, 60), Steals Per Game (5th, 2.3).

• Senior Clevon Brown, who is averaging 11.0 points per game, is tied for seventh in the SEC in rebounding (8.0/game) and tied for fourth in blocks (2.3). Freshman Dylan Dysu is tied for second in steals in the SEC with 3.0 per game.

• Nesmith was recently named to the preseason All-SEC second-team by the league’s coaches.

• Saben Lee was one of seven major conference underclassmen in 2018-19 with 400+ points, 100+ rebounds and 100+ assists, and is the only one in the SEC. (Terence Davis and Grant Williams were the only others in the SEC to reach those numbers.)

• 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 Austin Peay, Vanderbilt will move to 1,068 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.

• Memorial Gym is the SEC’s oldest faciilty, built in 1952. The Commodores are 803-235 all-time in the building.

About Austin Peay Series

Series Record: Vanderbilt leads, 16-1

Last Meeting: Vanderbilt win, 73-54, on 11/10/2017 in Nashville, Tenn.

Record at Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt leads 14-1

Record at Austin Peay: Vanderbilt leads 2-0

Coach Stackhouse vs. Austin Peay: First Meeting