Vanderbilt Quick Hitter: Texas A&M Edition

QUICK HITTERS

• The Commodores dropped their SEC opener on Wednesday at No. 5-ranked Auburn, 83-79, in a hard-fought contest at Auburn Arena. Junior Saben Lee led the Commodores with a career-high 27 points, while sophomore Aaron Nesmith added 18 points and freshman Jordan Wright a career-high 10 points to go along with a career-best seven rebounds.

• Lee was 10-14 from the floor, 3-3 from three, and 4-4 from the free-throw line. Nesmith was an efficient 7-14 from the field and 4-6 from three, while also grabbing seven rebounds and notching three steals.

• Nesmith leads the SEC in scoring with 23.0 points per game and is fifth nationally. He also leads the SEC and nation in 3FG/game with 4.29 and 3FG% at .522. He has also made an SEC-best 60 threes this season. He also ranks eighth in free-throw percentage (.825) and field-goal percentage (.512).

• Nesmith is one of two players in the nation to make seven or more threes in a game four times this season (Dru Kuxhausen, McNeese State). Also, his scoring average of 23.0 points per game is second to Tom Hagan’s program-best 23.4 points/game in the 1968-69 season.

• Nesmith has 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 is the first Vanderbilt player since Shan Foster in 2008 to score 30 or more points in multiple games in a season.

• Nesmith (23.0) and Lee (16.6) are the third-highest-scoring duo in the nation behind Hampton’s Jermaine Marrow (23.2) and Ben Stanley (21.5) and Texas-San Antonio’s Jhivvan Jackson (25.3) and Keaton Wallace (16.9).

• Nesmith and Lee have scored in double figures in all but one game this season. Nesmith has scored 20 or more in eight Vanderbilt games this season, Lee in four games.

• Lee is eighth in the SEC in scoring (16.6), fifth in assists/game (5.1), and sixth in field goal percentage (.522) in the SEC.

• 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.

• Scottie Pippen Jr. is also ranked in the top 10 in the SEC in assists/game (8th, 4.6), free throws made (6th, 54), free throws attempted (5th, 77), and assist-to-turnover ratio (4th, 2.1).

• 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 (.393). second in threes made/game (9.9) and field goal percentage (.471). Vanderbilt has been to the charity stripe 321 times this season, which ranks fifth 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 Texas A&M, Vanderbilt will move to 1,079 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: Vanderbilt leads, 8-5

Last Meeting: Texas A&M - W, 69-52

March 13, 2019 - Nashville, Tenn. (SEC Tournament)

At Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt leads, 5-1

Jerry Stackhouse vs. Texas A&M: First meeting

Texas A&M Series Records/Important Dates

• Vanderbilt leads the all-time series with Texas A&M, 8-5. All matchups have come as conference members

• The Commodores are 2-0 against Buzz Williams-coached teams. Vanderbilt defeated Marquette in Nashville on Dec. 29, 2010, 77-76, and won a game at Marquette on Dec. 29, 2011, 74-57.

• This will be the seventh meeting between the two schools at Memorial Gym.

• 2.4.16 - Vanderbilt knocked off No. 8 Texas A&M, 77-60, behind Jeff Roberson’s 20 points. It was the Commodores’ first win over a ranked team in four years.

• 2.15.14 - The Commodores, down to seven scholarship players, defeated the Aggies in overtime, 57-54. Senior Rod Odom sent the game into overtime with a jump shot at the buzzer, and sophomore walk-on guard Carter Josephs secured the win in the waning seconds of overtime after drawing a flagrant foul on the Aggies’ Jamal Jones.

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