NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt men’s basketball will play their second game in three days this Friday night when the Commodores take on South Carolina State. The game will begin at 8 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 IMG Radio Network with Joe Fisher and Tim Thompson on WLAC 1510 AM and 98.3 FM, and online on VUCommodores.com and the VUCommodores app.
Doubleheader with Women’s Team
Vanderbilt’s game against South Carolina State will be the second game of a doubleheader with the Vanderbilt women, who play Furman at 5:30 p.m. A ticket for the women’s game will be good for the men’s game.
Vanderbilt Basketball Quick Hitters
• The Commodores improved to 3-1 on the season after defeating Austin Peay, 90-72, on Wednesday night at Memorial Gym. Sophomore Aaron Nesmith led all Commodores with 26 points. Freshman Scotty Pippen Jr. tallied a career-high 21 points, and junior Saben Lee chipped in 19 points.
• Nesmith leads the nation with 5.25 made 3’s per game, is third nationally in scoring (26.5 points per game) and fifth with total 3’s made (21).
• Nesmith (26.5) and Lee (19.8) are the second-highest-scoring duo in the nation (Hampton’s Jermaine Marrow (29.7) & Ben Stanley (17.0)).
• Nesmith is the SEC’s leading scorer (26.5 ppg) and is the league leader in 3’s made per game (5.3). Lee is fourth (19.8) in scoring, second in assists per game (7.3), seventh in steals per game (2.0), and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio in the SEC. Nesmith is also ranked in the top 10 in field goal percentage (4th, .613) and 3-point field goal percentage (2nd, .553).
• Other Commodores ranked in the top 10 in the SEC include Pippen Jr. (T-8th, ATO ratio, 2.0), Dylan Disu (T-5th, steals/game, 2.3), and Clevon Brown (T-8th, blocks per game, 1.8; T-6th, offensive rebounds, 3.0).
• Nesmith tallied a career-high 34 points in an overtime loss at Richmond on Nov. 14. It 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).
• 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 field goal percentage (.511) and threes made (11.5), and second in 3-point field goal percentage (.400).
• The Commodores have made at least eight 3’s in every game this season.
• 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 was 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 South Carolina State, Vanderbilt will move to 1,069 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 804-235 all-time in the building.
About South Carolina State Series
Series Record: Vanderbilt leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: Vanderbilt win, 65-60, on 11/17/2000 in Nashville, Tenn.
Record at Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt leads 1-0
Record at South Carolina State: NA
Coach Stackhouse vs. South Carolina State: First Meeting
Media Information
Vanderbilt vs. South Carolina State
Nashville, Tenn. – Memorial Gym – 8 p.m. CT
TV: SEC Network+
TV Talent: Kevin Ingram (pxp), Shan Foster (analyst)
Radio: Vanderbilt Radio Network from Learfield/IMG College, vucommodores.com
Radio Talent: Joe Fisher (pxp), Tim Thompson (analyst)
Live Stats: VandyStats.com
Twitter Updates: @VandyMBB
Notes: @VandyNotes
