NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Vanderbilt men’s basketball team will get back to work when they return to the Memorial Gym floor for a contest with Buffalo at 7 p.m. Tuesday evening. The game will live stream 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.
Vanderbilt Basketball Quick Hitters
• The Commodores dropped to 5-2 on the season after falling to Tulsa 67-58 Saturday at Memorial Gym. The SEC’s leading scorer, Aaron Nesmith, led the team with 26 points. Freshman Scotty Pippen Jr. added 12 points and junior Saben Lee contributed 11 points.
• Vanderbilt’s 58 points was its lowest scoring output of the season and the Commodores’ 35.7 percent shooting mark was its lowest in a game this season.
• Nesmith leads the nation and SEC with 4.86 made 3’s per game and leads the SEC in 3-point field goal percentage (1st, .540) and scoring (23.7). He is sixth nationally in points per game. Nesmith is also ranked in the top 10 in the SEC in field goal percentage (8th, .542).
• Nesmith (23.7) and Lee (16.3) are the third-highest-scoring duo in the nation behind Hampton’s Jermaine Marrow (24.9) and Ben Stanley (17.6) and Marquette’s Markus Howard (29.3) & Koby McEwen (12.2).
• Nesmith and Lee have scored in double figures in every game this season. Nesmith has scored 20 or more in all but one of the Commodores’ first seven contests.
• Lee is eighth (16.3) in scoring, third in assists per game (6.6), and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.0) in the SEC.
• Other Commodores ranked in the top 10 in the SEC include Pippen Jr. (T-10th, assists/game, 4.5; 10th, ATO ratio, 1.7; 10th), Clevon Brown (T-5th, blocks/game, 1.7; T-3rd, offensive rebounds, 2.9), and Dylan Disu (T-5th, 2.0).
• Disu registered a career-high three assists and five steals against Tulsa. His five steals were the most in a game since Riley LaChance had five steals vs. Penn on Dec. 22, 2014.
• Pippen Jr. was named the SEC Freshman of the Week on Nov. 25 after averaging 17 points, 5.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game in two Commodore wins last week over Austin Peay and South Carolina State, respectively. He had a career-high 21 points in the win against Austin Peay and then had a career-high eight assists against South Carolina State. He shot 60 percent (9 of 15) from the field and 55.5 percent (5 of 9) from 3-point range for the week.
• 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).
• As a team, the Commodores are first in the SEC in 3-point field goal percentage (.397) and threes made (11.0). Vanderbilt is third in scoring offense (81.3), field goal percentage (.489) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.1).
• A season ago, no Commodore had more than seven assists in a game. This season, it has been done four times by Saben Lee and once by Scotty Pippen Jr.
• Nesmith was 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 Buffalo, Vanderbilt will move to 1,072 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 facility, built in 1952. The Commodores are 807-236 all-time in the building.
Series Record: First meeting
Jerry Stackhouse vs. Buffalo: First meeting
Media Information
Vanderbilt vs. Buffalo
Nashville, Tenn. – Memorial Gym – 7 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
