Devils Visit Memorial Sunday

Battle Ground

• Vanderbilt has faced Mississippi Valley State once before, a 92-56 win Dec. 23, 1996 inside Memorial Gymnasium. Billy Di Spaltro scored 18 and Austin Bates collected eight rebounds for the Commodores.
• Vanderbilt is 19-0 all-time against Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
• Mississippi Valley State head coach Lindsey Hunter and Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse were teammates for the Detroit Pistons in the NBA from 1997-2000.

Full Steam Ahead

•  Vanderbilt won its fourth straight season opener and its 14th straight home opener.
• Vanderbilt is now 2-0 in season openers under Stackhouse.  

Worth the Wait

• Vanderbilt’s season-opening date of Nov. 27 was the latest beginning to a season in 31 years. The Commodores began the 1989-90 season by facing Southern Methodist on the same Nov. 27 date. They have started every season since earlier than that date.
• Vanderbilt will be playing its first game in 16 days. 

Pippen Made Easy

• Vanderbilt sophomore Scotty Pippen Jr. was named preseason All-SEC second team. 
• Pippen, a 6-foot-1, 170-pound point guard, played in all 32 Vandy games in 2019-20 and averaged 12 points and 3.6 assists per game.
• A product of Los Angeles, Pippen scored a career-high 25 points in the season opener against Valparaiso on Nov. 27. He was 14-of-14 from the free throw line and 5 of 11 from the field. 

Freshmen Five

• Vanderbilt welcomed five true freshmen to the fold for the 2020-21 season: Max Adelman, Tyrin Lawrence, Akeem Odusipe, Myles Stute and Trey Thomas.
• Thomas and Stute made their collegiate debuts in the season opener. Thomas played six minutes and finished with two points on a pair of free throws, while Stute buried a three and hauled in three rebounds in 17 minutes. 
• Thomas, a Canadian native, was a late signee in July, while Adelman came to Nashville as a walk-on.

TV and Tip Times

• An SEC debut on ESPN2 and 16 league contests on the SEC Network highlight the television coverage for the Vanderbilt men’s basketball program during the 2020-21 season.
• The Commodores begin conference play at 8 p.m. Dec. 30 against Florida inside Memorial Gymnasium. That matchup will be televised by ESPN2 as Vandy continues its second season under Stackhouse.
• Sixteen of the next 17 conference games for Vanderbilt will be televised by the SEC Network. A Jan. 20 game against Texas A&M in Nashville is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and be televised by ESPNU.
• Vanderbilt is scheduled to play six day games in 2020, including five that are scheduled to tip off at noon.

Eligible Transfers

• Three Commodores are now eligible to play for Vandy this season: redshirt junior D.J. Harvey, freshman Issac McBride and redshirt sophomore Quentin Millora-Brown.
• Harvey, who began his career at Notre Dame, and Millora-Brown, who started his college career at Rice, were both with the program in 2019-20.
• McBride came to West End from Kansas in the spring.

NBA and the Lottery 

• Vanderbilt is the only program in the nation with back-to-back NBA lottery picks. Former Vanderbilt guard Darius Garland was drafted fifth overall by Cleveland in the 2019 NBA Draft, and guard Aaron Nesmith was selected 14th overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2020 draft. 
• Vanderbilt’s six first round picks since 2012 ranks second in the SEC.
• In the second round of the 2020 draft, Saben Lee was selected 38th overall by the Detroit Pistons. It marked the first time a pair of Vanderbilt players were selected in the NBA Draft since 2016. 
• Nesmith and Lee join Garland, Luke Kornet (Chicago) and Damian Jones (Phoenix) as active Commodore alums in the NBA.

New Recruits 

• Entering his second season on West End, Stackhouse announced that Peyton Daniels and Gabe Dorsey signed their letters of intent to join the Vanderbilt men’s basketball program Nov. 11.
• Daniels and Dorsey have each received four-star ratings, and are ranked as the sixth-best recruits in their respective states of Georgia and Pennsylvania. Daniels, a 6-foot-2 guard, was a first-team all-state selection at Tri-Cities (Ga.) last season, while Dorsey, a 6-foot-6 wing, set the career record for made threes at The Hill School as a junior.

Facility Upgrade

• As part of a $5 million gift from Seattle-area businessman and Vanderbilt alumnus George B. Huber, BA’79, and his wife Cathy, Vanderbilt’s basketball practice facility underwent extensive upgrades this summer.
• Originally built in 2002, the practice facility had its latest updates installed beginning in June and completed prior to the campus arrival of the basketball student-athletes Aug. 3.
• New aspects of the basketball practice facility include branded paint and graphics throughout the gym, environment-conscious LED lighting and an all-new playing surface.

Looking Astern

• In it season opener Nov. 27, Vanderbilt put together a solid stretch when it needed it most and pulled away from visiting Valparaiso 77-71 at Memorial Gymnasium.
• Vanderbilt trailed 59-54 with 6:52 before going into a different gear. An 11-0 run was highlighted by six Pippen Jr. points that helped the Dores go up 65-59. Maxwell Evans’ 3 with 2:41 left made it 68-61.
• Pippen – who was 14 of 14 from the line – led Vandy with a career-high of 25 points while Evans finished with 16. Dylan Disu pulled down 11 rebounds.

A Vandy Victory Would…

• … mark the third straight 2-0 start. 
• … be the third in a row at home, including the win over South Carolina in last year’s home finale.

A Vandy Defeat Would…

• … be the first in 20 games against an HBCU.
• … be less good than a win.

On Deck

•  Vanderbilt continues a three-game homestand when the Commodores welcome Richmond on Dec. 16 and Radford on Dec. 19. 
•  The Commodores will play at Davidson on Dec. 22 and will begin conference play on national television with ESPN2 matchup on Dec. 30 against Florida.