RICHMOND, Va. – The Vanderbilt men’s basketball team hits the road for the first time this season when the Commodores travel to Richmond, Virginia, to take on the Richmond Spiders Thursday evening. The game will begin at 6 p.m. CT, with a live stream of the game airing on ESPN+. 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
• 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).
• The Commodores moved to 2-0 on the season after a 71-66 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi Monday night at Memorial Gym. Sophomore Aaron Nesmith scored 21 points to lead four Vanderbilt players in double figures. Junior Saben Lee (15), Clevon Brown (12), and Scotty Pippen Jr. (10) also added double figures.
• Stackhouse earned his first collegiate victory in the Commodores’ season opener against Southeast Missouri, earning an 83-65 win over the Redhawks. Vanderbilt moved to 61-7 in home openers at Memorial Gym, and have won 13 consecutive season-opening game at the SEC’s oldest facility.
• 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.
• Nesmith is the team’s leading scorer at 23.0 points per game. The sophomore from Charleston, S.C., has made an SEC-best 10 3-pointers so far this season and is tied for fifth in the SEC in scoring. He is also eighth in FG% (.593), and third in 3FG% (.556).
• Lee averages 18.0 points per game, while Brown adds 13.5 points per contest. Lee ranks third in the SEC in assists (6.0) and ninth in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.0). Brown is tied for fourth in FG% (.733) and tied for sixth (2.0) in blocks per game. Brown now has 101 blocks in his career, with ranks eighth all time on Vanderbit’s career blocks list.
• Four freshmen, Scotty Pippen Jr., Dylan Disu, Jordan Wright, and Oton Jankovic all made their collegiate debuts against Southeast Missouri. Redshirt sophomore Ejike Obinna returned to the court and scored seven points after redshirting last season.
• The Commodores return six letter winners from 2018-19, with junior Saben Lee leading the way for the Commodores a year ago. Lee averaged 12.7 points per game and led the team with 3.8 assists per contest. Sophomore Aaron Nesmith also averaged double figures a year ago with 11.0 points per game. Other letter winners returning include junior guard Maxwell Evans, junior forward Matthew Moyer, senior forward Clevon Brown, and junior guard Isaiah Rice. Redshirt sophomore Ejike Obinna returns to the floor after redshirting last 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 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 Richmond, Vanderbilt will move to 1,067 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 Richmond
Series Record: Vanderbilt leads, 2-1
Last Meeting: Richmond win, 69-66, in first round of NCAA Tournament
Record at Vanderbilt: 1-0
Record at Richmond: 1-0
Record at Neutral Site: 0-1
Coach Stackhouse vs. Richmond: First Meeting
Media Information
Vanderbilt vs. Richmond
Richmond, Va. – The Robins Center – 6 p.m. CT
TV: ESPN+
TV Talent: Bob Black (pxp), Greg Beckwith (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
