NASHVILLE – Vanderbilt suited up for its first game without Darius Garland on Tuesday, when it hosted Savannah State at Memorial Gymnasium. Aaron Nesmith saw it as an opportunity for the Commodores to show off their team potential.
“As a team, I knew with Darius being out tonight, it was a big hole to fill,” Nesmith said. “Because, obviously, he was our leader. So we had to come together collectively as a team, and we had to win tonight as a team.”
Among others, Nesmith stepped up in a big way in the Dores’ 120-85 win over Savannah State. The 6-6 freshman led eight players in double-figures with 20 points and a team-high 13 rebounds. Nesmith also swatted two shots with authority. In all, the Commodores’ 120 points marked their second-highest scoring output in program history.
Unfortunately for Vanderbilt, Garland, the former five-star signee and lightning-fast point guard from Nashville’s Brentwood Academy, will miss the remainder of the season with a meniscus injury. Garland had averaged 16.2 points per game through the Dores’ 4-1 start, and he scored 33 points against Liberty on Nov. 19, the most by an SEC player this season.
But head coach Bryce Drew said Vanderbilt fans should be excited about more from Nesmith, in particular, going forward.
“It was great to get Aaron in a rhythm,” Drew said after the win over Savannah State. “His 13 rebounds were spectacular and he had some highlight blocks, which we’d seen in practice, but it was nice to see it in a game.”
Nesmith arrived at Vanderbilt as part of the highest-rated signing class in program history. Though Garland and fellow five-star signee Simisola Shittu garnered the brightest spotlight upon signing with Vanderbilt, Nesmith landed in Nashville as a touted prospect in his own right.
A Charleston, S.C. native, Nesmith scored more than 2,000 career points at Porter Gaud High, earning South Carolina’s Gatorade Player of the Year honors as a consensus four-star recruit. Nesmith averaged 21 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game as a sharpshooting senior at Porter Gaud.
The 6-6 Nesmith had yet to break out this season ahead of Savannah State, averaging just 5.6 points through Vanderbilt’s first five games. He scored a season-high 10 against USC on Nov. 11. But he worked to find higher-percentage shots against Savannah State, an aggressive approach that could pay off this season.
“I just haven’t been as aggressive in the first few games attacking the rim,” Nesmith said. “[I was] sort of settling for threes. I know I’m not shooting the ball as well as I can, and I want to. I just made an effort today to attack the rim a little more.”
Nesmith’s performance against Savannah State did not surprise Drew.
“Aaron’s been really good in practice,” the coach said. “Anytime you’re a freshman, you’re trying to figure some things out. What’s a good shot, what’s not a good shot, where are my spots, where are not my spots. We’ve seen him make those blocks in practice. Like he said, he shoots the ball way better than he’s shooting it right now. He’s going to be a really, really good player for us.”
A more productive Nesmith could be a bright spot as Vanderbilt continues nonconference play. The Commodores face N.C. State in the Hoophall Miami Invitational on Friday. Later in December, they host Arizona State and Middle Tennessee along with a road trip to play Kansas State in Kansas City.
Nesmith said the Commodores’ will rally around each other without Garland on the floor. With one freshman sidelined, Nesmith is another freshman who should be a difference-maker for Vanderbilt in the coming months. But Drew said his roster boasts the firepower necessary to propel the program into SEC play.
“We know we have a lot of good players on our team,” Drew said. “We have a lot ahead of us. We have to move forward the best that we can and prepare the best that we can. These guys are motivated, they want to be successful and want to win.”
Zac Ellis is the Writer and Digital Media Editor for Vanderbilt Athletics.
