Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball will travel to Blacksburg, Virginia, this week for a Dec. 4 matchup with Virginia Tech in its first true road test of the young 2024 season. The Commodores are fresh off the heels of a stellar first month of play, as they finished November 7–1 with a pair of key wins over Nevada and Seton Hall in the Charleston Classic. They’ve already found success against one ACC foe this fall, winning against California in Memorial Gymnasium on Nov. 13.
Commodore fans will come face-to-face with the Hokie faithful for the second time in 2024, just over three months after Vanderbilt Football shocked Virginia Tech in FirstBank Stadium and sent visiting fans home empty-handed.
The Hokies will enter Wednesday’s contest amid a backward slide, having lost four games in a row to Penn State, Jacksonville, Michigan and South Carolina. They’ll look to right the ship and get back to .500 with a win over the Black and Gold.
The Commodores enter the game as favorites, but as past years have shown, they can’t afford to overlook any opponents, no matter their record or prestige. The Hokies are a perfect example of that — they might be 3-4 and No. 142 in KenPom’s rankings, but they’re still a Power Four program with a rich history of success.
This matchup will also feature a reunion, as MJ Collins and Tyler Nickel will return to Blacksburg, the city they called home during the 2023-24 season.
Head coach Mark Byington will need to make note of a few key points if he wants to leave the East Coast with a win over the Commodores’ budding rival.
Downtown demons
For all of the shooters it brought in this offseason, Vanderbilt has struggled mightily to knock down shots from 3-point range through eight games in November. The Commodores are converting just 30.1% of their attempts from downtown, which ranks 270th among all Division I NCAA teams. Jason Edwards, brought in to be Vanderbilt’s best scorer, has been everything as advertised and is connecting on 37.5% of his average six attempts per game. Nickel and Tyler Tanner have been knockdown shooters for Byington, too, hitting 36.0 and 36.4% of their triples, respectively.
Vanderbilt’s efficiency goes quickly downhill from there. AJ Hoggard (26.1%), Collins (27.3%), Jaylen Carey (16.7%), Grant Huffman (14.3%) and Chris Manon (10.0%) have all played significant minutes for Byington but haven’t knocked down deep balls consistently. These guys might not have been advertised as sharpshooters like Edwards and Nickel, but they’ll need to hit shots more consistently moving forward to unlock Byington’s offense.
The Hokies have been among the top 100 in the country at limiting teams’ efficiency from deep, ranking 92nd while allowing — coincidentally — a 30.1% success rate to opponents from beyond the arc. Vanderbilt has shown an ability to beat anybody when its shots are falling — its 37% shooting from 3-point range in a blowout win against Seton Hall is proof of that. Whether Byington gets that version of Vanderbilt or the group that made just 3-of-25 deep balls against Southeast Missouri is anybody’s guess.
Inside job
Vanderbilt’s 61.2% shooting from inside the 3-point arc is nothing short of impressive, especially considering that it’s playing without a true center on its roster. Devin McGlockton’s 66.1% shooting from the field ranks 22nd in the nation and first in the SEC, and his 73.3% from 2-point range is 62nd in the country. He’s been hyper-efficient from inside, but it isn’t just him. Tanner is 23rd in the country, shooting 77.8% from inside, and Huffman is right behind him at 75%. Manon is converting 71.4% of his short-range shots, and Edwards is connecting on 61.2%.
The ‘Dores have gotten to the paint at will all season, and they’ll likely attack the rim once again this week — Virginia Tech ranks towards the bottom of the country in blocks per game (2.1), and no one on the Hokies’ roster is averaging more than a block per game. Forward Toibu Lawal has been their best player on the inside all season, but even he’s averaging just 0.9 blocks per contest. The 6’8 London native will have his hands full with this rim-running group of Commodores.
Expect the Hokies to collapse in on the paint to limit Vanderbilt’s effectiveness at the rim. That, in turn, should help open up the 3-point shot for Byington’s shooters and lift up that pesky 30.1% conversion rate.
Hands in the cookie jar
Perhaps Vanderbilt’s most pleasant surprise this season has been its active hands on the defensive end. Hoggard has a Power Four pedigree and was, therefore, expected to be a stalwart on defense for Byington, but his intensity has spread. His 1.6 steals per game are tied for second on the team, and five of Vanderbilt’s guards are averaging over 1 steal per game.
The most surprising name on that list is Tanner — it’s pretty uncommon for a first-year to make a defensive impact like the Brentwood, Tennessee, native has. Even more surprising is that he leads the team with 2.5 steals per game. He’s always one step ahead of his opponents, consistently jumping into passing lanes and creating instant fast-break opportunities.
Huffman (1.6), Edwards (1.1) and Manon (1.0) have had their hands in opposing teams’ cookie jars all year, and that should continue against the Hokies, who turn the ball over on 21.6% of their offensive possessions. Lawal, Mylyjael Poteat and Brandon Rechsteiner all average over 2.0 turnovers per game, compared to just one for Vanderbilt (Edwards at 2.0). Those numbers add up to an ACC-worst 14.9 turnovers per game. Vanderbilt should have no problem getting into Virginia Tech’s passing lanes on Wednesday night.
Vanderbilt will put its 7-1 record on the line during its first road trip of the season at 8:15 p.m. CST on Dec. 4 at the Cassell Coliseum.
