Vanderbilt Basketball Quick Hotters: South Carolina Edition

The Vanderbilt Commodores host the South Carolina Gamecocks in the regular-season home finale for the 2019-20 season as the SEC Tournament begins Wednesday.

Vanderbilt Basketball Quick Hitters

• Vanderbilt improved to 10-20 on the season after defeating Alabama, 87-79, Tuesday night in Tuscaloosa. Junior Saben Lee scored a career-high 38 points to lead Vanderbilt in the game. Two freshmen, Dylan Disu and Scotty Pippen, Jr., each scored in double-digits with 14 and 13 points, respectively. The Commodores won the contest despite having only six scholarship players available; freshman Jordan Wright did not join the team on the trip due to concussion symptoms.

• The win was Vanderbilt’s first on the road this season and snapped an 18-game overall streak in true road contests. The Commodores’ last win on the road came against USC in Los Angeles on Nov. 11, 2018. The win was the first in SEC play since defeating Ole Miss in Oxford, 82-69, on March 3, 2018.

• Saben Lee’s 38-point performance is the most by a Commodore since Shan Foster scored 42 points in a senior night win over Mississippi State on March 5, 2008. Since that game, there have been 13 30-point games by a Commodore, with six of those coming this season (Lee has three, Aaron Nesmith two, and Maxwell Evans one).

• The Commodores have held the lead at the half in seven SEC games this season - Missouri, Georgia, both games against Kentucky, Mississippi State, LSU, and at Alabama - and were tied in their game at Tennessee.

• Saturday’s game will be the 20th home game for the Commodores this season, the most by a Vanderbilt team at Memorial Gym in one season since the building opened in 1952.

• Walk-ons Jon Jossell and Drew Weikert have received minutes in Vanderbilt’s last few games. Jossell is a senior from Arcadia, Oklahoma, who joined the team after spending three seasons as a manager, while Weikert, from Nashville, is a sophomore who joined the team in October after spending one season at Centre College in Kentucky. Weikert’s father Doug played basketball for the Commodores (1980-83) and is an orthopedic surgeon at Vanderbilt. Isaiah Rice, Vanderbilt’s 2020 SEC Community Service Team member, is also a walk-on who has played minutes lately.

• The Commodores are a youthful bunch - in the last game against Alabama, Vanderbilt started three true freshmen (Disu, Pippen Jr., Albert), and two juniors (Evans, Lee). True freshmen have accounted for 41% minutes played, and with Aaron Nesmith’s minutes taken away, freshmen have played 45% of minutes played. Disu, Wright, and Pippen Jr. have all scored in double figures in a game in at least one game this season. According to KenPom.com, Vanderbilt has 1.13 years of experience on its roster, which ranks 320th in Division I basketball.

• As a team, the Commodores are second in the SEC in threes made/game (8.3) and total threes (250). The Commodores tied a season high with 15 made threes at Alabama.

• Lee (33 points) and Evan’s (31 points) 30-point+ games against LSU were the first duo in the SEC to accomplish the feat since 2008 (Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson) and the first in a single SEC game since 1996-97. It was the first Vanderbilt duo to score 30 or more points in a game since Jeff Fosnes (39) and Butch Feher (34) vs. Jacksonville on 12.21.74. Clyde Lee (33) and John Ed Miller (30) also accomplished the feat on 2.16.65 against Kentucky.

• It was announced before the Texas A&M game that Vanderbilt’s leading scorer Aaron Nesmith would be out indefinitely with a right foot injury. Prior to the injury, Nesmith led the SEC in scoring with 23.0 points per game and was fifth nationally. He also led the SEC and nation in 3FG/game with 4.29 and 3FG% at .522. He had also made an SEC-best 60 threes this season through 14 games. He also ranked eighth in free-throw percentage (.825) and field-goal percentage (.512) prior to his injury. Amazingly, Nesmith is still seventh in the SEC in threes made in all games (60). Nesmith has not played a game since Jan. 8.

• 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.

Series Information

Series Record: Vanderbilt leads, 30-29

Last Meeting: South Carolina - W, 90-64

Jan. 25, 2020 - Columbia, S.C.

At Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt leads, 17-12

Jerry Stackhouse vs. South Carolina: 0-1

South Carolina Series Records/Important Dates

• Vanderbilt leads the all-time series, 30-29. South Carolina has won the last three games in the series, including a 90-64 win on Jan. 25, 2020 in Columbia, S.C.

• Vanderbilt leads the series, 17-12, in games played at Vanderbilt. The Gamecocks won the last meeting in 2019 at Memorial Gym, 74-71.

• 2.09.08 - Down by one with the ball and having to go the length of the floor with six seconds to go in regulation, Jermaine Beal takes it coast to coast to give Vanderbilt a 66-65 win.

• 2.18.95 - The Commodores win a 91-83 overtime affair in Columbia at Carolina Coliseum.

• 2.18.17 - Vanderbilt knocks off No. 21 South Carolina, 71-62, at Memorial Gym. The Gamecocks would go on to the Final Four that season.