Here are some immediate thoughts on Vanderiblt's 88-73 victory over UNC-Wilmington at Nashville's Memorial Gym on Saturday night.

The night belonged to Aaron Nesmith.

Sure, tonight's opponent was UNC-Wilmington (which isn't exactly UNC-Chapel Hill) but efforts were made to stop Vandy's leading scorer, and they just didn't matter. Nesmith tied a career high with 34 points and had 20 in the first half; my guess is he could have had more had his life depended on it.

They were also efficient. Nesmith was 9 of 15 from the field, with seven coming from 3, making for a fantastic 78.1 effective field goal mark. He was 9 of 11 from the foul line, too.

There's no other way to say it: the sophomore has become an elite scorer. Nesmith is averaging 24.4 points per game this season, and hasn't scored fewer than 14 in a game this season.

Vanderbilt's in a precarious spot at center--and on the whole.

We knew starter Clevon Brown would be out tonight (and probably a while) and Saturday. We didn't know he'd be joined by Ejike Obinna, who'd just played a career-high 28 minutes in Wednesday's loss to Loyola-Chicago.

That left VU starting four guards (Nesmith, Jordan Wright, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Max Evans) along with forward Dylan Disu on Friday.

There was at least some good news here: freshman big man Oton Jankovic, who hadn't played since Nov. 20, saw 12 minutes of action, scoring two points and pulling two rebounds.

VU is down to just eight healthy, eligible scholarship players.

Braelee Albert made an unexpected appearance and appears to be a factor. .

The walk-on, who was originally bound for Brown, is now eligible to play. I don't think anyone expected Albert to log 13 minutes--one more than Jankovic and four more than Matt Moyer, and both are on scholarship--in his first game, but that's what happened.

Albert canned a 3 just 2:01 into his first appearance, though his minus-6 was VU's lowest on Saturday.

Here's more on VU's newest player.

That's the kind of night Vandy needs from Scotty Pippen Jr.

Pippen Jr. wasn't great at scoring the ball (nine points, 3 of 8 shooting) but this stood out: seven assists to no turnovers in 23 minutes.

The seven assists are a career high, and it was his second zero-turnover game.

Finally, quality foul shooting.

VU has hovered around a two-thirds success rate at the charity stripe, unacceptable anywhere and especially at Vanderbilt, a program where shooting has always been a hallmark.

Tonight, Vandy hit 79.3 percent of its 29 tosses. The three guys who handle the ball most (Lee, Pippen, Nesmith) combined to go 19 of 22.

If the Commodores can hit closer to that number than their season average, it's probably the difference in an additional win or two this season.