Former Vanderbilt basketball star Wade Baldwin enters our countdown of 100-greatest VU players we've covered at No. 41. Track our countdown to No. 1 here.
Honors and awards: 2014-15 Freshman All-SEC
2014-15 SEC Freshman of the Week
2015-16 second-team All-SEC
In the VU record book: Single-season assists: fourth, seventh (172 in 2015-16, 155 in 2014-15)
Single-season assists per game: sixth (5.2 in 2015-16)
Career assists per game: second (4.8)
Career steals per game: eighth (1.3)
Before VU: Led St. Joseph’s to a 30-2 overall record and the Non-Public A New Jersey State Championship after averaging 15 points, 7.1 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.6 steals. Teams went 57-7 in his junior and senior seasons. Scored 1,727 career points and had 104 3-pointers. Was second-team all-state and Middlesex County Player of the Year.
Freshman (2014-15): Played in 35 games and started 24, averaging 9.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game, for a team that went 21-14 (9-9 SEC) and won two games in the NIT. Scored in double digits in 16 games and had five or more assists in 12 contests. Finished the regular season fifth in the league in assists (4.4) in all games, and had 155 assists and only 67 turnovers. Led all SEC freshmen in assists, finishing eighth in all games in steals (1.5) and third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3) in all games. In league games only, he finished the season fifth in steals (1.7), fourth in assists (4.54), and eighth in assists-to-turnover ratio (2.0). Also led all freshmen in assists and steals in league games only. Finished one assist shy of a triple-double vs. South Dakota State in the second round of the NIT (20 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists). Scored 13 points, six rebounds, and six assists in win at Tennessee. Scored 18 points vs. LSU. Grabbed a nine rebounds at Kentucky. Scored team-high 13 points vs. Norfolk State; adding six rebounds, six assists, and two steals. Won SEC Freshman of the Week after averaging 9.5 points, 7.5 assists, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.5 steals in wins over Lipscomb and Tennessee State.
Sophomore (2015-16): Played 33 games and started 24 for a 19-14 (11-7) team that lost to Wichita State in the First Four. In SEC play, Baldwin played all 18 games and started 16, leading the team with 587 minutes (32.6 per game), scoring (14.7), assists (112), steals (18) while adding 4.3 rebounds per game and shooting 38.7 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from the line. Averaged 14.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game in all games.Scored in double figures 26 times in 2015-16, had five or more assists in 16 games. Had double-digit assists in two games. All-time sophomore leader in assists in a season with 172. Scored 24 points in win over Florida. His 25-point effort against Tennessee was a career-high. He was 5-9 from the floor, 3-6 from 3, and 12-13 from the free throw line. Finished third in the SEC in assists in all games and in SEC games only.
Post-VU: Memphis selected Baldwin with the 17th pick of the first round in the 2016 NBA Draft. Baldwin played just 33 games for Memphis before he was waived in 2017. He caught on with Portland, but played just 23 games there and wasn't active in the NBA this season. Baldwin is now playing in Europe.
Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: Baldwin played just two years before going pro and other than leading his team (barely) into the NCAA Tournament, didn't win much of significance. So there's that.
There's also this: Had Baldwin stuck around two more years, he'd have established a sizable place in VU's career record book. Landing on the top five in VU's scoring chart was well within his reach. Two more years just like his first two would have ranked him 11th. And by comparison, Baldwin scored more points his first two years (792) than Shan Foster (VU's all-time leading scorer) did in his first two (789), though in four more games. He'd have likely shattered the school's assist mark, would have easily finished top-10 in the steals list (and the top five was easily in reach) and probably passed 500 rebounds for his career.
Baldwin was also efficient, shooting 80 percent from the line in his career, 42.2 percent of his 3-pointers, and handing out 2.07 assists per turnover.
So yes, it was just a two-year body of work, but it was one heck of a body of work, and good enough for him to get paid rather than stick around to see how it would have ended.
