Vanderbilt basketball kicked off conference play on the right foot with an 84-79 win over South Carolina at Memorial Gymnasium.
The win moves the Commodores to 8-6 and 1-0 in Southeastern Conference play.
Here are three quick takes, two remaining questions, and a prediction after Vanderbilt's SEC opener.
Three quick takes
It felt tremendously important that Vanderbilt got this one
When considering Vanderbilt’s outlook heading into Southeastern Conference play and the way that its January schedule lines up, this one felt about as important as a game can for a 7-6 team in January.
Tuesday night’s contest looked like the most winnable conference game on Vanderbilt’s conference slate and was one of just three games in which the Commodores were favored by KenPom.
Vanderbilt took advantage of its opportunity on Tuesday night and kicked off Southeastern Conference play on the right foot in its 84-79 win over South Carolina.
“That was a great win for us, great start for us.” coach Jerry Stackhouse said.
With the win, Vanderbilt has some momentum and something to hang its hat on as it enters a six-game stretch in which it will face five ranked opponents.
With a loss on Tuesday night, it certainly wasn’t hard to think that the Commodores could have spent much of January winless.
The winning outing in which the ‘Dores knocked down seven shots from 3-point range provides some belief that they can avoid having the bottom fall out from under them.
Jerry Stackhouse’s team was led by a 23-point outing by Ezra Manjon, 22 points along with six blocks from Liam Robbins, and an excellent defensive effort by Jordan Wright.
Vanderbilt enters its toughest six-game stretch of the season with much more reason for belief than it would have had if it lost on Tuesday night.
The last four games have been the best stretch of Ezra Manjon’s Vanderbilt career thus far
Despite showing flashes of the value he could provide in Vanderbilt’s early non-conference slate, it didn’t seem like Manjon had been completely comfortable after moving from the Big West to the SEC.
The UC Davis transfer averaged just 6.4 points per game in Vanderbilt’s first 10 games, including a scoreless outing in the Commodores’ disappointing loss to Grambling State.
Since that disappointing night, the transfer guard has put up 14.5 points per game including a season-high 24-point outing on Tuesday night.
“His floor game was great tonight,” Stackhouse said of Manjon.
“He was great, man, he did a really good job of running the show and picking his spots,” the fourth-year coach added.
The 6-foot guard still has not found success from beyond the arc, but has provided tremendous value from inside the arc and on the defensive end as of late.
“I felt like I had it going,” Manjon said of his performance on Tuesday night.
Manjon will be a key contributor for Vanderbilt down the stretch and all signs point to him hitting his stride at the right time.
The way Vanderbilt got to the free-throw line was encouraging but it has to knock them down at a higher clip
Maybe the biggest missing piece of Vanderbilt’s offense this season has been the lack of trips to the free-throw line that it has gotten.
On Tuesday night, the ‘Dores were able to find a way to the line a season-high 35 times.
Robbins took a team-high 15 shots from the line and was able to contribute to two South Carolina starters fouling out of Tuesday night’s contest.
The way Vanderbilt got to the line was certainly encouraging, but that feeling of encouragement was subdued by the Commodores’ 47.6 shooting percentage from the line in regulation.
A 13-for-14 performance from the line in overtime sealed the win for Vanderbilt and shot the percentage up to 65.7, but didn’t quite take away the feel that came with the poor performance in regulation.
Two questions:
Can Jordan Wright continue to emerge as an “alpha” for Vanderbilt in conference play?
Any conversation of Vanderbilt’s off-season plan to replace all-SEC guard, Scottie Pippen Jr., felt like it had to start with Wright.
The senior guard leaped into averaging double-figures in 2021-22, naturally the next step felt like a season in which Wright took on a higher volume role as Vanderbilt’s go-to guy.
Through 13 games Wright had shown flashes, but that preseason expectation hasn’t materialized the way that it seemed it would.
Wright put together a few nice outings against Saint Mary’s and Temple, but went down with a back injury that seemed to limit him throughout nearly the entire month of December.
Entering the night, the 6-foot-6 guard was averaging just 9.5 points per game while shooting below 40% from the field.
Despite not getting the results that he was likely hoping for from Wright in non-conference play, Stackhouse remained encouraged by what he’s seen from his veteran guard.
“He’s a big part of what we do, but he’s tough as nails,” the fourth-year coach said of Wright after Vanderbilt’s win over Southeastern Louisiana.
“No question about it, he’s our toughest player,” Stackhouse added.
As Wright continues to get back to full health, it’s time for that toughness to translate into a role as Vanderbilt’s go-to offensive producer on the perimeter. That was certainly the case on Tuesday night.
The senior guard was excellent on both ends on Tuesday night in his 13-point performance in which he may have made his biggest contributions on the defensive end against star freshman “GG” Jackson, who was limited to just three second-half points.
“We trust him with everything and he stepped up, took the challenge, and he won us the game on the defensive end,” Robbins said of Wright.
Vanderbilt is a different team if it can consistently get contributions from Wright throughout SEC play like it did on Tuesday night.
Can Vanderbilt consistently rebound at the level it did on Tuesday?
Through the ebbs and flows of the season, Stackhouse had generally been extremely positive regarding his team. The exception to that attitude had been rebounding.
The fourth-year coach clearly wanted improvement out of his group’s rebounding and got it on Tuesday night.
Stackhouse thinks the key to continuing that improvement lies in an unmeasurable area “It’s just will, it’s no technique to it, ‘I wanna go I wanna crash every time, I gotta go and hit first,’” the fourth-year coach said.
The Commodores outrebounded the Gamecocks 44-38 throughout the night and grabbed 14 offensive rebounds.
Myles Stute led the ‘Dores with eight rebounds while Robbins and Quentin Millora-Brown each grabbed seven.
The Commodores “will” is certainly going to be tested against physical, athletic teams down the stretch.
One prediction:
This will be Vanderbilt’s longest winning streak of the season
Vanderbilt’s win over South Carolina extends its win streak to three games, the longest it has had all season.
That streak will certainly be hard to continue though, the Commodores will face off against five ranked opponents in their next six games.
Even if Vanderbilt exceeds expectations, its schedule is so difficult that pulling off a win streak that lasts more than three games seems all but impossible if the Commodores lose at Missouri on Saturday afternoon.
The bigger question is whether the ‘Dores can extend their streak as they travel to face a red-hot Mizzou team, that is in the midst of a three-game win streak of its own.
