Here's a look at Vanderbilt center Ejike Obinna in our latest installment of the hoops roster preview.

Vanderbilt beat Florida, Oklahoma and Clemson to score what at the time was considered to be a huge recruiting get in Obinna, who was fairly new to basketball at the time. Obinna committed to the Commodores on Oct. 25, 2016.

Obinna probably should have redshirted in 2017-18, but team needs dictated otherwise. He showed some things as freshman early, tallying nine points in 20 minutes on Nov. 24 against 20th-ranked Seton Hall. His best game came Jan. 16 at Mississippi State, when he showed good ability in the low post in 14-point, 22-minute effort during which he was 6-of-9 from the field. That was two games removed form a stretch of four "DNPs" that preceded three minutes of action against Kentucky.

However, Obinna's minutes were limited the remainder of the year, as he played double-digit minutes just four more times, and never more than 15.

With the arrival of Simi Shittu last year, Bryce Drew made the decision early to redshirt Obinna and to his credit, stuck with it even as the wheels fell off.

Both the Bryce Drew and Jerry Stackhouse staffs believe Obinna, now listed at 6-foot-10 and and 243 pounds, has a high upside. As I was writing Blue Ribbon's preview for VU this year, Stackhouse mentioned that the Commodores might be able to run some offense out of the post through Obinna, and, that the redshirt sophomore could potentially be a rim protector as well.

Those would be encouraging developments, because those were attributes that Obinna didn't show as a freshman. Obinna had two blocks and just one assists in 235 minutes in 2017-18.

On the other hand, there were flashes of other things. While the Mississippi State points came in a game were Vandy lost by 18 (and trailed significantly much of the second half), Obinna showed presence and confidence in the post in a road venue.

Per the playing time he got, Obinna showed some competency as a scorer and rebounder two years ago. If he's added other dimensions to his game and continued to improve, VU may have something here. Obinna has a shot to start or at the least, be one of the first two players off the bench.