Vanderbilt landed some pedigree and experience on Saturday.
Former Michigan State guard AJ Hoggard has committed to Vanderbilt as a graduate transfer.
"I've got one more shot at this. I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to capture my dreams," Hoggard said on the Field of 68.
Hoggard was a four-year player at Michigan State that averaged double figures twice in his career, including 12.9 points per game in his junior season as well as 10.7 in his senior year.
The 6-foot-4 guard shot 40.7% from the field and recorded 5.2 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game in his final season at Michigan state.
Hoggard was clearly a priority target for Vanderbilt and visited the weekend of May 10th-12th. The fifth-year guard released a final five schools list days before the visit that included Florida, Georgia, USC, Washington as well as Vanderbilt.
The Michigan State transfer is Vanderbilt's 10th transfer commit and will join a backcourt featuring North Texas transfer Jason Edwards, Virginia Tech transfer MJ Collins, Davidson transfer Grant Huffman, Clemson transfer Alex Hemenway, as well as freshmen guards Tyler Tanner and Karris Bilal.
Hoggard is Vanderbilt's sixth transfer from a high major school and is perhaps the biggest name of them all.
The Michigan State transfer has played in 131 college basketball games, has started 83 and has appeared in eight NCAA Tournament games.
Vanderbilt seems to believe it has a chance to make this his ninth appearance in a tournament game.
Breaking down Hoggard's game
Hoggard is a versatile need filler.
The Michigan State transfer doesn't have a flashy game and has had consistency issues at times but can score it at all three levels, can create his own shot and is more than just a scorer.
Perhaps Hoggard's best ability in 2023-24 was his passing. The senior averaged 5.2 assists per game which ranked top 50 in the country. That came on an 33.7% assist rate, which was 30th in the country.
Hoggard's assists largely came as he found rolling bigs but did come in other forms. The 5.2 assists per game were opposed to 1.8 turnovers per night.
As a scorer, Hoggard is particularly strong around the bucket where he attempts 45% of his field goals and shoots 53%. The 6-foot-4, 210 pound guard is a physical below the rim finisher that knows how to use his frame and sneaky quickness effectively.
That quickness has also translated into a midrange game that is largely predicated on floaters and the veteran guard getting to his spots out of ballscreens.
Hoggard can create his own shot effectively and seems to have a knack for finishing, although he doesn't get separation like Jason Edwards or Tyler Tanner and is an inefficient off the dribble shooter.
The 6-foot-4 guard doesn't possess the speed of some of Vanderbilt's other guards, but is hard to stop going downhill and gets to the line often. When he gets to the line, which was 3.1 times per game in 2023-24 and 4.6 times in 2022-23, he has been a 79.55% shooter.
Hoggard is a career 30.3% 3-point shooter, although his percentage has had a positive trend throughout his college career. The former Michigan State guard shot 32.9% on 2.1 attempts in his junior season and 34.7% on the same amount of attempts.
Vanderbilt's transfer guard might not score enough to become an All SEC guy and may be too inefficient to be Vanderbilt's primary scorer, but he seems to be what it desires as a secondary scorer and as a ballhandler.
Hoggard also seems to be capable of stepping back offensively, although he is generally a high volume guy.
Part of the appeal with Hoggard is also what he brings to the table as a rebounder, the 6-foot-4 guard has tremendous physicality for his size and grabbed 3.1 rebounds per game as a senior with a 10.1% rebound rate.
Defensively, Hoggard gave up 101.1 points per 100 possessions. That's average to below average relative to the rest of the country.
Perhaps bigger than defensive toughness, Vanderbilt needs Hoggard to be a tone setter and a leader on that end.
It feels as if Hoggard may not be an all-league type guy, but could be a tone setter for Vanderbilt in a few senses.
Where Hoggard fits
Vanderbilt doesn't pay a guy the way it did Hoggard for him to not start and be a focal point.
Hoggard will likely start alongside Jason Edwards in Vanderbilt's backcourt and will share ballhandling responsibilities with him as well as Grant Huffman.
Vanderbilt seems to view Hoggard as a combo guard, but in Byington's system he'll certainly get a chance to facilitate and should be the favorite to be the leader on the team in assists.
It also feels as if the 6-foot-4 guard will be Vanderbilt's secondary scorer, or at least the frontrunner to be.
Above all, Hoggard seems to be the swiss-army knife that this team needed.
