“Secret” Scrimmage Info - Finally

[VandyBias]

This is just what i’ve gathered from various sources about the scrimmage held vs. Clemson in Atlanta on 10/23:

Vanderbilt beat Clemson straight up!

Liam Robbins didn’t play but is expected back for the season opener.

Scotty Pippen Jr. was the best player on the court for either team.

Jordan Wright and Myles Stute also impressed.

Pretty encouraging news as Clemson is #59 in the preseason KenPom (Vandy is #79) and expected to be pretty good this year.

[UltimateVUFan]

I would hope Pippen was the best player on the court given the stats he put up last year and the preseason expectations. Sure hope Robbins’ injury isn’t something that ends up nagging him all year (a la A.J. Ogilvy who was hampered by some sort of foot injury his entire final season).
Thanks for the report, though obviously we have to take such hearsay with a grain of salt. Still, I’m really excited to watch some basketball soon given the ongoing futility on the gridiron.

[dcdore]

Thanks for the report. Still, I’m really excited to watch some basketball soon given the ongoing futility on the gridiron.

Me too!

[Nashmann]

Thx for the info...

[charlestonalum]

Encouraging indeed

[cc11316]

I am getting a kick out of the listing of "secret scrimmages". Looks like Vandy has another one on Saturday (10/30) against Xavier?

https://watchstadium.com/not-so-secret- ... 0-15-2021/

[VUaskew]

Here is something from The Hustler. Pretty good info from Justin Hershey.


https://vanderbilthustler.com/43581/fea ... om-opener/

https://vanderbilthustler.com/43586/fea ... -to-march/

[EagleDore]

Those are good write ups. Thanks for posting!

I'm intrigued to see how Stack builds these guys into a team. I'm remaining optimistic.

[Versus75]

Here is something from The Hustler. Pretty good info from Justin Hershey.


https://vanderbilthustler.com/43581/fea ... om-opener/

https://vanderbilthustler.com/43586/fea ... -to-march/

The Hershey article was well-written, but as he is Sports Editor he should oversee the work of Deputy Sports Editor Bryce Smith.

I'm putting on my old Versus editor's cap now as I suggest a few fixes:

* "... whether that be the National Invitational Tournament (NIT)...."
The correct title is National Invitation Tournament.

* "... the Commodores have a full slate of 35 games...."
I count 13 nonconference games and 18 conference games. Even if one includes one game in the SEC Tournament and the two secret scrimmages, the total does not reach 35.

* "Here’s the most interesting matchups...."
"Here are" would be appropriate as the reference is to the plural: matchups.

Aside: I don't understand the compulsion to overdo contractions in written pieces that are not quoting conversations. Some contractions I abhor include "they'd" (does it refer to "they would" / "they had" / "they could" / "they should" / "they did" ?); "who'd," "it'd" and "why'd" (same rationale); and "could've," "would've" and "should've". Novelist John Grisham gets my award for worst overuse of contractions. I was trying to read Skipping Christmas, but stopped when I encountered something like "shouldn't've" or "couldn't've" at some point early in the book.

* "Pittsburgh ... is a Power Five opponent...."
This is not a grammatical error but rather a common error made in reference to top-tier basketball conferences. "Power Five" clearly refers to the top five NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conferences as opposed to the "Group of Five" conferences and Independents. There is no place for the term "Power 5" in NCAA basketball.

Aside: "Power 8" might be an appropriate term for top-tier basketball conferences. The Power 8 would certainly include West Coast Conference (with Gonzaga, BYU and St. Mary's), Big East Conference (Villanova, UConn, Creighton, St. John's) and American Athletic Conference (Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Wichita State, SMU). All three of these ranked higher than the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2021 according to Warren Nolan's Conference RPI: https://www.warrennolan.com/basketball/ ... ferencerpi

In other seasons, Atlantic 10 Conference (Dayton, Richmond, Rhode Island) and Mountain West Conference (San Diego State, Utah State, Nevada, UNLV) have been in the top tier. I would suggest "Power 10" versus the rest. However, I would not rate all other conferences as among the oft-used "Mid-Major" category. Conferences such as WAC (Tarleton State, Dixie State, UTRGV), SWAC (Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Alabama State, Mississippi Valley State) and MEAC (Bethune, North Carolina Central, South Carolina State) are clearly "Low Major" in my opinion.

* Smith referred to SMU coach Tim Jankovich without mentioning that Jankovich was an assistant coach at Vanderbilt for three seasons during Kevin Stallings' tenure as head coach. While that is not technically an error, I compare the Jankovich reference to others named in the article for whom some relationship is listed: Jeff Capel ("Mike Krzyzewski disciple") and Drew Valentine ("brother of former Michigan State Spartan Denzel"). It is, however, pertinent to note the "Kevin Stallings disciple" relationship.

* The last name of "Lon Krueger" is misspelled. The correct spelling is "Kruger."

* "towards" is used four times. This is another common error that some do not consider an error, but The Hustler editors should have (should've?) caught it. Quoting www.grammarly.com:

"The only difference between toward and towards is the s. Both spellings are correct, and they mean the same thing: in the direction of. Toward is the preferred spelling in the United States and Canada. In other English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, towards is the more common spelling."


In summation, I found the content of the article to be worthwhile, but it was not a good read due to some of the errors I described. Even with a fast read, an editor familiar with Vanderbilt sports and college basketball in general should have caught the 35 games error and misspellings of "Invitation" and "Kruger."

Perhaps I will try to tackle "Skipping Christmas" again.

[VUaskew]

All grammar and English nitpicking aside, it was nice to read about the players in the first article.