Give the Vanderbilt Commodores credit: With Darius Garland out of the lineup for the season, they are playing very hard for coach Bryce Drew. The team is buying what its coach is selling, always a good sign for a second-year boss who is trying to change a culture and reshape the trajectory of a program.
By Matt Zemek
The problem? Players can buy what a coach sells, but it doesn’t matter if they can’t buy a bucket.
That’s where VU stands after a third SEC loss in as many outings. The effort is there, the focus is there… and the shots aren’t dropping. This doesn’t mean that if Vanderbilt would just hit shots, everything would change. Naturally, a core source of improved shooting is the ability to get close to the basket so that the “make-or-miss” dynamic on jump shots is less prevalent as a deciding factor. Just as naturally, making free throws when fouls are drawn has to be a strong pillar of any team’s offensive approach. When jumpers don’t fall, the ability to draw fouls and then make free throws is a vital aspect of winning basketball. Vanderbilt has to get a lot better there. We know that and don’t have to belabor the point.
On one hand, this is conceptually simple. On the other, it is undeniable that when Drew envisioned this season coming into focus, Darius Garland would be the player who would create most of Vanderbilt’s offense, initiating halfcourt sequences and being the engine behind VU’s attack. Not having him was going to cost this team dearly — let’s not think these performances at the start of the SEC season (plus the Kansas State game) are ambushes.
The reality which has ambushed the SEC, if we are being honest: How ridiculously good Kermit Davis is at coaching basketball over in Oxford, Mississippi.
Vanderbilt’s loss to Ole Miss doesn’t look nearly as bad now as it did over a week ago. What killed VU more than anything else against the Rebels? A 17-of-29 night at the foul line. Vanderbilt’s defense has been inconsistent this season on an overall level, but the Dores have been regularly good in SEC play at one specific aspect of defense: 3-point defense.
Against Ole Miss, Georgia and Kentucky, Vanderbilt has held opponents under 35 percent shooting from 3-point range. None of those three teams made 10 threes against VU’s perimeter rotations. In modern basketball, that ought to pay dividends, but for the Dores, no dice. Vanderbilt’s 3-point shooting percentages in the past three games: 30 against Ole Miss, 24 against Georgia, 28 against Kentucky. It’s not so much that Vanderbilt isn’t scoring; it’s that if VU was merely moderately good, the nature of this season might be different.
Imagine what Vanderbilt could do if it made a modest 35 percent of threes. If the Dores could merely reach that standard, other facets of play — chiefly their 3-point defense, but also their takeaway defense — might lead to victories.
Vanderbilt is taking care of the ball, averaging fewer than 11 turnovers in the start of the SEC schedule. Vanderbilt isn’t throwing away large numbers of possessions or allowing large quantities of points off turnovers, since there aren’t many giveaways to be found each game. Over these first three SEC games, guess what VU’s turnover differential is: plus-7. More precisely, Vanderbilt has been on the plus side of the turnover differential in each of those games; it’s not as though VU had a minus-8 and then was plus-15 in the other two games. VU has exhibited some steady and sound habits — defending the three and not giving the ball away.
The scoring and shooting offense really has been THAT BAD.
It shows how much Garland means — and was always going to mean — to this team.
The roster has to keep buying what Drew is selling, but now it has to start buying buckets.
Players who struggle to generate their own shot need to find ways to create them and find something which works. Drew obviously has to try to shift tactics in the effort to open up opportunities for players at the offensive end, but the current challenge for Vanderbilt might be more related to player and skill development. Cracking that code might take precedence over tactics, though both ingredients are needed for a winning recipe and both should be viewed as important.
With no Darius Garland, this season is going to involve pain… but now that Ole Miss is not nearly the bad loss it seemed to be at the time, and now that VU held Kentucky under 60 in Rupp Arena, it’s not as though the season is a lost cause. Let’s see what this team can do, knowing that if it gets the benefit of full health next season, the next two months could create the foundation on which Bryce Drew can still build.
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