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NASHVILLE—Vanderbilt basketball continued to demonstrate that it's not unrealistic to expect a big year out of it Monday night as it overwhelmed UAB en route to a 97-65 win at Memorial Gymnasium. Mark Byington's team is now 2-0 in exhibition games.
Vanderbilt had four double-figure scorers and outdid UAB in nearly every statistical category. But, what does that mean?
Here's our takeaways from Vanderbilt's Monday-night exhibition win.
Vanderbilt is a preseason Top 25 team and has looked the part through its first two exhibitions, even while playing extended rotations.
It’s going to look different for this Vanderbilt team than it did a year ago for Mark Byington’s group, but that could be a good thing. This group appears to be able to handle a different style than Byington’s team did a year ago.
This Vanderbilt team overwhelmed UAB with its size and length in the frontcourt. It had elite point guard play from Tyler Tanner. It’s demonstrated that it has at least nine guys worthy of playing extended minutes.
Over 1,000 words of player-by-player takeaways on Vanderbilt’s exhibition win over UAB.
Thought Ant Brown and Bangot Dak were awesome.
More @VandyOnSI:https://t.co/ND265AOprJ
Vanderbilt outrebounded UAB 53-35 and grabbed 17 offensive rebounds Monday to drive home the point that it’s improved significantly in the frontcourt as a result of its investment there.
It’s not as if Vanderbilt was tested by an SEC team Monday, but UAB has enough size on its roster to challenge Vanderbilt on the inside. Vanderbilt didn’t appear to be willing to engage with any idea that indicated it was going to be matched by UAB physically.
Berke Buyuktuncel grabbed 10 rebounds. Bangot Dak grabbed five. Jayden Leverett grabbed four. That’s a good recipe for Vanderbilt to assert its dominance.
Ant Brown with a nice finish in transition to put Vanderbilt up 15-9. pic.twitter.com/EyoTYSHjU1
Brown was the story of the night for Vanderbilt. It may not always be this way, but he looked like one of its best players.
He went for 10 points and 10 assists while taking heavy reps at point guard and get Vanderbilt into its offense. Brown was advertised as one of the best scorers in the high school class, but Vanderbilt is getting more than that out of him.
Brown has it in him to be a composed lead guard that changes games by manipulating the defense, generating good shots for others and not turning it over. Byington raved about Brown’s passing ability over the summer and he clearly wasn’t exaggerating. He’s probably Vanderbilt’s second-best facilitator on the roster. He’s got the potential to be an elite table setter.
That may be the biggest pleasant surprise of the preseason.
It looked like it was going to be after it started 1-for-10, but Vanderbilt righted the ship and made enough open shots to fend off the narrative that it’s not a good shooting team. At least, for now.
Vanderbilt finished the night 11-for-29 from 3-point range and made 10 of its last 19. Its final percentage from beyond the arc was 38.0%. Most of those makes from 3-point range didn’t come in garbage time.
That happened with inconsistent shotmaking from a few of Vanderbilt’s best shooters.
Jackson Sheffield, and one. pic.twitter.com/vnfdEEckxV
Byington thinks his top 100 freshman big man will play significant minutes for Vanderbilt right away, but Sheffield has to hold up his end of the bargain by making enough free throws to stay off the line.
Sheffield is 0-for-7 from the line through the first two exhibitions of Vanderbilt’s season, which has clouded his performance. Otherwise, though, Sheffield has demonstrated that he’s ready to give Vanderbilt something. He’s physical. He’s a fluid athlete. He’s got one of the best motors on the team.
Even with the free throw troubles, take note that Byington had Sheffield as his second guy off the bench.
NEW @VandyOnSI: @GrahamBaakko kept stats tonight for Vanderbilt vs. UAB's exhibition and we're 90% sure he's got all the scoring totals correct.
Full stats here: https://t.co/u5I4ohcTMo
Byington declared Monday night that he still isn’t close to determining his eventual rotations and the lineups that he knows for sure that he can rely on.
When Vanderbilt players talk about Monday, they still talk about how Byington was toying with things and how this group still hasn’t determined roles. If that’s what this looks like without role allocation or familiarity, though, that’s a positive indicator.
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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