After Season Opener, Vanderbilt Basketball's Defense Demonstrated its Ceiling – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE — Perhaps nothing was more indicative of a dominant defensive performance than what Vanderbilt basketball did to Bellarmine over a 15-minute stretch Monday night.
The Commodores were tied at 14-14 against Bellarmine a little over nine minutes into the season-opener. Bellarmine was making tough shots and even outrebounded Vanderbilt for a few moments before the water broke through the dam.
After that, a 50-7 scoring run lasted for the final 10 minutes of the first half all the way through the first five minutes of the second half. While Vanderbilt did have a great night shooting the ball at a 60% clip, it was the Commodores defense that overshadowed any shooting number Vanderbilt finished with.
In the first 10 minutes, Vanderbilt allowed Bellarmine to hit six shots. In the final 30 minutes, the Commodores allowed just 11 made shots, forced 18 turnovers and retrieved all but 11 rebounds.
To say Vanderbilt’s night on defense was dominant feels like an understatement. But that is the way this Vanderbilt roster is built. Maybe the Commodores don’t suffocate every future opponent defensively the way it did Monday, but Vanderbilt feels like it is a team that has the capability to put up strong defensive games throughout the season.
“Oh yeah, I think we definitely feel like we have the talent to do it,” Vanderbilt forward Sebastian Willams-Adams said about the potential Vanderbilt’s defense has this season. “It’s more so finding the want to every single day, every single game. We just have focused on that.”
After the game, Vanderbilt drew back to its final exhibition game against Miami on Oct. 23. That night, Vanderbilt allowed 109 points on nearly 60% shooting. Rightfully so, Williams-Adams and his teammates left the arena with a sour taste in their mouths from their performance.
Rather than panic or freak out about how that game went, the Commodores used that rough night as an opportunity to put a chip on their shoulder and as fuel to improve on the defensive end going forward.
Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington acknowledged his team did not have the night he wanted to see out of his guys on defense. But as with all games, Byington felt like his team learned from that night and channeled it Monday in Vanderbilt’s season-opener.
Part of the reason Byington felt the Miami game went the way it did was because his big man, Berke Buyuktuncel, committed two fouls in the opening minutes against Miami, forcing him to the bench early in the game. That did not happen against Bellarmine, though. Instead, Buyuktuncel’s presence was felt heavily in the paint.
It was not a game filled with blocks or rebounds for the Nebraska transfer, but his ability to guard on defense was noticeable and it had a greater impact on the scoreboard.
“He’s an experienced veteran guy. And it was good to see him on the offensive end have a burst there, but he’s the anchor of our defense,” Byington said on Buyuktuncel.
Byington formed this season’s roster with the intention of creating a team that can win with defense. That is quite opposite compared to how his teams have won the past two seasons. But that is beside the point. Byington does not care how his team wins, he just wants to win.
Vanderbilt needed to get stronger and bigger in the paint over the offseason and it did that with the additions of Buyuktuncel and Bangot Dak while still having Chandler Bing on the team. With those additions, the Commodores got guys that can rim protect and guard.
Byington feels like his team has a chance to be his best defensive team he has had in his three seasons at Vanderbilt. A big reason for that thinking is because of his front court depth the Commodores have this year.
When point guard Tyler Tanner was asked if he felt Vanderbilt had its best defensive team in three seasons playing for Byington, he did not hesitate to express confidence in the team’s defensive ability.
“I think so. We notice it in practice. There will be times where we get a lot of stops in a row. So we have a lot of good defenders. I would probably say it’s the best one we’ve had in my opinion,” Tanner said in mid-October.
Tanner’s words were vindicated Monday. What will be intriguing to see is how Vanderbilt’s defense ages going forward.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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