Vanderbilt Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Commordores
By Chris Kern
Starters
Darius Garland
Darius Garland was one of the top incoming freshmen by all media outlets. 247sports has him as a five-star recruit as the 14th best player in the class.
He is a projected lottery pick in the 2019 draft so this will likely be his only season at Vanderbilt. We should still expect a big impact out of him this season.
During his high school career, he was always able to create plays on offense and that’s what he’ll do this season. Expect Garland to be a focal point of the offense for a team looking to have a bounce-back season.
Saban Lee
Saban Lee is one of the top returning players for Vanderbilt. Last season he averaged 10.6 points, 3.1 assists and 3 rebounds per game.
He did shoot under 31% from three-point range but he will benefit from having Garland alongside him. With Garland creating and making plays, Lee will get better looks and in turn, he will become a more efficient player.
Joe Toye
Joe Toye is the senior leader of this team. He has only started 22 games throughout his first three seasons at Vanderbilt. Last season he averaged 5.7 points and 2 rebounds per game.
On a team that’s gonna be relying on freshman and newcomers to lead the way, they’ll look to their senior for stability. He isn’t gonna be making plays on offense because that just isn’t who he is. Look for Toye to provide some reliability in the starting lineup alongside the younger, more talented players.
Clevon Brown
Clevon Brown had a solid first couple seasons off the bench. Last year he averaged 3.9 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. He has only started only five games but he still is the favorite to be the starter.
Brown did average 1.3 blocks per game season which is encouraging to see and he’ll continue to use that skill this season. He does need to improve his three-point shooting though, he shot just 24% from deep last season. He did shoot a total of 46 three’s which shows he trusts that he is better than the averages show.
Simi Shittu
Simi Shittu, like Darius Garland, is another top incoming freshmen. 247sports had him as the 11th ranked player, which also makes him a five-star recruit.
He is a very versatile player which makes him extremely difficult to guard. He’s too quick for some of the bigs he faces but the smaller wings have almost no chance.
It’ll be interesting to see how he performs against the good frontcourts in the SEC. Guys like Grant Williams and Reid Travis will provide him with a big challenge.