Vanderbilt was the worst team in the SEC during the 2018-19 season and it wasn’t close. The Commodores were 0-18 during conference play and 9-23 overall. This just goes to show you how horrible Vanderbilt was and it doesn’t look like they’re going to be much better next season.
The Commodores entire roster for the 2019-20 season with the exception of two incoming freshmen are returning players from last season. Those exceptions are Aaron Nesmith and Mac Hunt, neither of the two, however, were ranked in the top-100 out of high school.
This being said, the Commodores didn’t prove much, if at all, if anything they might have gotten worse since last season, which is rather difficult to believe. Last season Vanderbilt had a player in Darius Garland, who was believed to help turn Vanderbilt into a team that was actually feared.
Unfortunately for Garland and Vanderbilt, the star point guard who wound up being the fifth overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, went down in November with a knee injury that required surgery and because of it, he went onto miss the entire 2018-19 season.
Had Garland played the season things might’ve ended a bit different for the Commodores, but unfortunately he did and things went very poorly in Nashville. Obviously Garland decided to leave Vanderbilt for the NBA, which means there’s not a whole lot to look forward to for basketball fans in Nashville headed into the 2019-20 season.
With that in mind lets take a look at what Vanderbilt’s record might be when the season is all said and done, who might have been the top player and whether or not Jerry Stackhouse will be sticking around long-term, following the firing of Bryce Drew.
In non-conference play Vanderbilt will hold a record of 6-7 with losses coming to Buffalo, Liberty, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Davidson, SMU, Richmond and either Loyola-Chicago or Tulsa.
Unfortunately I simply see no light at the end of the tunnel when I take a look at this Vanderbilt team and it is for this reason that I believe they will hold a losing record through non-conference play.
When it comes to conference play the Commodores will get AT BEST two wins this season. Vanderbilt went 0-18 in conference play last season and unfortunately, they have not improved at all going into the 2019-20 season.
However, it is very hard to be bad and stay bad and for that reason I believe Vanderbilt will get at least one conference win, but I also believe their cap is set at two wins.
Teams Vanderbilt could beat include Tennessee (a team they took to overtime in Nashville when the Vols were number one last season), Missouri, Arkansas and South Carolina.
With that I believe the Vanderbilt Commodores finish the 2019-20 season with a record of 7-24 which is slightly worse than their record from the previous season.
The ceiling for Jerry Stackhouse in his first season is non-existent, taking over for a team that went 0-18 in conference play is one of the best jobs you can have.
If you finish anywhere but last in the conference you’re a hero, if you win a game in the conference tournament you’ll have a statue built, if you make the NCAA Tournament you’ll have a lifetime extension and if you finish last, that’s expected of you.
That being said, there shouldn’t be any expectations placed upon Stackhouse in year one, but if the program hasn’t seen any improvements by year three, that is when changes might be made.
Vanderbilt’s best player for the 2019-20 season will be Aaron Nesmith, closely followed by Saben Lee. Nesmith and Lee combined for 23.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game last season.
All three of these stats were just about an even split between the two and the two of them returning to Vanderbilt is huge for the Commodores as they were the top scorers for Vandy last season.