Vanderbilt Defense Smothers Detroit

The Trifecta: Baldwin-Henderson-LaChance

This is a brand new feature that we're... ahem... borrowing from the good folks over at Rock M Nation (which, it should be noted, has some of the best basketball coverage of any of the SEC-themed SBN blogs... not that there's, you know, a ton of competition) where we break down the game the day after.

Vanderbilt got off to a sloppy start against Detroit; the first five possessions consisted of three turnovers and two missed three-pointers, and Detroit was up 5-0 three minutes into the game.  That lead didn't last long; the Commodores tied it at 5 going into the first media timeout, and led 12-7 at the second media timeout.

And then, well, things got out of hand.  Vandy led 25-12 at the third media timeout, a lead they would only build on from there.  The final was 102-52, as the Commodores scored 100 points for the first time since 2012.  The 50-point margin was Vanderbilt's largest since a 92-41 win over Army in 1998.

The Four Factors all went in Vanderbilt's favor -- most notably, well, eFG%.  Vandy had a 67.2% eFG%, while Detroit had a 30.7% eFG.  And that came while shooting 11-for-27 from three.  The Titans shot 11.3% on two-pointers; that is, shall we say, something you don't see every day.  A lot of that had to do with a brutal Commodore defense down low; Vandy blocked 11 shots as a team and certainly altered a lot more than that.

Perhaps, then, given that Vandy had a clear size advantage, it was a bit strange to see the Commodores attempt 26 three-pointers to 35 two-pointers, and to see Luke Kornet's only shot attempt of the night be a put-back dunk, but then given the 50-point margin it's extremely difficult to find fault with anything.

Vanderbilt Player Stats

• Wade Baldwin is definitely one of those players who just does his thing very quietly.  I never would have guessed that he had 20 points last night.
• That was about one of the best games I've ever seen Josh Henderson play.  While Stallings seems to like playing Jeff Roberson at the four, there are going to be some games in which that presents a bad matchup and so it's good to know that Vanderbilt can get quality minutes from Hendo.
• Riley LaChance is really settling into this role well.  He's taking a lot fewer shots than he did a year ago, but now he's becoming much more of a point guard.
• Matthew Fisher-Davis had a very MFD game.
• Luke Kornet had about as big of a game as you can possibly have while only scoring two points.  Detroit really spent a lot of energy trying to deny him the ball, which, well, led to Vandy hitting a ton of threes.
• Jeff Roberson's defense is so solid that even when he's not having a big offensive night, he's still a big plus.
• Nolan Cressler led the Commodores in field goal attempts.  That's... not something you see every day.
• It might come as a surprise that Joe Toye has the second-highest usage rate on the team, just slightly behind Damian Jones (albeit in far fewer minutes).  That's partly a reflection of him spending a lot of time on the floor with non-scorers, but it also suggests that Stallings views Toye as a go-to guy in the future and is preparing him for that.  Even last night -- when Toye saw a bit of non-garbage time -- he still used 31% of possessions while he was on the floor.
• Speaking of Damian... we're still waiting for him to dominate.
• CARTER JOSEPHS SCORED POINTS.
• Samir Sehic is a good rebounder and, um, uh... well, he's got a lot of work to do otherwise.