The Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team have updated the roster for the 2016-17 season, and there are a few items of note.
The newcomers have been assigned uniform numbers. Freshman guard Payton Willis will be the fourth Commodore to wear #1, joining Mario Moore, Brad Tinsley, and Eric McClellan. Willis is listed on the roster at 6'4" and 182 pounds. The size is about what was expected: Willis was listed at 6'4" on recruiting services (Rivals and 247 Sports) and between 170-175 pounds.
Like Willis, there aren't any surprises with fellow freshman Clevon Brown, who's listed on the roster at 6'8" and 219 pounds -- a bit of a gain from the 6'8"/215 he was listed at on recruiting services, but not by much. Brown will wear #15 at Vanderbilt; he's the seventh Commodore to wear that number, but the list of players who have worn that number before him is not that great: Kevin Bright, Elliott Cole, Chris Messinger, Vince Ford, Jimmy Gray, and Mike Gambill -- the last one only wore 15 in road games, and there are at least two walk-ons on that list. Brown wore #54 in high school, but perhaps he did not want to besmirch the memory of Ted Skuchas (SKOOOOOOOOOOOOCH!)
Larry Austin Jr. will wear Carter Josephs' #14 for now, but if this tweet is any indication he'll be switching to #3 when he actually plays for the Commodores:
Blessed to be apart of the Vanderbilt family #Anchordown⚓️⬇️ #All In pic.twitter.com/xHpBjVC05b
— Larry Austin Jr. (@LarryAustinJr) May 20, 2016
Luke Kornet, of course, currently wears #3 but will be graduating after 2016-17, while Austin is sitting out this year.
Speaking of Luke, according to the official roster he's now up to 250 pounds (after playing last year at 240.) Riley LaChance is up to 192 (from 182 last year), Joe Toye is up to 208 (from 201 last year), Djery Baptiste is up to 240 (from 235 last year), and Jeff Roberson is up to 224 (from 220 last year.) But unlike last year's roster update, nobody has grown upwards.