Djery Baptiste leaving Vanderbilt basketball

Vanderbilt basketball will be down a man in the 2018-19 basketball season.

Djery Baptiste spent three years in the Vanderbilt basketball program, redshirting as a true freshman in 2015-16 before playing in 64 games — with 12 starts — over the past two seasons. In 2017-18, he started 10 games and averaged 15.2 minutes per game, 3.1 ppg and 3.6 rpg. He also committed an average of 6.7 fouls per 40 minutes.

The bigger concern for Baptiste was playing time. Last year, he was able to crack the rotation — but in 2018-19, with Simi Shittu on campus, Yanni Wetzell eligible, and Ejike Obinna having a year of college basketball under his belt, Baptiste was pretty clearly going to be the odd man out in the rotation up front.

For now, Baptiste will remain on campus, as he’s on track to graduate from Vanderbilt in December. The post linked above suggests that he may go somewhere else as a graduate transfer after that.