Anchor Drop, September 25, 2018: Pro Day?

Good morning.

Vanderbilt basketball will hold an NBA Pro Day on October 9 at Memorial Gym. This is the kind of thing that programs like Kentucky and Duke do on an annual basis, but Vanderbilt’s never had one. It is exactly what it sounds like: a workout in front of NBA scouts.

You can probably ask somebody at A Sea of Blue what the benefits to this are and I’m sure they’ll be happy to tell you. The real beneficiaries of this are not Darius Garland and Simi Shittu, who are obviously already on the radar of NBA teams; instead, it’s somebody like Saben Lee, who probably isn’t on their radar but has a chance to impress scouts. Anyway, it’s the kind of thing that can only be good news for the program.

Men’s golf finished Monday at the Shoal Creek Invitational in a tie for fourth; the golfers finished the first round but the second round was suspended due to weather. They’ll resume at 8 AM CT today.

Derek Mason’s weekly press conference is today at 12:15 PM CT. One of the dumber features of the 2018 season has been for opposing fans and coaches to take harmless press conference comments by Mason and spin them into “bulletin board material.” You saw that with Notre Dame, both before and after the game, and you also saw it with South Carolina. Luckily for Mason, this week’s game is against Tennessee State, which probably won’t beat Vanderbilt either way.

Also, the kickoff time for next Saturday’s game at Georgia was announced yesterday... sort of. The game will kick off at either 6 PM or possibly 6:30, and it will be on ESPN or ESPN2 or maybe the SEC Network. It’s going to be a night game is the point, and it’s not going to be on CBS. Fortunately, CBS will be televising Georgia’s execution of Tennessee this Saturday, which is must-watch TV.