Game 3: Vanderbilt Commodores at Richmond Spiders — Open Game Thread

After opening up with two wins, the Vanderbilt Commodores see a pretty big jump in competition tonight as they visit the Richmond Spiders for their first road game of the season — and the only true road game of the entire nonconference slate.

Vanderbilt and Richmond have met three times before on the hardwood, with the Commodores holding a 2-1 edge in the all-time series. But the last game really stung: a 69-66 Spider win in the first round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. (Remember when we were a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament?)

Richmond, like Vanderbilt, is coming off back-to-back 20-loss campaigns. Unlike Vanderbilt, Richmond returns basically every key player from last year’s team: the Spiders had three sophomores and two freshmen among their top five scorers in 2018-19, and that’s not even counting Nick Sherod, who averaged 14.3 ppg as a sophomore two years ago before missing all but six games of last season. That perhaps explains how they opened this season ranked #92 in KenPom after finishing #203 last season; they’re down to 100 after needing overtime to beat St. Francis (PA) in the season opener.

This game’s on ESPN+; if you haven’t subscribed already, well, you’ll have to subscribe to watch this game.

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