Game 2: Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils at Vanderbilt Commodores — Open Game Thread

The Vanderbilt Commodores return to action — finally — after 15 days off due to the COVID and welcome the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils to Memorial Gym for a Sunday afternoon game.

If you’re wondering “is Mississippi Valley State any good,” well, the Delta Devils rank 357th in KenPom. For reference, there are 357 teams in Division I. Here are MVSU’s results thus far:

• Lost to Arkansas, 142-62
• Lost to North Texas, 116-62
• Lost to Wyoming, 97-61
• Lost to Grand Canyon, 88-49
• Lost to Western Kentucky, 96-69
• Lost to Memphis, 94-57

So we’re playing a team that’s 0-6 and whose closest loss was by 27 points. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that Vanderbilt should win this game, by a lot. Since this will inevitably be brought up during the broadcast, Mississippi Valley State is coached by former NBA player Lindsey Hunter, who was Jerry Stackhouse’s teammate for three seasons with the Detroit Pistons. (This, two days after what would have been a game against Stackhouse’s wife’s alma mater, North Carolina Central.)

Anyway, have fun in the game thread — with bonus women’s basketball, which plays UT-Chatt at the same time on ESPN+. That game honestly will probably be more competitive than this one.