Vanderbilt Basketball Player Report Card: Dylan Disu

Dylan Disu

Well this is awkward.

One disadvantage of completing the basketball player report cards in July is that transfer decisions have already been made, and in this case, I’m reviewing a player who decided in April that he wanted to finish his college career at the University of Texas. On the one hand, I can’t say I blame him what with him growing up roughly 20 miles from the UT campus. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure Texas engaged in tampering, and as a current resident of Lubbock I am absolutely not inclined to give Chris Beard the benefit of the doubt on that one.

In short, during his sophomore season, Dylan Disu developed into exactly the player that Vanderbilt expected him to be when he was a four-star recruit out of Pflugerville, Texas. He was the Commodores’ second-leading scorer with 15 ppg, and he led the SEC in rebounding with 9.2 per game. And going off the defensive ratings at sports-reference.com, Disu was Vanderbilt’s most impactful player on that end of the floor and it really wasn’t close: opponents averaged 99.5 points per 100 possessions when Disu was on the floor, compared to an average of 103.9 overall. He finished fourth on the team in minutes played only because he missed the last seven games of the season with a knee injury; otherwise, he ranked only behind Scotty Pippen Jr. in minutes per game.

You could have made a reasonable case that Disu was Vanderbilt’s best player in the 2020-21 season and his loss is a grave one for the basketball program. It was easy to imagine Disu being an All-SEC player and NBA Draft pick next season; instead, he’ll be playing at Texas. Ah, the world of the transfer portal.

Grade: A-