Game 2: Southern Miss Golden Eagles at Vanderbilt Commodores — Open Game Thread

Well, Vanderbilt’s season is off to an 0-1 start after losing to Memphis on Monday night to open the 2022-23 season. It was the Commodores’ first loss in a season opener since 2016-17, when Bryce Drew opened his tenure by vomiting all over himself in a 95-71 loss to Marquette.

(In hindsight, that may have been a sign of things to come.)

Anyway, Vanderbilt will get a second chance to collect its first win of the season with Southern Miss visiting Memorial Gym tonight. Southern Miss is 1-0, sure, but they played William Carey, a NAIA school in Hattiesburg, on Monday night, so that almost doesn’t count (sorry, I’m being handed a note from Pinman and being told that beating an NAIA team does, in fact, count.) The leading scorer for the Golden Eagles in that game was none other than Austin Crowley, the former Vanderbilt signee who flipped to Ole Miss after Bryce Drew got fired, averaged 3.4 ppg over three seasons with the Rebels, and is now at Southern Miss. Southern Miss went 7-26 last season, with two of the wins coming against non-Division I teams and three more coming against teams ranked outside the KenPom top 300.

Oh, yeah, and this is the first of two former Donnie Tyndall employers that Vanderbilt will play this month, so there’s that as well.

(Pictured above: Jimmy Buffett, the most famous Southern Miss alum who is not currently under investigation for welfare fraud.)