One part of Christmas that we all love are the stories, whether it be Rudolph or Frosty. Another part that we hate are the Hallmark Christmas movies if you are a married man (I had to throw that one in there). But little did we know that Jekyll and Hyde was a Yuletide tale. That was Vanderbilt's character the week before Christmas Day.
The Commodores looked like world beaters last Monday with an 81-65 victory over No. 18 Arizona State, but looked helpless on both ends in Kansas City Saturday as they trailed all the way and lost to Kansas State 69-58.
When trying to decipher between two stories that are polar opposites, the old adage is that the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. Is Vanderbilt as good as they were against the Sun Devils, as bad as they looked against the Wildcats, or are they in between?
Basically six full games without Darius Garland, Bryce Drew is past the stage of trying to identify his team's identity. He pretty well understands what he has, good and bad. The quest is to find a way to play to the current strengths while eliminating weaknesses. Or in other words, how can they have more Monday night performances and less like what they did on Saturday?
Offensively
41.2 percent of the team's field goal attempts are 3-pointers. This past week the numbers picked up even more. 28 of the 55 shots against Arizona State were 3-pointers as were 25 of the 47 attempts versus Kansas State. That is 53 of 102 shot attempts for the week, or 52 percent.
That is an astronomical amount. By comparison, Villanova takes more treys than any high major in college basketball. In twelve games, they have taken 352. If you took Vanderbilt's numbers from last week over the same amount of games, they would have only seven less 3-point attempts, and would put them in the top twelve nationally. The Commodores have only played ten games so far.
From that, we can deduct this. You live and die with the 3-point shot. Vanderbilt lived with it Monday night and died with it five days later.
So why do they shoot better on some nights than others?
They could be more comfortable at home. Three of the ten games have been away from the friendly confines of Memorial. In those games, they are 19 for 73 from deep for 26 percent. At home, they are 39.8 percent from behind the arc.
Of course, the Dores have feasted on low and mid-majors at home with the exception of Arizona State. Against USC, North Carolina State, Arizona State, and Kansas State, Vandy is 30 percent from deep compared to 39 percent against the rest of their opponents.
For future reference, expect them to shoot better in Nashville against Tennessee State than they do in Knoxville against Tennessee. Venue and the talent of this opposition will probably have a lot to do with how the Commodores play.
The fact of the matter is that Kansas State is the worst possible team that Vanderbilt could have played if they were looking for good looks. They are fifth in the country in scoring defense, allowing 57.8 points per game.
The Wildcats weren't a big and burly team who played off shooters and denied the drive. They were quick and tenacious, closed out hard, ran shooters off the 3-point line, and were brilliant in defensive rotations.
Matt Ryan seemed to get the only open looks early on, and hit a pair of first half threes. In the first half there were lots of forced perimeter shots when the shooter was closely guarded. This brings up an argument that so far there are no answers for yet.
What looks like bad shot selection early in the clock to some looks like the best option to others because they do not feel that the Commodores can get good looks without Garland once the defense is set up in half-court. It is a tough offer at times. Jon Sunvold of ESPN correctly noted that Saben Lee is the only player who can break down the defense off the dribble. Teams are playing off him thus making it almost impossible to get open shooters off the drive due to those two factors. Lee is also finding himself the open shooter as the defense is taking away Matt Ryan, Aaron Nesmith, and Joe Toye.
As the season wears on, the opponent's defensive acumen will be hard have a huge impact on Vanderbilt's offensive success. If they are well drilled in guarding the perimeter shot and have a solid scouting report that they execute, it will be tough to have good shooting nights.
One last point in regards to outside shooting, Drew will need consistency when his guys have open looks. Ryan and Toye hit all seven of Vandy's threes on Saturday. The rest of the team was 0 for 12.
From behind the arc, Toye is shooting 40 percent on the year, Ryan 39, and Nesmith 32.4. The freshman from Charleston has been an interesting study. He has had problems doing it night and night out from behind the line. He was lights out against Arizona State. He couldn't buy one against K-State. He will almost have to knock them down every night from here on out.
Maxwell Evans shoots 41.1 percent from deep, but hasn't had a lot of opportunities. Matthew Moyer and Yanni Wetzell have also been able to step out and knock down shots from the post position.
Where else can they get points?
Simi Shittu is averaging 14.6 points per game and is shooting over 50 percent from the field. He looks awkward though when he has to face up against a set defense and he also is not a good outside shooter. Drew has to hope he will get more comfortable in one on one situations as he gains experience.
Yanni Wetzell also had a strong weak and could be called the bright spot of the last two games. In those contests, he scored 20 points on 6 for 11 shooting. He was also a perfect 7 for 7 from the free throw line. Admittedly, many of his points have been in faceup situations at the goal off of feeds.
A solid low post presence would work well with the outside shooting ability of this team. If there are no doubles, the bigs need to go to work. If they are doubled inside, then shooters are open. Drew loves the ball screen action and penetration that leads to kick, but the ball going through the post in inside-out action might be something that is more realistic.
One other factor should be getting to the foul line. The Commodores were 21 for 27 and 21 for 29 this past week which led to 42 points in two games. Forcing the dribble drive into help and forcing the defense to foul can be a dangerous proposition. It leads to turnovers and bad shot selection. But this is another part of the game that Drew is going to have to figure out.
Defensively
Vanderbilt looked lost in man to man looks Saturday. The reasons are numerous.
Communication is non-existent at times. The help or the defenders guarding the ball-screens and staggers don't do a good jobs in extending the screens. The young players get lost other times, and as in the case Sunday. Vanderbilt's big men got mismatched on guards all day long.
I have said this before, the ball-screen is the mainstay of the modern day game. Right now, not only can Vanderbilt not execute it offensively, they don't guard it well. Drew has tried to keep it simple for his bigs, letting them play off and under. But this allows the ball handler to turn the corner. K-State was constantly able to hit pullup jumpers from the mid-range from this action. Vanderbilt struggled guarding staggers for the same reason.
Drew countered by going to the 2-3 zone in the second half, which led his team to make a big run cutting a twenty-two point lead to nine. They did a good job of rotating side to side and bumping defenders down and off so they could stay in front of the ball and matchup on the next pass.
In other words, the two men on top are considered guards. The outside players on the back line are forwards. When the ball is passed to the wing and the forward picks him up, then guard then calls him off and bumps him off to the next offensive player in the corner. Their rotations is zone were much better than in man.
As the game went, Bruce Weber started getting the ball into the opening in the high post which is the weakness of the 2-3. They also did some screen in action in the middle of the back line. Just as Shittu seems to be the player getting lost in man-to-man, Wetzell struggled some in the assignments in the zone.
Nevertheless, this is a look that Drew might want to take a deeper look at. He will have until next Saturday to try and figure things out. The Commodores host Tennessee State next Saturday followed by a matchup next Monday against UNC-Asheville. They will open up SEC play on January 5 as they host Ole Miss.
The Commodores looked like world beaters last Monday with an 81-65 victory over No. 18 Arizona State, but looked helpless on both ends in Kansas City Saturday as they trailed all the way and lost to Kansas State 69-58.
When trying to decipher between two stories that are polar opposites, the old adage is that the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. Is Vanderbilt as good as they were against the Sun Devils, as bad as they looked against the Wildcats, or are they in between?
Basically six full games without Darius Garland, Bryce Drew is past the stage of trying to identify his team's identity. He pretty well understands what he has, good and bad. The quest is to find a way to play to the current strengths while eliminating weaknesses. Or in other words, how can they have more Monday night performances and less like what they did on Saturday?
Offensively
41.2 percent of the team's field goal attempts are 3-pointers. This past week the numbers picked up even more. 28 of the 55 shots against Arizona State were 3-pointers as were 25 of the 47 attempts versus Kansas State. That is 53 of 102 shot attempts for the week, or 52 percent.
That is an astronomical amount. By comparison, Villanova takes more treys than any high major in college basketball. In twelve games, they have taken 352. If you took Vanderbilt's numbers from last week over the same amount of games, they would have only seven less 3-point attempts, and would put them in the top twelve nationally. The Commodores have only played ten games so far.
From that, we can deduct this. You live and die with the 3-point shot. Vanderbilt lived with it Monday night and died with it five days later.
So why do they shoot better on some nights than others?
They could be more comfortable at home. Three of the ten games have been away from the friendly confines of Memorial. In those games, they are 19 for 73 from deep for 26 percent. At home, they are 39.8 percent from behind the arc.
Of course, the Dores have feasted on low and mid-majors at home with the exception of Arizona State. Against USC, North Carolina State, Arizona State, and Kansas State, Vandy is 30 percent from deep compared to 39 percent against the rest of their opponents.
For future reference, expect them to shoot better in Nashville against Tennessee State than they do in Knoxville against Tennessee. Venue and the talent of this opposition will probably have a lot to do with how the Commodores play.
The fact of the matter is that Kansas State is the worst possible team that Vanderbilt could have played if they were looking for good looks. They are fifth in the country in scoring defense, allowing 57.8 points per game.
The Wildcats weren't a big and burly team who played off shooters and denied the drive. They were quick and tenacious, closed out hard, ran shooters off the 3-point line, and were brilliant in defensive rotations.
Matt Ryan seemed to get the only open looks early on, and hit a pair of first half threes. In the first half there were lots of forced perimeter shots when the shooter was closely guarded. This brings up an argument that so far there are no answers for yet.
What looks like bad shot selection early in the clock to some looks like the best option to others because they do not feel that the Commodores can get good looks without Garland once the defense is set up in half-court. It is a tough offer at times. Jon Sunvold of ESPN correctly noted that Saben Lee is the only player who can break down the defense off the dribble. Teams are playing off him thus making it almost impossible to get open shooters off the drive due to those two factors. Lee is also finding himself the open shooter as the defense is taking away Matt Ryan, Aaron Nesmith, and Joe Toye.
As the season wears on, the opponent's defensive acumen will be hard have a huge impact on Vanderbilt's offensive success. If they are well drilled in guarding the perimeter shot and have a solid scouting report that they execute, it will be tough to have good shooting nights.
One last point in regards to outside shooting, Drew will need consistency when his guys have open looks. Ryan and Toye hit all seven of Vandy's threes on Saturday. The rest of the team was 0 for 12.
From behind the arc, Toye is shooting 40 percent on the year, Ryan 39, and Nesmith 32.4. The freshman from Charleston has been an interesting study. He has had problems doing it night and night out from behind the line. He was lights out against Arizona State. He couldn't buy one against K-State. He will almost have to knock them down every night from here on out.
Maxwell Evans shoots 41.1 percent from deep, but hasn't had a lot of opportunities. Matthew Moyer and Yanni Wetzell have also been able to step out and knock down shots from the post position.
Where else can they get points?
Simi Shittu is averaging 14.6 points per game and is shooting over 50 percent from the field. He looks awkward though when he has to face up against a set defense and he also is not a good outside shooter. Drew has to hope he will get more comfortable in one on one situations as he gains experience.
Yanni Wetzell also had a strong weak and could be called the bright spot of the last two games. In those contests, he scored 20 points on 6 for 11 shooting. He was also a perfect 7 for 7 from the free throw line. Admittedly, many of his points have been in faceup situations at the goal off of feeds.
A solid low post presence would work well with the outside shooting ability of this team. If there are no doubles, the bigs need to go to work. If they are doubled inside, then shooters are open. Drew loves the ball screen action and penetration that leads to kick, but the ball going through the post in inside-out action might be something that is more realistic.
One other factor should be getting to the foul line. The Commodores were 21 for 27 and 21 for 29 this past week which led to 42 points in two games. Forcing the dribble drive into help and forcing the defense to foul can be a dangerous proposition. It leads to turnovers and bad shot selection. But this is another part of the game that Drew is going to have to figure out.
Defensively
Vanderbilt looked lost in man to man looks Saturday. The reasons are numerous.
Communication is non-existent at times. The help or the defenders guarding the ball-screens and staggers don't do a good jobs in extending the screens. The young players get lost other times, and as in the case Sunday. Vanderbilt's big men got mismatched on guards all day long.
I have said this before, the ball-screen is the mainstay of the modern day game. Right now, not only can Vanderbilt not execute it offensively, they don't guard it well. Drew has tried to keep it simple for his bigs, letting them play off and under. But this allows the ball handler to turn the corner. K-State was constantly able to hit pullup jumpers from the mid-range from this action. Vanderbilt struggled guarding staggers for the same reason.
Drew countered by going to the 2-3 zone in the second half, which led his team to make a big run cutting a twenty-two point lead to nine. They did a good job of rotating side to side and bumping defenders down and off so they could stay in front of the ball and matchup on the next pass.
In other words, the two men on top are considered guards. The outside players on the back line are forwards. When the ball is passed to the wing and the forward picks him up, then guard then calls him off and bumps him off to the next offensive player in the corner. Their rotations is zone were much better than in man.
As the game went, Bruce Weber started getting the ball into the opening in the high post which is the weakness of the 2-3. They also did some screen in action in the middle of the back line. Just as Shittu seems to be the player getting lost in man-to-man, Wetzell struggled some in the assignments in the zone.
Nevertheless, this is a look that Drew might want to take a deeper look at. He will have until next Saturday to try and figure things out. The Commodores host Tennessee State next Saturday followed by a matchup next Monday against UNC-Asheville. They will open up SEC play on January 5 as they host Ole Miss.
