More analysis on tonight's game, here:
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Any big surprises coming? Guesses on the silent commit? Do we have a chance at Isaac Smith? It looks like the Smyrna kid has fallen off our radar a bit. It seems like last year there was more action right now but we also lost more kids last year

SEC is going to be a disaster.

I'll probably be driving my family out to Denver and maybe listening online while I do, but Joey will have our coverage tonight.

Stackhouse and Stute presser, here:
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Vanderbilt reached out to us to set it up so we will give you details when we set a time.

Thoughts in no order:
1) Dayton has a massive, loud, energized fan base. We used to have that. Now we don't. Dayton is an 11k person school, Dayton is a smaller city than Nashville, in a worse conference than the SEC... What are they doing right that we're doing wrong? I don't know, but building a fan base is important, and yes, winning does it, but the Cubs didn't win for decades and they had a fan base. We're doing something wrong in terms of fan support for really all of our sports and I don't know what.

2) The team works hard, but there's no vocal leader. They're quiet. There's no trash talking. There's no vocal leadership. Stack is vocal and energized and whatnot, but the team? A little sleepy. Maybe Pippen took the team on his shoulders too much, but we just don't have a leader right now. The stadium was relatively empty, and the loudest cheers were the D Fense cheers from the NC State bench. From our bench? Crickets. Even when people were pulled out, there wasn't a lot of high fives and pats on the back.

3) The problem isn't Stack. Or maybe it is in that he put together the lineup. But he's the most vocal person out there (actually a few of the coaches are very vocal). I totally understand the T's a few games ago. The team is quiet and needs some fire... It isn't that they're not working hard--they are. But comparing the NC State bench to our bench was really stark.

4) The freshmen look good but their bodies are just so different than the seniors' bodies. It's too bad they didn't have a year of strength and conditioning before this year. It's not that they're out of shape or flabby. They aren't. But Jordan Wright or Manjon has muscle on top of muscle, and Dort and Shelby just don't.

5) Vandy played well enough to win today. They were a Trey Thomas 3 away from winning. Hard to draw too many conclusions from that. It feels like a lot of games are like that, but they didn't play poorly today.

Assuming there is no material improvement in performance by the end of the year (we’re in the ballpark of 12 wins) and assuming the buyout is not unreasonable, should we part ways after the season?

Willis Wilson list

When your best returning player yells at the Coach repeatedly in the very first game of the season, it's going to be a long year and very likely the last year for the coach.

Just following the lead of the article from a few days ago concerning the state of stackhouse's coaching.

You have to play Dia, Dort, Shelby, Lewis every minute of every game the rest of the way.

If not, they all leave like last years class.

He played a lot of the second half with no point guard on the floor, letting TT handle the ball, and also had Robbins and Stute on the bench for a long time.

Paul Lewis also was available, and didn’t play a minute in the 2nd half.

To bad we're stuck with this clown for a couple of more years.

As annoying as his accent is, I love the guy. We could have way worse announcers.

@Bobby2xs gave me the idea in another thread.

1. Goodfellas
2. The Godfather
3. The Untouchables
4. Public Enemies
5. The Godfather II

Underrated, and more way more modern, is the King of New York, with Christopher Walken, Wesley Snipes, Lawrence Fishburn, and David Caruso

nm

With the recent discovery that @blackandau was actually a creative way of saying Black and Gold, I figured now was a good time to pose the question.

I’ll start. Frieda is my secretary.

Game is on the CBS network at 9:30 pm CST.

Seems about right. Don’t expect it to be that close, honestly. Expect NC State to win by double digits.

I follow him on ig.. he’s at the Vikings game in Minnesota 😅🙃

I too would have gone ape shit on those refs. Lose by 5 and they got 6 free throws from three bullshit Ts. I hope stack doesn’t hold back in his post game presser. Those refs should be banished straight to GITMO.

A quick shout-out to @raiders1967 for leading the charge to get vandysports.com's YouTube page to 1,000 subscribers. We still need roughly 10 more at least for a cushion to ensure it won't drop below 1,000.

Great job!

@Chris Lee

Vanderbilt signee Carter Lang had a productive night tonight with 17 points and 15 rebounds in a 93-75 win.

Certainly encouraging to see the way Lang rebounded, didn't see tonight's game but most of the teams in his league struggle to match his size, he is a gifted rebounder and that was apparent tonight, though.

Was able to catch a full game of Lang on youtube yesterday so I'll throw in some analysis from that here as well.

Plan on going to see Bilal and West in person over the next few weeks but Lang plays out of driving range so I wanted to see him again while I have some free time. Eventually may do a full film breakdown over the summer or at some point in the offseason.

Will preface this with the fact that Lang was far and away the biggest guy on the floor, at the high school level he isn't seeing anywhere near the type of size or athleticism that he will in the SEC. He did see that this summer on the Adidas circuit, though.

Will start by saying his build is certainly encouraging. The Vandy staff has done a nice job with that in the frontcourt recently, a lot of the time with young bigs they either need to put on significant weight or drop some baby weight. Vandy's bigs in 2022 and 2023 don't seem to have a tremendous amount of work to do in the weight room before seeing the floor. Lang looks to be the same, he seems more filled out than an average big at his age and height.

The downside to Lang is that he isn't a Lee Dort type athlete so we likely won't see him emphatically blocking shots like Dort has done or skying through the lane for rebounds or dunks. He will probably be physically ready to go next year but will be a drop coverage, positioning type guy defensively rather than a true rim protector or a guy that can overwhelm a ballhandler.

Offensive takeaways:
Lang is best out of the pick and roll, he's such a great passer that he can make things happen when catching it on the roll or at the top of the key.
Also like what he does as a roller catching it going towards the basket, can step out and shoot it well enough to be a threat on the pop as well.
Not sure he has the post game of a traditional big, can finish around the rim but not sure he's a consistent back to the basket guy yet.
The IQ is there and there is a skillset there but to be as effective as I think he could be he's probably got to add a go-to move or two in the post, hard to be great otherwise as a 6-foot-9 below the rim guy.

Defensive takeaways:
St.Anne's Belfield has him in drop coverage, so I'd expect that rather than him being a guy who hedges and switches.
I do think he may be able to hold his own if he does end up on some guards because he can probably move his feet well enough, don't think he'll be a complete liability there.
May not be a true shotblocker like Robbins or Dort, can alter some here or there but is a below the rim type of guy.
Probably won't get pushed around a whole lot, at least not once he's older. Has a nice build.