Vanderbilt looks to eclipse last season’s win total when it meets The Citadel in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday evening.
The Commodores last played Dec. 8, when they notched an 83-74 win over TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, their third victory in a row. This will be Vanderbilt’s first home game since an 87-56 win over Tennessee Tech on Nov. 29.
Coached by Ed Conroy, a Vanderbilt assistant under Jerry Stackhouse for the 2021-22 season, The Citadel (5-5) will be playing the second of three straight road games. The Bulldogs fell 73-71 at Central Arkansas on Monday.
This is the first of three straight home games for Vanderbilt (9-1), which will likely be a double-digit favorite in all of them before embarking on a brutal Southeastern Conference schedule with a Jan. 4 trip to LSU. All 18 of its league games come against teams ranked in Ken Pomeroy’s top 68.
The Commodores seem to have found a go-to guy in guard Jason Edwards, who’s averaged 24.5 points over his last four games, including 30 in the TCU win.
Vanderbilt has three other guards it can count on in AJ Hoggard (10.1 ppg, 3.8 apg), Grant Huffman (5.7, 2.9) and Tyler Tanner (7.2, 2.0).
Huffman (1.7 steals per game) and Tanner (2.6) have been catalysts on the defensive end, which has led to some easy baskets on the other end. The Commodores had 10 steals in an 80-64 win at Virginia Tech, a game typical of what Vanderbilt — ranked eighth in steal percentage according to Pomeroy — has done well when it has won.
“I think our defense flipped the game in the second half. Some guys were just tenacious on defense,” coach Mark Byington said.
Tanner has shown surprising maturity for a freshman, dishing out 20 assists in 213 minutes without committing a turnover.
The Bulldogs typically go as guard Brody Fox (17.6 ppg) goes. Fox scored seven and eight points, respectively, in The Citadel’s last two games, both losses.
Fox has scored 23 (vs. North Greenville), 29 (St. Andrews) and 20 (Toccoa Falls) in the Bulldogs’ last three wins, all of which were against non-Division I foes.
The Citadel’s only D-I win came on Nov. 11 in a 74-52 triumph over Stetson. Its upset hopes likely ride on its ability to make 3-pointers; the Bulldogs hit 16 of them in Monday’s loss to Central Arkansas.
“We’re a team that, we’re not going to beat ourselves,” Conroy said on his coaches’ show following the Toccoa Falls game. “You’re going to have to beat The Citadel. We’re not going to have careless turnovers. We’re going to play with pace on both ends. … We’re going to play fast or slow and be able to dictate the tempo of the game.”
It’s the last nonconference game for the Bulldogs, who start Southern Conference play against Samford on Jan. 1.
Vanderbilt owns a 5-0 edge in the series. The teams haven’t met since 1978.
–Field Level Media
