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2024 commit, 6'0" PG from Brentwood, TN

Minoadoc wrote: ↑Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:42 pm 2024 commit, 6'0" PG from Brentwood, TN

CJS sure does like his PGs. That will have next year with Lewis, West, Balil and now Tanner at the PG spot. Tanner was not particularly heavily recruited, so perhaps he is a diamond in the rough.

I assume that we will be letting at least one of the players recruited as a point guard play the off guard, as Lawrence and Taylor are almost certainly to be gone after next season (Taylor definitely, Lawrence is gone as well barring a bad season).

Jason94 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 14, 2023 7:44 pm

Minoadoc wrote: ↑Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:42 pm 2024 commit, 6'0" PG from Brentwood, TN

CJS sure does like his PGs. That will have next year with Lewis, West, Balil and now Tanner at the PG spot. Tanner was not particularly heavily recruited, so perhaps he is a diamond in the rough.

I assume that we will be letting at least one of the players recruited as a point guard play the off guard, as Lawrence and Taylor are almost certainly to be gone after next season (Taylor definitely, Lawrence is gone as well barring a bad season).

Pretty sure this is Manjon’s last year of eligibility, too.

Wow...another guard sigh...not heavily recruited an underwhelming 3-star...

Tanner is a heck of a player. Talked to a buddy of mine who is a Goodpasture parent. Said tanner was dominant against them. And that was with West. Love getting the local boys.

If Stack got him early I’m on board. There’s a reason the staff wanted him.

This just shows me that Stack has matured in his understanding of the college game. In his first few years he was trying to load up on positionless, athletic wings. Except, he wasn't finding much of that. A college team needs 6 guards on scholarship that can handle the rock and hopefully have some lateral quickness.

Nashmann wrote: ↑Fri Jul 14, 2023 9:52 pm Wow...another guard sigh...not heavily recruited an underwhelming 3-star...

Right, because our only successful players have been heavily recruited 4- or 5-star players.

Look, we already had really mixed success over the years, not just in getting Top 100 recruits to come to Vanderbilt, but also in terms of how much they contributed to the team and how long they stayed. Now with NIL being a serious disadvantage for us, compared with LSU for instance, I think we have to smarter about whom we recruit. I think we’re better off recruiting players who have talent that can be developed, who are smart and value education, and who are unlikely to use us as a way to audition before transferring to a bigger program.

In light of that, a guy from Brentwood Academy who was the point guard for a state champion and was the PoY in Tennessee should be an interesting prospect. Obviously Coach Strong and Coach Stack see something in him and they both have pretty good track records in player development. So I’m pretty interested.

Besides, we’re clearly seeing that rankings based on summer camp teams miss a lot of great players. The NBA Summer League this year has been full of great performances by players like the Murray twins who were completely overlooked by the rankings and terrible performances by players like Nick Smith who were ranked at the very top. I’m not saying we shouldn’t use the rankings and star system as a reason to get excited about young players. But would you rather go back to a class like we had in 2018, when we recruited two All-Americans and got about 5-6 productive games out of them?

buffy wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 1:45 am This just shows me that Stack has matured in his understanding of the college game. In his first few years he was trying to load up on positionless, athletic wings. Except, he wasn't finding much of that. A college team needs 6 guards on scholarship that can handle the rock and hopefully have some lateral quickness.

A few more thoughts. I want CJS to bum rush teams with guards. Pressure them like hell. I find it to be the scariest form of college basketball. Y'all remember that Baylor team a few years ago. They had 4 top end athletic guards that just punished teams into submission. Most of their offense was the result of the opponent crumbling from the unrelenting pressure. That Baylor team was special. Offense is not what I worry about with coach CJS. In year one it was a cluster of NBA schemes with no one to execute them. What I saw last season was some pretty clever stuff. I'm really excited about what coach has in mind for us this season. I suspect defense is gonna start catching up with some Stack Magic and players that better fit those concepts.

Hope he pans out and is all world.....you never know. I worry about guarding much taller guards. Like the goofball from Arkansas.

Nashmann wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 8:31 pm Hope he pans out and is all world.....you never know. I worry about guarding much taller guards. Like the goofball from Arkansas.

Well, if they can’t make it to the rim or into their shooting motion before getting the ball stripped...

Vanderbilt played some of its best basketball last year with 5 guards on the court and Jordan Wright at 5.

I think Buffy is correct in that our coach and offense have matured. I just rewatched the VU v. UK game in the SEC Tourney. Our small line up was pretty good. Yes, we got out rebounded, but our guards were strong playmakers. UK was winded and we looked more in shape and energetic. At the end they missed a lot of FTs including front end of one and ones. We didn't. Also, the occasional mixing it up by putting in the tall QMB kept them off balance. I'm confident in CJS's plans and abilities.

Said it before and I'll say it again. The best team we've had since I've started following Vandy basketball (which, sadly, was 1994 ... one year too late), was a team that played a 6-5 guard at power forward and a 6-9 9pt/5reb guy at center.

If the team is good, I don't care that we're small.

That doesn't mean we are about to be as good as that team was, but the point still stands.

mathguy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 11:59 am Said it before and I'll say it again. The best team we've had since I've started following Vandy basketball (which, sadly, was 1994 ... one year too late), was a team that played a 6-5 guard at power forward and a 6-9 9pt/5reb guy at center.

If the team is good, I don't care that we're small.

That doesn't mean we are about to be as good as that team was, but the point still stands.

That “power forward” is still among my all-time VU favorites.

mathguy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 11:59 am Said it before and I'll say it again. The best team we've had since I've started following Vandy basketball (which, sadly, was 1994 ... one year too late), was a team that played a 6-5 guard at power forward and a 6-9 9pt/5reb guy at center.

If the team is good, I don't care that we're small.

That doesn't mean we are about to be as good as that team was, but the point still stands.

I think people are arguing two different things. On one side is the idea that having a ton of really skilled guards can be problematic to defend, which is something I agree with. On the other hand is the question of whether Tanner in particular is the right guard.

Yes, if we have a team with Billy McCaffery and Ronnie MacMahon in the starting backcourt with Frank Seckar coming off the bench and having Anglin and Elder move down to play the 3 and 4 can be very successful. The four starters were each at least 6'-4" tall. Similarly for the 2007 team, we had 6'-6" Foster, 6'-7" Byars and 6'-5" Cage at the 2,3 and 4 spots.

Tanner is listed at 6'-0", Balil is listed at 6'-2" and West is listed at 6'-2". Paul Lewis is also listed at 6'-2". We would be hard pressed to play any of these players at the 3. We would need someone like Lawrence to return next season or grab a player like him off the portal to have enough size to make the three guard lineups really work.

The other thing is that on both the 2007 and 1993 team every one of those guards were really strong shooting threats. Having Cage at the PF spot worked to a large extent because he was constantly pulling the PF away from the basket because he was a three point threat. Similarly with Elder, who hit almost 40% of his three point attempts, but could drive by most PF's in the league.

Players who can handle and pass but have enough size to play a bigger spot are tremendously valuable - Corey Smith, Jordan Wright and Jeff Roberson all fit this mold along with Elder and Cage. Looking at our roster next season, we will have nobody that technically fits that description, unless one of the freshmen wings are more skilled than expected.