Vanderbilt cruised to a 80-61 victory over Auburn on Wednesday night in Nashville.
Here are some thoughts from the game.
1. It was one of those nights for Matthew Fisher-Davis
I’ve seen a lot of good scoring performances at Memorial Gym throughout the years. However, aside from Shan Foster’s three-point explosion to beat Mississippi State back in 2008, I can’t remember someone scoring so many points in such a short amount of time.
Fisher-Davis came out on an absolute tear against the Tigers, scoring 16 points in a four or five minute span early in the game. He had 19 points less than eight minutes in.
His early performance helped Vandy jump out to a 24-4 lead with 12:34 left in the first half, the Commodores never looked back.
Of course, Fisher-Davis was far from finished since he finished with a career-high 33 points on the night. When he’s on his game like he was on Wednesday, he’s one of the best shooters in the entire country.
He also had a little help from the opposition…..
2. Auburn’s defense simply wasn’t good
Bruce Pearl spent nearly 45 minutes in the Auburn locker room after the game. He even missed his postgame appearance on the Tigers’ radio network.
There’s no doubt that his team got a nice talking to after the loss, and among that discussion had to be the struggles on the defensive end of the floor.
The Commodores had an enormous amount of open looks on the night, with Auburn never showing any signs of being able to play good enough defense to slow down Fisher-Davis and company.
One of the reasons for that had to do with a lack of trademark pressure from a Pearl-coached team.
“We’re not pressing quite as well or as much as we have in the past,” Pearl said. “Part of it is we’ve recruited pretty good offensive players, but again, we’re recruiting to our system.”
“Pressure has always bothered Vanderbilt. We didn’t press them very hard. We didn’t turn Vanderbilt over.”
He’s right about that. This Vandy team has always struggled with pressure defenses, but the Commodores were able to do pretty much anything they wanted offensively and only turned it over four times in the first half.
3. Impatient offense also contributed to Auburn’s slow start
Another big reason for Auburn’s early struggles in the game had to do with something that plagued the Tigers in their SEC opener against Georgia.
Vandy’s zone defense gave Auburn fits early, with Pearl’s team showing signs of impatience and struggling to find good shots. That’s what happened in the second half last week against the Bulldogs.
When easy lanes to the basket were taken away, the Tigers panicked and took bad shots. The same type of thing happened in this game.
Again, things like shot selection and communication get better over time with a young team. But right now, it hasn’t been pretty these last two games.
4. Stats can be deceiving
I love stats. Love, love, love them. But stats alone don’t always predict the outcome of a game.
Auburn came into the game at 57th in the nation in scoring offense (averaging 80.4 PPG), and Vanderbilt was last in the SEC in FG% defense.
The result? The Tigers scored their lowest point total of the season (previous low was 67 in a win over Texas Tech), with the Commodores holding them to just 32% shooting.
No matter the type of team that Auburn brings in, Memorial Gym simply hasn’t been too kind to the Tigers in recent years.
5. Vandy’s offensive changes have made a big impact
Vandy’s offense early in the season was not good. There were many turnovers and a lot of guys struggling with new roles.
That led to some bad offensive performances and very forgettable losses.
Good coaches know how to make adjustments when those types of things happened. Bryce Drew and company realized that changes had to be made on offense to better suit the players on the roster, and thus far, it has worked wonders.
The Commodores are turning the ball over less and leading the SEC in three-point FG%, which has certainly been a formula for success in starting 2-0 in SEC play.
“We revamped a lot of stuff to try and put guys in different positions,” Drew said. “We’ve collectively looked across the country and we’ve looked at things that have been successful here.”
“We try to pick out little things here and there from what we’ve done and tried to create certain things to match our personnel.”
Pearl has also been impressed with Vandy’s offensive tweaks.
“It was a great move by Bryce to go to this offense because it suits his talents and personnel,” Pearl said. “They were doing some other things earlier in the season, but we were prepared for exactly what he did because he’s done it the last couple of games now.”
“I think it’s a good decision and I think he’s gonna stay with it.”
Some were quick to question Drew’s abilities after Vandy’s problems during the non-conference schedule.
But here’s no doubt that this move has given the Commodores a huge boost of confidence early in the conference season.
Blake Lovell has worked in sports media for over 10 years. He currently covers SEC football and basketball for various publications.