Scouting Report: Vanderbilt Commodores

Kentucky Basketball Scouting Report

Opponent: Vanderbilt University Date: 1/21/15

General

11-6, 1-3 in the SEC. Coming off 3 straight losses.
Very young team; 5 freshman & 2 sophomores get the majority of their minutes.
3 excellent 3-point shooters: #13 LaChance, #3 Kornet, & #5 Fisher-Davis.

Personnel #4 PG Wade Balwin IV: 6’3’’ 195 FR. Baldwin is having a solid freshman season in the point guard role for the Commodores. He is a big, strong guard with the skill to score from the perimeter and the strength and size to finish around the hoop. He is averaging 6.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and nearly 1.5 steals per game. #13 SG Riley LaChance: 6’2’’ 194 FR. [caption id="attachment_171998" align="alignright" width="192"]

LaChance is Vandy's 2nd leading scorer at 13.3 ppg.
Photo Courtesy: 247 Sports[/caption] He is a talented freshman guard who can really shoot it from beyond the arc. LaChance is shooting just over 40% from 3-point range and averaging 13.3 points per game, good for second on the team. We have to take away his catch-and-shoot and make him score contested 2’s. #11 SF Jeff Roberson: 6’6’’ 206 FR. Roberson is an athletic wing player who is much more aggressive off the dribble than he is shooting from the perimeter. He is a good offensive rebounder and is active offensively cutting off the ball and slashing to the basket. #3 PF Luke Kornet: 7’0’’ 240 SO. He is a skilled, face-up 4 who is a very good 3-point shooter. Despite being 7’0’’ tall, Kornet has attempted over half of his shots from beyond the arc and connected on 41.1% of them. His skill at his size can cause some matchup problems, but we should be able to cover him with any of our big men. Averaging 8.6 points and 4.2 rebounds. #30 C Damien Jones: 6’10’’ 248 SO. After a great freshman season, Jones has picked up right where he left off. He is averaging a team-leading 16 points and 7.2 rebounds per game to go along with nearly 2 blocks. He is a strong presence on the block with a lot of skill around the hoop. Jones is without a doubt the Commodores go-to player and is a potential 1^st round pick in the NBA Draft. __________________________________________________________________________________________ #0 PG Shelton Mitchell: 6’3’’ 186 FR. [caption id="attachment_171999" align="alignright" width="222"]

Jones is projected as a 1st round pick and could sneak into the lottery.
Photo Courtesy: vucommodores.com[/caption] Mitchell is another talented freshman guard who serves as Vandy’s backup point guard. He is pretty aggressive attacking the basket off the dribble, but also does a good job of distributing the ball to others. Averaging 5.2 points and 4.2 assists per game. #5 G/F Matthew Fisher-Davis: 6’5’’ 173 FR. One of the best shooters in 2014 class, Fisher-Davis is shooting 41.5% from 3 so far in his freshman campaign. Nearly all of his shots come from beyond the arc so we have to be aware he is at all times. Make him handle the ball and score contested 2’s. #35 PF James Siakam: 6’7’’ 225 SR. Siakam is an undersized 4 man that uses a variety of moves in the post to be effective. He is a great finisher with a knack for being in the right position and scoring over and around bigger defenders. He is averaging 9.3 points and 5.7 rebounds off the bench. He is an outstanding offensive rebounder and plays with an extremely high motor, we have to box him out! Keys to the Game

Be the aggressor and “punch them in the mouth.” Not often are we the older team, but tonight that will be the case. More importantly though, we will be the much more experienced team due to our NCAA championship game run last season. Vandy has some talented freshman and Damien Jones is a very, very good post player, but they simply aren’t ready to face us. We should be able to control this game from the opening tip.
Don’t let them shoot it in from 3. The way that Vandy stays in this game is by getting hot and knocking in 10+ 3-pointers. Damien Jones is a good enough player that he is going to get his, and we will be able to make his points as tough to come by as possible with Willie, Dakari, Karl, and company down low. What we really have to do is make sure we take away their shooters and don’t let them knock in rhythm 3’s.
Don’t look ahead. This is the type of game we should win even if we don’t play great and aren’t ready to play, but it is still important that we don’t overlook the Commodores. We have a tough stretch of games coming up over the next few weeks but the mark of a championship team is one that can take it one day at a time and never look too far ahead.

Brandon Ramsey @Coach_BRamsey