Men's College Basketball 2021-2022 Season Preview: Vanderbilt Commodores

The SEC is loaded this year as most teams used the transfer portal to their advantage and shored up their talent as well as their depth. Teams like Kentucky, Tennessee and Auburn built elite freshman classes while LSU, Arkansas (as usual) and Florida made key additions via the portal.

SEC slates are going to be high scoring and mega exciting all year long. For DFS players this is the conference that will command your attention, so keep that at the top of your mind as we go team-by-team through the SEC to preview the coming season.

In this one, Vanderbilt.

(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)

Vanderbilt Commodores 2021-2022 Season Preview

2020-2021 record: 9-16 (3-13 SEC), 14th/last in SEC
Postseason: None

Key Departures | Vanderbilt Commodores

Dylan Disu (transferred to Texas)
Maxwell Evans (transferred to TCU)
DJ Harvey (transferred to Detroit Mercy)

Key Additions | Vanderbilt Commodores

Liam Robbins (transferred from Minnesota)
Rodney Chatman (transferred from Dayton)
Terren Frank (transferred from TCU)
Jamaine Mann (transferred from Gardner Webb)
Shane Dezonie (top 100 recruit)

Returners | Vanderbilt Commodores

Scotty Pippen Jr (20.8 PPG/2.8 RPG/4.9 APG/1.8 SPG)
Jordan Wright (8.7 PPG/4.5 RPG/1.1 SPG)
Quentin Millora-Brown (3.1 PPG/3.2 RPG)
Trey Thomas (6 PPG/1.4 RPG)

Vanderbilt Commodores Outlook for 2021-2022

This Vandy team will fully revolve around Scotty Pippen Jr., and he should be up some monster numbers this season. We are talking about a guy who will be $9k and up most of the season if sites are paying attention. He had the third-highest usage rate in the country last season at 35.2% and could see that number rise further in 2021. He also had a top-20 assist rate at 36.9%, so his efficiency is top notch.

The additions of Liam Robbins (11.7 PPG/6.6 RPG/2.7 BPG) and Rodney Chatman (7.9 PPG/2.6 RPG/3.8 APG/1.8 SPG) will help to offset the losses of Dylan Disu and Maxwell Evans. That said, Disu was on his way to being a breakout star so his loss will hurt no matter what. Robbins dealt with foul issues a lot in Big 10 play and it’s hard to see that not being the case in a tough conference like the SEC. Pippen will be well worth his tag on a regular basis and we could be seeing some 50 burgers from him when he faces teams like Auburn, Alabama and LSU.

(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams and top 100 players for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)

Summary

The Commodores probably won’t win many games, but watching the growth of Scotty Pippen will be fun. He is good enough to make the role players around him better and there will be some secondary options that emerge from this roster eventually.