Takeaways From Vanderbilt's 105-61 Win Over Lipscomb

NASHVILLE---Vanderbilt basketball took it to local neighbor Lipscomb in its 105-61 win over the Bisons on Monday night. With it, the Commodores moved to 1-0 on the season after two strong exhibition showings in the preseason.

Here's some takeaways from the Commodores' dominant win on Monday night.

Vanderbilt passed the test with flying colors

Not for one second did this thing look like a trap game. 

Vanderbilt was in control of every moment on Monday night. It looked like a program that was significantly better than Lipscomb and has the potential to end up as a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. It also won by enough to help itself take a significant jump in the NET rankings. 

It appears to be bigger, faster, stronger and deeper than it was a season ago. That’s not to disparage last year’s Vanderbilt team, either. 

How about Tyler Harris and Tyler Nickel?

Vanderbilt appears to have two high-level scorers on the wing that promote how they want to play defensively. 

Harris and Nickel could be the best shooting tandem of wings in the conference. That appeared to be an outlandish claim prior to Monday night, but there’s now some evidence that it’s possibly the truth. 

The Washington transfer finished the night with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting while Nickel finished with 20 on 6-for-9 shooting from 3-point range. 

Vanderbilt’s defense is uber disruptive

The Commodores have length all over the floor, a solid shotblocker in Jalen Washington and two guards in Frankie Collins as well as Tyler Tanner that can really pressure the ball at the point of attack. 

Vanderbilt’s defense appears to have shades of Leonard Hamilton’s Florida State defenses as a result. It at least appears as if Byington intends to cause havoc like those Florida State teams did. 

By the end of the night, Vanderbilt forced 18 turnovers, scored 33 points off of them and ended the night with 13 steals. 

Tyler Tanner yet again demonstrates his improvement

It was the story of exhibition play, but Tanner’s step forward was yet again tangible as Vanderbilt took the floor for real on Monday night. 

The Vanderbilt sophomore appears to be significantly more confident running the show, putting it on the floor and being one of the go-to guys. If anyone has ownership of Vanderbilt’s offense, it’s Tanner at this stage. 

Byington says his starting lineups don’t matter, but his start of Tanner appeared to be a vote of confidence. 

By the end of the night, Tanner had a career-high 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field, 4-for-5 shooting from 3-point range as well as three steals and four blocks. Vanderbilt has its point guard of the future running the show right now.

Devin McGlockton continues to be all over the offensive glass

McGlockton is a complete pest on the offensive glass and had five offensive boards to show for it on Monday night. 

The Vanderbilt big man started his campaign quietly offensively as a whole, but appeared to be unguardable on the glass against Lipscomb’s undersized roster on Monday night. 

Expect more where that came from for the veteran forward–who split his time at power forward and center on Monday. 

Stats to contextualize the blowout

Here we go. 

Vanderbilt had 23 assists to six turnovers. It made as many 3-point field goals as Lipscomb did overall field goals. It outshot Lipscomb 55% to 23% from 3-point range. It had five players in double figures as opposed to Lipscomb’s two. 

It was a blowout in every sense.