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Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington works the sideline during the first half of their exhibition game against Virginia at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

What to Watch For In Vanderbilt Basketball's Opener Against Lipscomb

Originally posted on Vanderbilt Commodores on SI
By Joey Dwyer | Last updated Nov 3, 2025 11:08 AM ET

NASHVILLE--Vanderbilt basketball opens the season on Monday night against Lipscomb--which it hasn't faced since the 2014 season. The Commodores are 25.5-point favorites, but will have to bring it on Monday to finish with a desireable outcome.

Here's some things to watch for on Monday night.

Vanderbilt has some lineup questions to answer

Mark Byington, obviously, doesn’t care about starters and doesn’t want to put labels on players, but he’s got to play his guys on Monday. Vanderbilt is a 25.5-point favorite against Lipscomb, but the Bisons are too good to mess around against.

Vanderbilt had a group of players larger than five thinking that they had a chance to start throughout the offseason and Byington has had to trim his lineup and rotation down as things have gone along.

Devin McGlockton, Tyler Nickel and Duke Miles appear to be locks to start at this stage. Frankie Collins appeared to be a lock heading into the two exhibitions, but was outplayed by Tyler Tanner. The idea still appears to be that Collins will be the starting point guard, although Tanner could surpass him in minutes. Jalen Washington appears to be Vanderbilt’s starting center, unless it goes small and starts McGlockton at the five.

The bigger questions pertain to Byington’s rotation. It appears as if he can go 10 deep, the question is will he. Vanderbilt appeared to plan on bringing in 11 players that could see the floor last season, but had to go without Alex Hemenway and Kijani Wright. This season, it will have to accommodate the six aforementioned players as well as AK Okereke, Mike James, Tyler Harris and Mason Nicholson. If Monday night’s game is close, Byington will have to show his hand in regard to his rotation.

A brief on Lipscomb

The Bisons appear to be on track in year one under Kevin Carroll. They had moments of questioning throughout the preseason, but it appears as if it’s coming together after secret scrimmage wins over Tennessee State and Chattanooga–the second of which came by 15 points.

Lipscomb clearly wants to play fast this season and wants to take advantage of the floor spacing it will have, particularly when stretch bigs Grant Asman and Charlie Williams are in the game alongside each other. Its leading scorer will likely be Lubbock Christian transfer Ethan Duncan–who can put it on the floor and get his own look as well as anyone in the ASUN. Its biggest preseason riser is former Wisconsin walk-on Ross Candelino–who played sparingly last season, but will likely start and be one of Lipscomb’s go-to guys.

The Bisons take comfort in veteran point guard Mateo Esmeraldo knowing Caroll’s iteration of the Princeton offense well after he ran the show at Trevecca last season. The Bisons are still searching for an answer when Esmeraldo is out of the game as a result of backup point guard Logan Suber tearing his ACL, though.

Vanderbilt has Lipscomb in positional size, athleticism and overall talent, but the new-look Bisons have a path to staying in the game if they can shoot their way into it, take care of the ball and win on the defensive glass. The good thing for the Bisons is that they likely won’t get pushed around all that much in the frontcourt, they’re bigger and deeper there than an average ASUN team. Lipscomb will win eventually under Carroll, but he’s got a tough matchup in his debut as a Division-I head coach.

How fast is too fast?

Lipscomb and Vanderbilt both want to run and believe that’s their best path to sustained success this season. Teams often have a tendency to get sped up in season openers, the test for these two will be pushing the pace while still playing within themselves.

It will likely be more of a challenge for Lipscomb than it is for Vanderbilt as the Commodores have a veteran point guard in Frankie Collins to slow things down when they need to be slowed down. If Esmeraldo can be disruptive enough, that could be the start of some chaos that could benefit Lipscomb.

Can Vanderbilt put it into the post?

Byington says that analytically there are better options than turning to the low post, but that he’s not abandoning it. If Vanderbilt is going to have sustained success, it needs to have someone to throw it to down there.

Lipscomb’s frontcourt has a degree of physicality and could be an interesting test to test whether Vanderbilt has an out pitch down low.

The biggest difference is likely positional size

Lipscomb will start two guards that are listed generously above 6-foot, a 6-foot-5 wing as well as two conventionally-sized bigs.

It’s not a small team, but Vanderbilt was intentional about getting bigger and more athletic this summer. The areas in which that will be most noticeable are the guard spots and the wing, where Candelino could have difficulty getting his shot off if he’s got a bigger, more athletic defender on him.

Vanderbilt is more athletic in the frontcourt, but isn’t all that much bigger than Lipscomb’s when Asman—6-foot-11–and Williams—6-foot-9–are in the game, but could be significantly bigger if Lipscomb chooses to go small or use its strongest player Cole Middleton—6-foot-6–at the four or the five, which it’s likely to.

What happens with Mike James?

James has all the tools to be Vanderbilt’s best player, but was relatively quiet and looked to still be finding his role in Vanderbilt’s two exhibition games.

The Louisville transfer by way of NC State hasn’t played a regular season game since 2024 and will look to start tapping into some of his ability on Monday night.

This article first appeared on Vanderbilt Commodores on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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