How Scotty Pippen Jr. Believes Vanderbilt Basketball Prepared Him For NBA Despite Lack of Winning

Nashville–Perhaps evaluators wouldn’t have thought it up when Scotty Pippen Jr. stepped on to Vanderbilt’s campus as a three-star prospect that held just one power-five offer in addition to the one that Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse extended to him, but he’s doing it. 

Pippen is a legitimate NBA player three years after leaving Vanderbilt a year early to pursue his dreams in the NBA Draft. The former Vanderbilt star played 79 games last season for the Memphis Grizzlies and started 21 of them while averaging 9.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.3 rebounds a game. 

Perhaps the numbers aren’t gaudy, but they’re a sign that Pippen has established himself as a legitimate pro after playing just 21 games in 2023-24 and six in the 2022-23 season. Pippen’s journey to this stage of stability in his career was unconventional at best and tiresome at worst, but it’s got him here. So has the way he developed in his three seasons at Vanderbilt. 

“I think it prepared me well,” Pippen told Vandy on SI. “Although we weren’t good, I feel like I was able to get reps and I was able to be around players that pushed me and people that helped me become better not only as a player, but as a man whether it was the strength coaches, the coach that rebounded for me, GAs, everyone.” 

Pippen’s final season at Vanderbilt saw him average a team-high 20.4 points, 4.5 assists, 1.9 steals and 538 free throws attempted. That season never showed the fully lived up to the expectations that a team Pippen thought “was better” than it showed, but it was his payback to Stackhouse and the Vanderbilt staff for taking a chance on him in the first place. 

The former Vanderbilt star says he could’ve “went to any school in the country” prior to his junior season, but chose to stay at Vanderbilt out of loyalty to Stackhouse. Pippen wasn’t drafted in the 2022 NBA Draft, but didn’t appear to be bitter regarding his decision to stay on West End for his junior season as he returned to Nashville for the first time since his college days to run his two-day basketball camp alongside former Vanderbilt standouts Ezra Manjon, Jordan Wright and Tyrin Lawrence. 

“This place helped me make my dream come true,” Pippen said. “I made a lot of memories here. It’s a surreal feeling to come here to play, just because I grew up so much here as a man. I had a crazy career here, so I’ve enjoyed [being back].”

Pippen left Vanderbilt for the first time in a position similar to the one that he was in when he arrived on campus as a freshman ahead of Stackhouse’s first year at the helm. The 6-foot-1 was still thought of by some as too small, too old and not explosive enough. As a result, he had to scratch and claw for every opportunity he was given. 

The former Vanderbilt star initially signed with the Los Angeles Lakers as an undrafted free agent and had to swallow his pride while going from Vanderbilt’s go-to guy to someone fighting for a roster spot. 

“Just me being willing to do whatever it takes to win and do whatever the coach wants me to do whether it’s be a defender, be a scorer, be a playmaker,” Pippen said when asked what’s allowed him to stick in the NBA. “I feel like I was always wiling and able to do anything.”

While Pippen is doing that–and potentially embracing a bigger role with the Memphis Grizzlies in the process–he’s not forgetting where he came from, though. 

“I’m thankful,” Pippen said. “I still feel like this is still like a second home, family.”