No. 24 Vanderbilt will look to match its best start since 2007-08 when it meets Western Kentucky in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in Paradise Island, Bahamas, on Wednesday afternoon.
The Commodores (5-0) average 103 points per game and have six scorers in double figures: Tyler Tanner (16.0 ppg), Duke Miles (15.4), Tyler Nickel (15.2), Tyler Harris (13.8), AK Okereke (11.8) and Devin McGlockton (10.4), with Frankie Collins (9.7) close behind.
The main element lacking for Vanderbilt has been health.
Collins, one of three team members who can play point guard, has missed the past two games with a lower body injury but likely will play in this tournament.
Mason Nicholson, a 6-foot-10, 288-pound graduate transfer from Jacksonville State who is expected to be a big piece of Vanderbilt’s frontcourt, was out because of an illness but made his debut in Thursday’s 109-74 home win over Texas Southern, tallying two points and a rebound in about nine minutes.
“Guys are playing the right way, and we don’t have guys playing selfish,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said after that game. “Our efficiency has been good because of the guys we are playing. We’ve got terrific players. If they play unselfish, I think all of them all look good.”
The Hilltoppers (4-0), who are off to their best start since 2019-20, are averaging a robust 90.3 points per game, led by Teagan Moore (18.3) and Grant Newell (14.8).
Freshman guard Armelo Boone (9.8) also is emerging. He has scored in double figures in his past three games, combining for 23 points in 34 minutes between wins over Bethel (Tenn.) College and Tennessee State.
Depth is a strength for both teams, something that should come in handy in this three-games-in-three-days tournament. Western Kentucky ranks 10th in the nation in bench points per game at 41.8.
“We just have some guys that it’s been a long time since they’ve played three games in three days,” Western Kentucky coach Hank Plona told the Bowling Green Daily News. “And while I would like for us to be perfect, that is the positive to having 15 available bodies, and I think that our team as a whole is built to handle the three games in three days.”
For the Commodores, Nicholson should become the eighth man in a nine-man rotation that could grow to 10 with freshman Chandler Bing, who has 14 points across 24 minutes in the past two games.
Vanderbilt would prefer a fast-paced game, using the quick hands of Tanner and Miles (13 steals each) and Collins (11) to get easy buckets in transition.
Neither team’s schedule has been particularly challenging; KenPom ranks Vanderbilt’s 359th, while the Hilltoppers, who played an NAIA opponent in Bethel in their last game, are 338th.
Wednesday’s game will be the opener of the eight-team event. The winner and loser of the contest will face the same from the VCU-South Florida game, which is scheduled to start about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Vanderbilt-Western Kentucky matchup.
