This was a Vanderbilt team we had not seen before.
On opening night of the 2018-19 basketball season, the Vanderbilt Commodores started three players who had never suited up for the team before — Darius Garland, Simi Shittu, and Matt Ryan — and all three had a big impact in a win over the Winthrop Eagles to get the season started with a win.
With that many newcomers, however talented, you kind of expected a slow start and that was what you got. Winthrop actually led for a few minutes as Vanderbilt had trouble getting, well, dunks to go down.