When Bryce Drew was named Vanderbilt’s head coach in 2016, the first thing I noticed when peeking at his numbers on KenPom was that his last two teams at Valpo were really good defensively.
That’s why it was surprising to see last year’s team struggle mightily on the defensive end. Vanderbilt’s 2017-18 team ranked 219th nationally — and dead last in the SEC — in defensive efficiency. The Commodores were capable of scoring with just about anyone, but they couldn’t stop bleeding points on the offensive end.
There were lots of problems with the defense, but it started with the fact that last year’s defense could not stop opposing teams from getting easy baskets.