Less Than A Month Into The Season Vanderbilt Is Screwed After Losing Darius Garland

Just absolute dagger news for Vanderbilt. Darius Garland, the prized recruit from Vandy’s historic recruiting class is now out for the season with a knee injury. Garland was a 5-star recruit and listed as the best point guard in the class of 2018 according to ESPN’s rankings.

But, as dark as it sounds for Vanderbilt it’s truthful. Vanderbilt is screwed. That’s how good Garland is. He scored 19 on the road in a win against USC. He scored 33 last week against Liberty. He was also a 48% 3-point shooter. But, what he brought was some talent to that backcourt at Vanderbilt. Him, along with Saban Lee made a steady backcourt to go with Joe Toye and Simi Shittu (the other prized recruit) and a real good top-4 that can win some games.

So where does Vandy go from here? Saban Lee likely slides over to the lead guard spot. But, then what? The only other person on the roster under 6’6″ is Maxwell Evans, who is playing just 17% of the minutes this season. Do we see Vandy go big? That’s going to likely be the case with someone like Matt Ryan taking on a bigger role. Something the Notre Dame transfer is going to have to do considering he’s the only person on the roster now shooting over 29% with more than 10 attempts from three. Vandy simply doesn’t have the shooting now with Garland out.

As for his NBA Draft prospects? I don’t think he’ll take too much of a hit barring any setback in rehab. He’s going to be one of the top-rated guards coming out. He has a great pull up jumper. He can attack. I really like Garland’s game. So it sucks for Vandy, who was expected to be a tournament team with this group. Now? Not so much.