ChirpBlog

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Ezra Manjon came to Vanderbilt from UC-Davis with the idea of playing two seasons for Jerry Stackhouse, in part because he knew he would need two academic years to complete his architecture degree.

Of course, in this sport, every plan is pretty much a one-year plan. Early in the season, Manjon was struggling and so was Vanderbilt. It wasn’t clicking. And it was never going to be easy to be compared with the point guard he replaced, Scotty Pippen Jr. A scoreless outing in a Dec. 9 loss to Grambling was the low point for Manjon and Vanderbilt, part of a 5-6 start that would have made it laughable at the time to suggest there would be any serious NCAA Tournament talk around this team three months later.

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Also laughable: any thought that Manjon would turn into one of the best guards in the SEC. A burgeoning star. The centerpiece of a 2023-24 team that will be expected to turn Sunday’s misery — snubbed by the NCAA selection committee, left well out of the tournament — into a season that leaves no doubt about Vanderbilt’s inclusion one year from now.

This team would have been a lot of fun in the tournament, would have had a chance to do something. And Manjon, the player and the personality, would have been big. Vanderbilt, and in particular Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse, needs to figure out a way to get him in next year.

“I think I can speak for everybody, most of us have been doubted our entire lives, coming out of high school, we weren’t the most highly touted players,” Manjon told The Athletic on Friday after an SEC Tournament win over Kentucky, standing in a locker room that believed it had done enough to get in. “We all have to climb and fight our way to the top. If we get in the tournament, we’ll be real confident. We’ve been playing like we’re in the tournament, like we can’t lose. We’re used to that pressure.”

That will have to be applied in the NIT. And it will be interesting to see how this 20-14 team, which captured Vanderbilt fans like few Vanderbilt teams in any sport in recent years, gets supported in that endeavor for a second straight year. Sunday was a gut punch for the fans and the team, which won 10 of 11 games, against lots of good teams, before Saturday’s 87-75 semifinal loss to Texas A&M.

Vanderbilt’s exclusion isn’t shocking, but I can’t believe the Commodores didn’t even make the official list of the first four teams left out of the field — Oklahoma State, North Carolina, Rutgers and Clemson. I heard selection committee chair Chris Reynolds remind everyone in an ESPN interview that NET ratings count only as a sorting tool, but I have to think Vanderbilt’s strangely low NET of 80 was a factor. I also heard Reynolds decry the term “eye test,” and that’s fine, let’s not use that term.

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But humans watching basketball and talking about what they see is part of this, right? Reynolds said committee members can’t possibly watch every game. That’s true. No one would expect that. I would expect something beyond going through the metrics. Otherwise, can’t computers just handle putting the bracket together too? I’m not trying to expedite the machines taking over the world, I’m just asking.

Also, I realize each team’s full résumé counts, and it should. And a team’s performance in its last 10 games is long gone as an official part of the formula. But I was invited to NCAA headquarters to take part in a mock selection process along with other media members, and granted that was eight years ago. But the question that got posed over and over again was this: “Can this team win games against this field?”

That means, this team currently, right? Doesn’t it have to mean that? That’s how I took it then. That’s how it should be now. That’s how it should be always. Vanderbilt in November and December has no chance of beating Tennessee, Auburn, Mississippi State and Kentucky twice. Vanderbilt in February and March did.

Vanderbilt in this tournament, in its current state, is better-equipped for success than a lot of the teams that got into the field. I say that having watched not just a lot of Vanderbilt, but having watched a lot of teams. And those discussions should be part of this. Not all of it, but part of it.

Also, that’s a lot of complaining on Vanderbilt’s behalf. The committee did what it did and the message was clear. Now it’s up to the guy who coaches this team to adjust.

Stackhouse’s players and teams get markedly better through the course of a season, that’s very clear after four of them. He needs to figure out how to get better performances and important wins — and avoid damaging losses — early in seasons. And he and his staff need to dig in on scheduling and metrics and come up with a way to maximize Vanderbilt’s opportunities.

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Next year’s team should be able to handle a beefed-up nonleague schedule. It should be a top-25-caliber team. Should be, presuming all the key players who have eligibility return.

Manjon and big man Quentin Millora-Brown are in for sure. Tyrin Lawrence could be an All-SEC senior. Will freshmen Lee Dort and Malik Dia have an impact inside after a summer in the weight room? Freshmen Colin Smith and Paul Lewis with bigger perimeter roles? Myles Stute and Trey Thomas have eligibility as well, and it’s still possible Jordan Wright could return for another season. And there are other young players who can rise and, no doubt, portal activity to come.

That’s easily the best team on paper in Stackhouse’s tenure as he searches for an NCAA bid in his fifth season, an NCAA bid at Vanderbilt for the first time since 2017. He endeared himself to Vanderbilt fans with this turnaround. Now he needs to make one unnecessary next season. After doing what all college basketball coaches with good teams must do when seasons end: re-recruit those teams.

(Top photo of Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse: Bryan Lynn / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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