Vanderbilt looks for its first 4-0 start since the 2018-19 season when it hosts winless Jackson State on Saturday afternoon in Nashville, Tenn.
The Commodores have four new players — A.J. Hoggard, Jason Edwards, Grant Huffman and Tyler Tanner — sharing primary ball-handling duties. They rank third in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.67), with Huffman (11-to-1) leading the way.
Huffman was a disruptive, on-the-ball defensive presence in Wednesday’s 85-69 win over Cal, collecting four of the Commodores’ 18 steals for a team that ranks tied for 20th nationally (12.0) in thefts.
However, new coach Mark Byington’s free-flowing, fast-paced offense has underachieved in some areas. The Commodores rank 351st of 355 teams in 3-point shooting (21.4 percent) with 18 made on 84 attempts.
“I thought we showed improvement,” Byington said after the Cal game. “I don’t think anybody knows the answer on how good this team is gonna be, they don’t know right now, but we gotta work and we gotta do things together.”
Jackson State (0-3), in Year 3 under coach Mo Williams, has been blown out by Houston (97-40) and Xavier (94-57) while outscoring High Point by 11 in the second half of an 80-71 loss between those two games.
However, the Tigers did win their last game against a Southeastern Conference opponent, a 73-72 victory at Missouri on Nov. 19 of last season — after Jackson State had lost its first five games by double digits.
Jayme Mitchell Jr. leads the Tigers in scoring (15.0) while Romelle Mansel averages 12.7 points and a team-high 5.7 rebounds. Both are returnees from last year’s 15-17 squad.
“We’re a deep team this year,” Williams said before the season. “I echo over and over we’ve got 10-12 guys who can compete for minutes.
The Tigers need more from preseason All-Southwestern Athletic Conference first-team pick Shannon Grant, who averaged 10.4 points and 4.4 rebounds at Florida A&M last season but has averaged just 4.7 and 3.0 this season.
The Tigers have allowed teams to shoot 50.7 percent from 3 this season, ranking dead last in Division I.
This is the fourth of 14 straight road games to start the season for Jackson State.
