Amid Vanderbilt’s difficult 2017-18 season, there have been two consistent bright spots: seniors Jeff Roberson and Riley LaChance.
While fellow senior Matthew Fisher-Davis deserves praise for a productive career and leading an NCAA Tournament Commodore squad in scoring last year, Roberson’s and LaChance’s senior years have been nothing short of spectacular.
The ‘Dores continue to play hard despite an 11-18 record, and Roberson and LaChance deserve praise for that. While neither player has been great defensively, the record more so reflects the support around them than their play — for instance, they rank second and third in the SEC respectively in Sports-Reference.com’s offensive box plus-minus, which offensive impact compared to an average player.
“They’ve carried the team in different ways, different times, and I think their leadership — sometimes they’re vocal, but a lot of times they just lead by example,” head coach Bryce Drew said after Vanderbilt’s recent win over Florida. “By not losing their cool, by helping the younger guys when sometimes they might mess up and it’s frustrating for the seniors. They do a really great job of keeping their patience and keeping the team together.”
Roberson and LaChance enter senior night against Missouri on Tuesday on pace to achieve something that hasn’t been done in college basketball since at least 2009-10, and maybe longer. Only one other duo has produced at their level offensively since that year, making the seniors’ seasons even more unprecedented.
According to Sports-Reference.com, LaChance and Roberson have each surpassed a 125 offensive rating, 40 percent three-point shooting and 80 percent free-throw shooting this season. They’ve done so while each playing over 30 minutes per game, posting turnover rates below 11 percent and using more than 20 percent of Vanderbilt’s possessions when on the court.
That’s a lot of numbers, but they tell us the two have reached elite levels of offensive efficiency and played mistake-free basketball while serving as main playmakers for their team.
“They’ve been phenomenal,” Drew said. “I keep saying it, but about the last month-and-a-half, they’ve played the best stretch in the two years that I’ve been here.”
Before this year, no leading tandem had ever put up those same numbers since that 2009-10 watermark. Villanova’s Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges — considered two of the best players in college basketball, and on one of the NCAA’s best teams — have also reached those thresholds this season, joining the exclusive club.
Only 54 such seasons exist since 2009-10, and Vanderbilt as four of them; aside from LaChance and Roberson, John Jenkins satisfied these criteria in 2011-12 and 2012-13. Neither Roberson nor LaChance shoot as much as Jenkins did those two years, but to have two players with such high efficiency is nearly unheard of.
It’s worth noting that Sports-Reference.com’s data is slightly inconsistent with that of KenPom.com, but the message is the same: Two teammates almost never produce offensive seasons of the kind Roberson and LaChance are having.
LaChance and Roberson have shined brightest in some of Vanderbilt’s biggest games. In the comeback win over Florida for which Romeo Langford visited, the two combined for 47 points on 13-of-23 shooting. They even only committed four combined turnovers while playing 75 of 80 possible minutes.
Similarly, the senior duo churned out 44 points on 17-of-26 shooting against TCU and 38 on 12-of-25 shooting in a revenge game against Mississippi State. The fact that both are at least in the running for All-SEC recognition despite a potential last-place finish says a lot about their play.
So while Vanderbilt has vastly underperformed this season, savor Roberson and LaChance’s last home game Tuesday night. Chances are, it’ll be a long time before Commodore fans see another duo like these two.