By Ron Wynn
The Vanderbilt Commodores hope to continue turning things around next basketball season. Last Thursday they landed the biggest recruit of current Jerry Stackhouse’s tenure, signing Tyrin Lawrence, the number one ranked player in the state of Georgia. Lawrence is a six foot, three-inch guard equally able to play either the point or shooting guard position. He picked the Commodores over a host of other schools, including fellow SEC opponent Ole Miss, rated as well as Gonzaga and Kansas State. He spent the past season at the Kansas prep school Sunrise Christian. He is rated a four star recruit.
Lawrence joins small forward Myles Stute as the primary new additions to the team roster. Coach Stackhouse also has three transfers coming in from Kansas, Notre Dame and Rice respectively. They are Isaac McBride, D.J. Harvey and Quentin Millora-Brown. They will offest the losses of Aaron Nesmith and Saben Lee to the NBA draft, and Matthew Moyer and Oton Jankovic, who entered the transfer portal.
Still, the Lawrence signing is the biggest of the offseason to date. He told Sports Illustrated the personal interaction with Stackhouse was the major thing that convinced him to sign with the Commodores. “Just getting to know Coach Stackhouse helped me to see that Vanderbilt was the place for me,” Lawrence said. “The pros for going there outweighed everything else, and it’s a place where I could really see myself taking my game to another level.
“Being able to play for Coach Stackhouse definitely played into my decision,” Lawrence added. “He played a long time at the level we’re all trying to get to. He knows what it takes, and I feel like I can really relate to him.”
