Last November, Vanderbilt signed its highest-rated recruit ever, or at least since recruiting rankings became a thing, in Canadian forward Simi Shittu — who just barely beat out the previous highest-rated recruit, Darius Garland, who had signed the week before.
Then, in January, because we can’t have nice things, Shittu tore his ACL. ACL tears take anywhere from 9-12 months to fully heal, and a lot of people started assuming the worst: that Shittu wouldn’t be cleared to play until midway through the season and would never get up to full speed, dooming Vanderbilt to a disappointing 2018-19 season.