Friday, May 16, 2008

Commodore Banter (5/16)

The Vanderbilt baseball team earned a spot in next week's SEC Tournament last night when Tennessee beat South Carolina, but that didn't mean coach Tim Corbin was happy. Who can blame him?

The Commodores blew a 6-4 lead in the eighth, surrendering a pair of two-out, two-run homers to fall 8-6 to Florida in the first of a three-game series. They are now 37-16 overall and 15-12 in the SEC, which is good for the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament.

Still, they'll need a strong finish if they want to host another Regional. In Baseball America's most recent NCAA Tournament projections, Aaron Fitt has the SEC receiving nine bids and Vanderbilt earning a No. 2 seed, while adding that they have the best chance to move up.

Vanderbilt fans know D.J. Moore is good, but did you know that he is the top-ranked junior cornerback and projected second-round pick in next year's draft, according to collegefootballnews.com?

In other words, take a good look at Moore this fall because it might be your last chance, writes Brett Hait of The Nashville City Paper. Within this piece, Hait discusses a couple of future Commodores -- John Jenkins (basketball) and Jay Fullam (football).

Hait also a fantastic piece on the fact that the state of Tennessee has become a basketball hotbed.

He points out that 11 of the nation’s top 100 prospects have committed to play at Tennessee, Vanderbilt or Memphis, the most of any state. The main reason? Three great coaches in Kevin Stallings, Bruce Pearl and John Calipari.

There are some great quotes about Stallings:
“There’s not a better salesman in the country than Kevin Stallings as far as the quality of education at Vanderbilt and the city on Nashville,” ESPN college basketball analyst Jimmy Dykes said. “Everything you have to overcome at Vanderbilt, he’s able to do that.”

“At Vandy, they’ve been extremely inventive,” said Mike DeCourcy, college basketball writer for The Sporting News.. “They’ve taken the right transfers. They’ve gone overseas. They’ve evaluated beautifully. I’ve always believed Kevin Stallings to be a terrific strategist. I think he carries that over into his recruiting.”

In this interview, Bruce Pearl says he hates Memorial Gym. Stop whining, Bruce.

6 comments:

David Shochat said...

Stop bitching Pearl and every other coach in the NCAA's that play in Memorial. You know going in that that is the way it is going to be. If you were so smart and such a great coach, you would adjust. Just because UT's players are too stupid to know what they are supposed to do without Pearl telling them every 2 secconds isn't our fault. Develop hand signals or something and tell your team to look to you when they are unsure what to do. Tyler Smith's fouling at the end of the game last year at Memorial when Pearl didn't want to foul is either Smith not listening to his coach (since Pearl was facing all his players) or Smith just being plain dumb.

As for Moore, if he has a good year next year, he will be gone. Could be another Pacman Jones type without the baggage. Good return man and about the same size. Good news for Vandy though is that it seems that they have been successful in recruiting safeties, LBs, and CBs that past couple of years. Next year's class has some DBs with potential that are athletic and Jamie Graham could move back there. Vandy needs offensive playmakers and to sure up the lines.

Tony Arnold said...

I have never understood why coaches complain about the benches at the end. You would think the would love it. They have a ref standing right next to them all night who they can give an earfull to and he can't do a thing about, because you are in the box and the offical's set position is right there.

Stop complaining and take advantage of it.

Anonymous said...

you pretty obviously want to take this mentality if you're a road team at vandy's gym. keep it close the first half, because the second half, your pg basically has to make eye contact with the coach every time down the court.

Anonymous said...

if it really is that bad, i don't have a huge problem with them setting a stool up on the sideline like they did for those NCAA sites with the benches underneath the court. you can give them a stool on the sideline, as long as it doesnt obstruct the view for fans. i hear cks gets annoyed by it too, and we suck on the road, so you can tell it has an effect.

Anonymous said...

i get annoyed by people who think it is damn near impossible to recruit vandy. not all basketball players are morons in the classroom. i feel like hoopers who do their schoolwork, etc should be offended by the people who are amazed at how vandy as an academic school still recruits good basketball players. are we going to go after juco guys or partial qualifiers? no. are those the only guys who can play? hell no.

Aram Hanessian said...

It's hard to recruit vandy b/c we have nowhere near the resources/facilities/history of other schools. Basketball is easier b/c you dont need 100 ppl to have a team, get a few good players and you're set, it's why we suck at football, its hard to overcome both the academics and the other problems we have to get enough guys to have good players all over the field.