Baseball: Vandy 11, Western Carolina 4

On a day made for baseball, the Commodores defeated Western Carolina 11-4 today behind home runs from David Macias, Curt Casali and Jonathan White.

While much of the campus has been consumed with Shan Foster and company, the Hawkins Nine (10-3) have quietly gone about their business. They open Southeastern Conference play Friday night at home against South Carolina.

Make sure to check out my post-game column about the emergence of Vanderbilt's role players like Andrew Giobbi on vucommodores.com.

Preview: Auburn vs. Vanderbilt

This time a year ago, things looked at least somewhat promising for the Auburn basketball program. Finishing 7-9 in the SEC (the West division co-champs were 8-8) and returning all five starters, maybe things were looking up. Fast forward, and the Tigers have the appearance of a team who wants the season to be over. They’ve lost their last four conference games and five of the last six. Just 4-12 in the SEC, the message boards are beginning to question coach Jeff Lebo. Since Auburn is, quite frankly, a football school, Lebo seems safe, but it does show the tenuous state of Auburn basketball. How does all that play out tomorrow against Vanderbilt? Here’s a look at the keys for each team.

Auburn

Get off to a good start: Arkansas jumped on Auburn early last Saturday, building a 22-point lead and cruising to a double-digit victory. If their heads aren’t in it early, a few Shan Foster threes could build a similar deficit for Auburn.

Rebound: Leading rebounder Kavourtney Barber broke his hand early in the season. Barber probably would have presented a match-up problem for Vanderbilt, as well as several other teams in the SEC had he been able to play. He was also leading the nation in field goal percentage at the time of his injury at 72 percent.

The rest of the team has struggled filling in his shoes, and Arkansas outrebounded them 39-25 on Saturday. They average just 32.7 rebounds a game, last in the SEC. And while Vanderbilt is not a great rebounding team, giving A.J. Ogilvy extra opportunities to score could cost Auburn.

Shoot better: This seems obvious enough. The Tigers have shot just 39.4 percent from the field in their current losing streak. Still, Vanderbilt has allowed teams who were previously struggling with their shooting to find their stroke…

Vanderbilt

Defend better: …which leads to this point. Previously struggling Patrick Beverly found his stroke against Vanderbilt three games ago. Alabama shot 50 percent in the first half of Saturday’s 78-73 loss and was lights out in overtime. There were several defensive lapses against Mississippi State, which led to Charles Rhodes and Jarvis Varnardo getting easy dunks. Shoring up the defense is key. Frank Tolbert also scored 32 points in Vanderbilt's previous 78-71 victory over Auburn in February, so he is someone to watch out for.

Guard play: Jermaine Beal is 4-23 in his last three games. Alex Gordon is 5-26 in the same three games. Nine of 49 from your two starting guards, even if you have Shan Foster, won’t cut it in March. Simple as that. Beal and Gordon spent more time than usual on the bench in the second half on Saturday, and the reasons were pretty clear as to why.

Attitude: In his radio interviews after Saturday’s loss to Alabama, Coach Kevin Stallings spoke of players pouting on the bench about playing time and having their own agendas. This isn’t a good tone heading into the postseason, but Stallings also said he was ready to turn things around in practice, which makes Thursday particularly interesting. For the past two seasons, Vanderbilt has had remarkable chemistry, and it would be a shame to see it unravel at the climax of the season. But anyone who knows this team and Stallings knows that it’s fully capable of regrouping.

Bottom line: A lot of what happens Thursday depends on whether Auburn shows up. Do they want to keep playing or do they want to pack it up for the year? If their listless performance against Arkansas is any indication, the Commodores should be fine. Eric already put a score up, and I’ll just say I have no reason to disagree with it.

Kevin Stallings should try stand up

In preparation for its first-round matchup with Auburn, Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings spoke to the media today in Atlanta. The press conference was pretty standard and you can read the transcript here but one thing that made me laugh out loud was Stallings' take on A.J. Ogilvy's recent foul trouble.

Exhibit A:

The concern has been are the decisions he makes when he has fouls. I mean, some of his fourth fouls have just been ‑‑ they have defied any ability to logic that I have. I've searched my brain for a space in there that can justify how that happened, and they've been beyond me a little bit.

Exhibit B:

He got a third foul in a recent game where the guy tried to spin and go on him, and he was just there, and the guy just ran into his chest, and I mean, it was bad. Bad, bad.
But the fourth foul against Alabama was a moving screen that God and everybody saw, and the fourth foul in our last Auburn game was an attempt to take a charge where he fell this way. So yeah, we've had some bad decisions.

Exhibit C (my personal favorite):

He's a bright kid except for when he gets three fouls. I'm just kidding. He's an awesome guy.

We know Stallings can coach, but perhaps he should try stand up. He's hilarious...

Football spring practice underway

In the South, it's never too early to talk football, and with spring practice now officially underway, I figured it'd be a good time to go over a few of the top storylines.

1) Who is the starting quarterback?

The most visible and important battle this spring will be between Mackenzi Adams and Chris Nickson. In today's Tennessean, Maurice Patton reports that Nickson "suffered a hip injury two weeks into the '07 campaign and a shoulder injury the next week," confirming what many of us had suspected.

Adams is a fierce competitor and strong leader, but I still think the Commodores' best chance of winning comes with a healthy and effective Nickson behind center. Whether he can regain that form, however, remains to be seen.

While a starter won't be named for quite some time, one thing's for certain: Vanderbilt is going to have a bunch of question marks on offense and quarterback can't afford to be one of them.

2) How will the Dores hold up in the trenches?

Vanderbilt must replace all five starters from the offensive line. While the task certainly seems daunting, coach Bobby Johnson is optimistic. Still, it's not as if there is another Chris Williams waiting in the wings to protect the quarterback's blindside.

Hopefully the first-team unit, which consists of tackles Thomas Welch and Eric Hensley, guards Ryan Custer and Drew Gardner and center Bradley Vierling, can use this spring to gel.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Commodores must replace defensive tackles Theo Horrocks and Gabe Hall and defensive end Curtis Gatewood, which is no easy task.

3) What is the team's biggest strength?

It's got to be the secondary, where the Commodores bring virtually everyone back. I expect D.J. Moore and Myron Lewis to take another leap this fall and become two of the SEC's elite cornerbacks. At safety, future-NFLer Reshard Langford returns for his final season, and Ryan Hamilton should be much more comfortable in year two as a starter. Nickelback Darlron Spead will be limited this spring as he recovers from a shoulder injury, but should be ready to go in the fall.

The Commodores also have depth in the secondary with players such as Joel Caldwell, Josh Allen, Brent Trice and my favorite basketball player Jamie Graham.

What's on tap: The Black & Gold Scrimmage is 10 a.m. March 29 at Vanderbilt Stadium.

While football talk will pick up in April, I can't help but ask: What are your expectations for the 2008 Commodores?

Seeding Vandy

Unlike many other teams around the country, Vanderbilt will not be sweating Selection Sunday. Just getting into the final 64 is not a question for this year’s Commodores; however where they will be seeded still remains very much up in the air.

Depending on the outcome of this week's SEC tournament I could see Vandy getting anywhere from a 3 to a 7 seed. Currently ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has them as a 6, while CBS’s Gary Parrish and SI’s Steward Mandel both have us as a 5. It would be pointless to try and predict seeds without looking at comparable teams so here are the other mid-level seeds (bad 4’s- good 6’s):

Vandy (25-6, 10-6 SEC)

SOS : 34 RPI: 10, 5-4 vs. top 50, 11-5 vs. top 100, 1 loss outside top 100 (@ Alabama)

Marquette (21-8, 11-7 Big East)

SOS 36 RPI: 24, 3-8 vs. top 50, 7-8 vs. top 100,

UCONN (24-7, 13-5 Big East)

SOS: 26 RPI: 14 7-4 vs. top 50, 8-7 vs. top 100

Washington St. (23-7, 11-7 Pac-10)

SOS : 45 RPI: 20, 4-6 vs. top 50, 10-7 vs. top 100,

Southern Cal (20-10, 11-7 Pac-10)

SOS: 14 RPI: 31, 4-7 vs. top 50, 11-9 vs. top 100, 1 loss outside top 200 (Mercer without Daniel Hackett)

Indiana (25-6, 14-4 Big 10)

SOS: 58 RPI: 16 6-5 vs. top 50, 10-5 vs. top 100, 1 loss outside top 100 (@ Penn St.)

Michigan St. (24-7, 12-6 Big 10)

SOS: 50, RPI: 15 5-5 vs. top 50, 8-5 vs. top 100 2 losses outside top 100 (@ Iowa, @ Penn St.)

Butler (27-3, 16-2 Big 10)

SOS: 136 RPI: 18 1-1 vs. top 50, 9-3 vs. top 100

Drake (26-4, 15-3 MVC) Missouri Valley Champions

SOS: 68 RPI: 12 4-1 vs. top 50, 8-2 vs. top 100 2 losses outside top 100 (Bradley, @ Missouri St.)

Ok, so what does this all mean? I think Butler and UCONN are the best of this bunch. UCONN has proven it can win on the road, (W @ Indiana) and went 13-5 against a decent Big East schedule, played ND, Providence and Seton Hall twice. Butler played a lot of decent, but not great teams in the non-conf and basically beat them all and did it for the most part on neutral floors or on the road.

I also think MSU, Marquette and Vandy are the three least qualified teams on this list. Marquette beats nobody they’re not supposed to (except @ Wisc), and everybody they’re supposed to, including wins at home against ND and Pitt. MSU and Vandy are a little different, they beat everybody at home and nobody, for the Spartans literally nobody, on the road.

Because of this I think the Commodores have as much to gain as anybody this weekend. A first (or even second) round loss could demonstrate to the committee that they are just a different team away from Memorial. However a trip to the finals could bump them up from where they currently stand (likely a 6) to a protected seed and winning the tournament could push them all the way up to the 3 line.