Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Augustus Gilchrist. No? How about Demetri McCamey, still nobody? Alexis Wangmene? For those of you not related to the three aforementioned players, they are the ones that occupied the spots in last years recruiting rankings that are currently held by future Commodores Jeff Taylor, Lance Goulbourne, and Steve Tchiengang.
If you think that’s just cherry-picking the rankings and that randomly those spots were occupied by underachievers consider this: of the players ranked from 50-150 on Rivals.com, 10 contributed to tournament teams and one of those enrolled a year early (Daniel Hackett). Of the ten, only two were featured players, DeJuan Blair and Robbie Hummel.
The point is expectations must be lowered. Many of the posts and comments on this site have made it seem like these guys are going to step in right away and replace a good amount of the points lost by the graduations of Shan Foster, Alex Gordon, and Ross Neltner. That’s just not going to happen. Freshmen who aren’t top recruits very rarely come in and immediately put up big numbers on good teams. Given time they may develop into front line players, just a quick glance at the 2005 Rivals 150 shows future 1st round picks such as Chris Douglas-Roberts and Darren Collison ranked 75th or lower, but even guys like that did not produce as freshman, combined they averaged less than 14 points.
So, yes, Taylor might go off for 31 in one game like McCamey somehow did against Indiana, but expecting these three to be consistent producers is unreasonable and unfair. If this year’s team is going to go dancing it is more likely to be because of the improvements made by Andre Walker and Darshawn McClellan than by big contributions from the trio of heralded freshmen.
There’s still reason to be excited about Stallings’ best recruiting class since arriving in Nashville, they will most likely lead the Commodores to another Sweet 16, but chances are it won’t be in 2009.
With the departure of four seniors, including Shan Foster, who rivals.com named a first-team All American, most Commodore fans seem to think the basketball team will be worse next year based on our recent poll here at The Sports VU.
However, as Lee Corso might say, "not so fast my friends". Vanderbilt has already signed Steve Tchiengang, a 6'8" power forward who should fill in for the departure of Ross Neltner, and Lance Goulbourne, a 6'7" small forward who some close to the program have already compared to Shan Foster. Both are widely considered top 100 players in the nation.
While both of these players are sure to be stars for the program, the more exciting news is that coach Kevin Stallings and company are not done with their recruiting for next season after a disappointing exit from the NCAA Tournament. Just this past week, both Brad Tinsley, a 6'3" point guard from Oregon and Jeff Taylor, a 6'7" shooting guard/small forward from New Mexico, narrowed their lists of offers down, and the Commodores made both players' top three according to Rivals.com.
Tinsley is still considering seven programs including USC, Butler and Arizona State, but he favors three: Vanderbilt, Oregon and Wake Forest. Tinsley has scheduled a visit to Vanderbilt for the weekend of April 12. Tinsley is ranked as the 18th best point guard in the 2008 class by rivals.com and is a four-star prospect.
Taylor has narrowed his list down to three: Vanderbilt, Texas and Gonzaga. While Vanderbilt is still in the hunt, Taylor has family in Texas which may influence his decision. If Vanderbilt could get commitments from these two players not only would the Commodores bring in the best basketball recruiting class of the Kevin Stallings era but they would also be in good position to return to the NCAA Tournament next year despite having a young team.
Check back with The Sports VU as we will continue to update you on these two prospects.
While most of us here at Sports VU said we would be shocked if Siena beat Vandy, I think all of us were shocked on how bad Vanderbilt played on Friday night. In keeping with the Tampa tradition Friday, Siena joined Western Kentucky and San Diego upsetting the higher seed. With that said, Siena won the game because they did exactly what they needed to...run, force turnovers, and make shots. As well as Siena played, Vanderbilt certainly helped. Here are my reasons that Vandy lost this one:
1) No Defense- the Commodores have struggled to contain teams with good guards who can create off the dribble and today was no different. Fisher killed Vandy making 6-6 of his three point attempts, and Hansbrouck drove by whomever was guarding him all night ending the game with 30 points. I give props to Jamie Graham though. He played his heart out tonight and was our best perimeter defender tonight and the last few games.
2) Shan didn't show up and there was no third scorer - through most of this season, the Commodores have gone as far as Shan Foster was willing to take them and today Shan just didn't show up for some reason. He struggled all night and a lot of that has to be credited to Siena's defense. I know Shan was not satisfied by his performance, but he needs to remember that without him this team may not even be in the NCAA tourney. Also, as all of Commodore nation has known of late, Ogilvy and Foster can't do it all themselves. Vandy needs another guy to step up on the offensive end especially when Shan is struggling and tonight no one did.
3) Ogilvy wasn't utilized enough- With a huge size advantage with A.J. down low, Stallings and the guys needed to find ways to get A.J. the ball, and they didn't do it enough. A.J. is also to blame slightly as he did not play strong down low and looked to get fouled more than score. Sure A.J. had 18 but I think he could have had 30 if he would have played stronger and got some better looks. One must remember that he is just a freshman after all, and hopefully he will learn from this.
4) Vandy didn't shoot well- on a team with no real slashing presence, the Commodores must shoot the ball well to win games since their defense leaves something to be desired. Friday night the Commodores lacked the shooting touch shooting just 19% from three point range on 21 attempts and shooting 40% overall compared to Siena's 54% overall. If I could request one thing for next season, it would be for Vandy to recruit a guy who can create his own shot. We have shooters, we have a big, we need a guy who can carry us by getting to the basket when the bigs and shooters aren't on.
While this loss is very disappointing for all of Commodore nation, I would just like to salute the seniors for bringing this program to where it is today. They are the ones responsible for the success of the program and will be missed. As for the younger guys, it is time to step up. At times it looked like they were scared to take shots this year and with the loss of Shan, someone will have to step up and give A.J. some support.
With all this negativity, there is a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the above mentioned younger guys. Everyone assumes that A.J. Ogilvy will come back next year instead of declare for the draft and will probably be even better after experiencing a year of college basketball. The Commodores will bring in two outstanding recruits next year in Steve Tchiengang and Lance Goulbourne who should be able to step in and help right away, and the Commodores are still recruiting Brad Tinsley a point guard from Oregon, who has offers from schools such as Arizona and Kentucky, and Jeff Taylor a shooting guard/small forward, who has offers from Arizona and Texas. Here is some video of Tinsley:
Also, the Dores will have Festus Ezeli, an athletic center who red-shirted this year and had offers from UCLA and Ohio State last year, and Charles Hinkle, another red-shirt freshmen who is a deadly shooter. Hopefully, the coaching staff will be able to get Tinsley and Taylor to add to this great young core and provide a great young team for the future for us all to watch.
Thanks to the seniors once again, and I look forward to the bright future of Commodore basketball with a team next year that may not have a go-to-guy like Foster, but may be better overall and deeper.
Feel free to leave your comments about my article or the game below. I would like to hear what everyone else thought of the game.
Naturally, when a team starts 16-0 for the first time in school history one isn't exactly inclined to look into the future.
And while there will be no Shan Foster, Alex Gordon, Ross Neltner, or Alan Metcalfe suiting up for the Commodores next year, there are a few worthy recruits who could provide an immediate impact. To begin with, Steve Tchiengang (see right, and sorry, no pronunciation guide available) chose Vanderbilt over solid programs like Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame. Rivals tabs him as the No. 79 player in the class of 2008. He has a unique skill-set with a 6'8" frame that can bang inside coupled with the ability to knock down the 18-foot jumper.
Next on the list is Lance Goulbourne, a 6'7" forward for the Hun School in New Jersey. Goulbourne received offers from Marquette, Virginia, West Virginia, and Notre Dame. He's got a great stroke past the three point line, but his well-roundness enables him to score in quite a few ways.
Goulbourne is a particularly attractive recruit for the Dores because he will provide scoring from the bench, which has been an achilles heel for the 2007 Dores. The third and final member of the 2008 class is the 6'6" Jordan Smart, who will be walking on. Smart is appropriately named, as he turned down the top three academic institutions in the country--Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Smart is a proven shooter in nailing over 40% of his threes and 90% of his free throws. It remains to be seen whether he has the first step to get an open shot or the footwork to play defense.
Joining Tchiengang, Goulbourne, and Smart are Festus Ezeli and Charles Hinkle, who are both coming off red-shirt seasons. Hinkle is said to possess excellent three point shooting ability, but probably will see limited playing time. Even among the three new recruits for next year, Festus Ezeli is easily the most intriguing.
His gargantuan stature gives Vanderbilt a legitimate shot-blocking presence and a good partner for A.J. Ogilvy on the offensive glass. How Stallings divvies up playing time for a team that already has forwards Andre Walker and Darshawn McClellan will be interesting. It might be the first Vandy team in years to not only reverse the trend of guard laden Vanderbilt teams, but also to be oriented towards the front-court.
Who is your favorite Vanderbilt athlete of recent memory?
ABOUT US
The Sports VU is run by Vanderbilt alum Jarred Amato (man, that's weird to type) and hopefully a few of his dispersed (or is it depressed?) friends.
The Sports VU no longer has unlimited access to players and coaches, but we plan to make up for that with our newfound wittiness and wealth of knowledge that comes from our alumni status (or at least that's what we're telling ourselves).
More likely, we're going to use this site to reminisce about our glorious days as undergrads when waking up before 11 was a challenge and worrying about the Dores' upcoming opponent was our biggest concern. So yeah, be sure to check back often to either console us (if you're old) or laugh at us (if you're young). Either way, it should be a good time. Have any questions or comments? Don't hesitate to e-mail me at jarred.amato@gmail.com. Thanks, and go Dores!
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