Commodore Banter (3/24)

Men's tennis earned a big win over No. 23 Alabama.

Goodbye to the Saints, as they lost to Villanova.

Shan Foster finds himself at the top of the second round in this mock draft.

Our friends over in Knoxville inch closer to a match-up against the Tar Heels with the win over Butler.

Kevin Stallings says that the 'Dores overachieved this year. I'm not sure it was so much that as it was =a function of the schedule being so bloody easy.

The City Paper recaps the weekend for Vanderbilt sports. Within this piece there's word that the defense shut down the offense in the weekend scrimmage.

Foster, Gordon leave quite the legacy

When a sweet-shooting swingman from Kenner, La., and fiery point guard from Pensacola, Fla., first met, they never could have imagined that they would eventually make up the core of the most successful senior class in Vanderbilt history.

But, fast forward four years, and that's the reality for Shan Foster and Alex "Red" Gordon.

Even more impressive than their 85 victories, 2,999 combined points and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, however, is the way in which the friends have almost single-handedly changed this program's identity.

"I've told these seniors that they're going to go down as the group that's changed the program the most from the time they got here to the time they left," said Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings, "and I think that's a heck of a legacy."

To read my full story on Foster and Gordon from vucommodores.com, click here.

A couple of thoughts that I didn't have room for in the piece:

• Asked who changed their temperament more -- the players or coach -- following the 2006 season, Foster said it was was a combination of both, to which Stallings responded, "The players changed their temperament more. I’m not that much different." That drew a big laugh from the media in attendance.

• It was also fascinating to listen to Stallings talk about his relationship with Gordon."I get on Red’s butt hard," Stallings said, "but every day he walks into the gym, he says, 'What up, old man?' He and I must have a real strained relationship." Priceless stuff.
  

Underrated Stallings deserves praise

After being bounced by LSU in the SEC Tournament in 2006 -- a painful year for players, coaches and fans -- a local columnist asked Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings about the state of the Commodore program.

"I thought that our program right then was on the verge of making a jump...and (that) we’re on the doorstep of some good things happening," Stallings said. "I’m sure anyone who read what I said then thought I was crazy, but I just felt like we really had an opportunity because of guys that were coming in. I just felt like that we were getting ready to enter a state of a healthy mindset in our program."

Looks like Stallings was right.

Vanderbilt has advanced to two consecutive NCAA Tournaments and become a school that's recognized by college basketball fans across the nation, something that shouldn't be taken for granted.

"I joke with people from time to time, saying that when I was recruited by Coach Stallings and Coach (Jeff) Jackson, who’s at Furman right now, the first time I met them I had never heard of Vanderbilt," said senior Shan Foster. "Like ever."

While the players like Foster were undoubtedly responsible for the turnaround, so too was Stallings.

"The thing that I took out of my recruitment was that I was coming to play for a great guy that knew the game of basketball and that he was dedicated to his team and making his players better," Foster said of Stallings. "Any time you have a coach that dedicated and really shows that he cares, success is coming, and I really felt that. It’s been a great honor to be a part of."

Stallings admitted that achieving this type of success took more time than he anticipated.

"Having worked at Purdue and Kansas and Illinois State, all three of those programs can be fixed more quickly when they’re broken than Vanderbilt can because of the nature of the school and the nature of the kids that you can and cannot get into school," Stallings said. "It just took longer here."

With all the recent success the Commodores have enjoyed, it’s easy to forget that life hasn’t always been this good for the Black & Gold.

Fans were quick to criticize Stallings when thing weren't going well. Now it's time to give one of basketball's most underrated coaches the credit that he very much deserves.

Commodore Banter (3/18)

Join our Facebook group and our Facebook tournament bracket.

Tim Corbin commented on one of Vandy's top recruits for next year, who we hope won't be entering the MLB draft.

Bruce Pearl gives props to the SEC in an interview with Stan Crawley.

The RPI should be RIP, writes Steve Phillips.

Shan Foster wins AP Player of the Year and Ogilvy earns an Honorable Mention.

Don't forget about women's basketball in the state of Tennessee. There are four pretty darn good teams in the NCAA women's tournament.

Nick Calathes was picked as the Freshman of the Year in the SEC, think Billy Donovan knows?

Martin Fennelly offers a nice little profile of Siena. It's funny how the Commodores' recent success in the tournament changes the dynamics in such a way that the Vanderbilt has suddenly become a powerhouse basketball school.

"Even if they get by Siena in the first round...," writes Seth Davis. Give me a break.

Five of five experts agree, Siena over Vanderbilt in the first round according to SI's latest mock brackets.

Alex Gordon has changed the face of the Commodores, and has helped make it a winning program, writes Maurice Patton.

Vanderbilt has a difficult road ahead, first playing a team of extremes in Siena, and then potentially facing one of the nation's most underrated teams in Clemson, writes Paul Rugani.

Women's lacrosse gets back on track against Cornell.

Ogilvy will be guarded by the "three headed monster," writes Mike MacAdam.

Did you know that Siena students are on spring break this week? Not sure if that will help or hurt them.

For Siena, "fear is not in the vocabulary."

6'7'' Josh Duell, who has guarded Stanford's Robin Lopez and Rider's Jason Thompson three times this season, has another big challenge in Ogilvy.

Siena's fans are old.

One Indiana blog wants no part of Kevin Stallings in the Hoosiers' search for a coach.

In case you missed our...

• Q&A's with Jamont Gordon, Caleb Cotham, Curt Casali
• Ask a 'Dore with Parker Hanks and Josie Earnest.
• Billy Donovan has gone mad: Exhibit A, Exhibit B.

A look back at Day 1 of the SEC Tourney

Three things we learned from the first round of the SEC Tournament.

1. With their losses, Florida and Ole Miss can kiss the NCAA Tournament good bye.

2. South Carolina's Dave Odom (retiring) and Georgia's Dennis Felton (on the hot seat) lived to coach another day.

3. If George Drake hadn't missed a wide-open dunk in the closing minutes, Vanderbilt would have set the SEC Tournament record for field-goal percentage in a game.

Game 1: South Carolina 77 LSU 73

Game 2: Vanderbilt 93 Auburn 82

Game 3: Alabama 80, Florida 69

Game 4: Georgia 97 Ole Miss 95 (OT)

Top 3 Quotes of the Day

1) "I'm not necessarily really excited about these guys being sophomores to be honest." -- Florida coach Billy Donovan on his freshmen. Ouch.

2) "I already jumped him in the locker room and said I can't believe that you couldn't make all your shots. All you had to do was make one more dunk and you would have been 13 for 13 (laughter). He got a good laugh out of it, actually." -- Kevin Stallings on ribbing A.J. Ogilvy for his 12-for-13 performance. His lone miss came on a dunk attempt that was blocked by 6'4'' Frank Tolbert.

3) "But like I said earlier, I love LSU, I love playing with my team and my teammates, and as you can see I'm having fun out there. I love LSU." -- Freshman Anthony Randolph, who's a potential top-five in the NBA Draft on his plans for next year. He says he loves LSU, but the question is how much?

Day 2 Schedule

Game 5: South Carolina vs. Tennessee (12 CT)

Game 6: Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas (2:15 CT)

Game 7: Alabama vs. Miss. State (6:30 CT)

Game 8: Georgia vs. Kentucky (8:45 CT)

I'm heading to Atlanta in a few minutes, but I should have a bunch of good stuff for you guys this afternoon and throughout the tournament. Keep reading...

Vandy coaches deserve credit

Obviously we're all thinking about the SEC tournament today, but this week's Sports Business Journal has a really interesting article about the Vanderbilt athletic department (or lack thereof).

Besides the novelty of a Vanderbilt exclusive being on the front page of one of sports business' most respected publications, the article brings up a great topic of discussion for Vandy fans. To the outside observer, there would seem to be a correlation between the success of a number of our athletic programs and the restructuring of the department in 2003, but is there really any reason to believe this should be attributed to anything other than pure coincidence?

Has recent success been a result of the esteemed direction of David Williams (not exactly the portrait of inspiration...) under Student Life, or the hard work of coaches that has just so happened to coincide with the restructuring? I tend to think that its the latter, and the success of our baseball and basketball programs (for example) is more reflective of the hard work of Tim Corbin and Kevin Stallings than the department's business model. Give Williams credit for investing to keep coaches in place, but does anyone really think we'd be having this kind of success without them?

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...