Nov. 20, 2014
Teams: RV/RV Vanderbilt (2-0) vs. Wisconsin (1-0)
Day, Date: Thursday, Nov. 20
Tip-off time: 7 p.m. (CT)
Site: Kohl Center (Madison, Wis.)
Radio: 560 AM & 95.9 FM
For the first time this season, the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team won’t have Memorial Magic on its side. The Commodores — who have opened the season with back-to-back close-call wins at home — visit Wisconsin on Thursday night for their first road test of the season. Vanderbilt posted a 3-1 record in non-conference road games last season, with victories coming at Hartford, James Madison and UAB. The Commodores’ only non-conference road loss came against Duke. Here’s a look at a few storylines surrounding Thursday’s game.
l Double shot of double-doubles. Freshman Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau has made an immediate impact for the Commodores, registering double-doubles in each of her first two games in a Vanderbilt uniform. The 6-foot-3 post player from Canada had 10 points and 11 rebounds in the Commodores’ 65-58 season-opening win over Belmont last Friday, and then posted 10 points and 10 rebounds in Vanderbilt’s 68-64 overtime win against Green Bay on Monday night. She is the first Vanderbilt player to have back-to-back double-doubles since Tiffany Clarke accomplished the feat during the 2012-13 postseason (two games in SEC tournament and another in the NCAA tourney). In the Green Bay game, Caron-Goudreau and sophomore Marqu’es Webb (13 points and 11 rebounds) both notched double-doubles, marking the first time that two Vanderbilt players had double-doubles in the same game since Jan. 27, 2013, when Tiffany Clarke (27 points, 15 rebounds) and Heather Bowe (13 points and 13 rebounds) pulled the feat against Alabama.
l Sizing Up the Series Today’s game marks the third all-time meeting between Vanderbilt and Wisconsin, with the Commodores owning a 2-0 lead in the series. Vanderbilt defeated the Badgers, 81-69, on Nov. 30 of last season in the championship game of the Vanderbilt Thanksgiving Tournament. Last season’s contest was the first matchup between the teams since the 1995-96 season, when the Commodores downed Wisconsin 96-82 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Nashville.
l Scouting Wisconsin. The The Badgers, under the direction of fourth-year head coach Bobbie Kelsey, are looking to improve on last season’s 10-19 campaign that included a 3-13 mark in the Big-10. Wisconsin — which opened the 2014-15 schedule with a 71-60 victory over Illinois State 71-60 on Sunday — has 11 letterwinners and three starters from last season on this year’s roster. The Badgers also return 2012-13 starter Cassie Rochel, who redshirted last season due to a back injury. Senior Michala Johnson, a 6-3 forward, averaged a team-high 16.6 points per game last season. She is also the top returning rebounder with 7.3 rebounds per game. Nicole Bauman scored 14 points and notched a career-high nine assists in the season opener for the Badgers, who finished with 19 assists and only eight turnovers. Johnson led the Badgers with 16 points and freshman Cayla McMorris had 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 2-of-2 from 3-point range, and grabbed four rebounds.
l Freshmen fitting right in. The Commodores were expecting to get major contributions from their freshmen this season — and so far, the newcomers haven’t disappointed. Paris Kea, Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau, Christa Reed and Rachel Bell have combined to account for 44.3 percent of Vanderbilt’s scoring this season and 41.8 percent of the Commodores’ rebounds.
l Mixing things up. Last season, Vanderbilt head coach Melanie Balcomb used the same starting lineup for the first nine game of the season until an injury to Rebekah Dahlman created a change. This season, Balcomb made some moves after just one game. In the season opener, Balcomb went with an experienced lineup that included two juniors (Morgan Batey and Jasmine Jenkins), one sophomore (Marqu’es Webb), one redshirt freshman (Dahlman) and one true freshman (Rachel Bell). Batey, Jenkins, Webb and Dahlman each had been in the starting lineup for at least two games during the 2013-14 season. For Vanderbilt’s second game, Balcomb’s starting five included three true freshmen — Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau, Christa Reed and Paris Kea — along with Webb and Batey.
