NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt looked up Monday and found itself on the precipice of a 20-win season.
Traditionally a benchmark for denoting a solid season, Vandy hasn’t reached that plateau since 2012-13. So it’s not lost on third-year head coach Jerry Stackhouse how important reaching win No. 20 is — especially for a team that went just 9-16 one season ago.
“From where we started to where we’ve grown since we began that would be a nice milestone. I think that would be a good feather in everybody’s cap,” Stackhouse said. “To continue to build and build and build and improve enough to win 20 games – I still don’t like the 16 losses.
“But just to have an opportunity to play (Tuesday) lets us know that we’re doing some things right and our guys are getting better and they’re improving.”
Vanderbilt (19-16) faces Xavier (20-13) at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, at 8 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN in the quarterfinals of the National Invitational Tournament. The Commodores go in having won 5 of 6 and are playing some of their best basketball at just the right time.
Sunday’s win over Dayton, a 70-68 triumph in overtime at Memorial Gymnasium, allowed Vandy to advance in the 32-team tournament. Now it is one of eight teams vying for a trip to New York City to play at Madison Square Garden in the semifinals.
One of the other seven teams remaining in the field is Xavier, a program that Vanderbilt actually played against in a closed scrimmage in October.
“I think we’re a different team now and they’re a different team now,” Stackhouse said. “It’s just about watching their recent games and that’s even tough, too, now with (Xavier point guard Paul) Scruggs being out (due to injury). It would be like them trying to prepare for us with Scotty (Pippen) not playing.
“We’ve got to be prepared for it all, but the good thing about it is I think our schemes, we got different schemes that can cover anything that we’ll see. We may have to adjust on the fly, may have some adjustments in game, but we’re just going to, like I say all the time, be us to start, see how that works out and then if we need to make some adjustments as the game goes we will.”
Xavier, the No. 2 seed in the NIT, beat Cleveland State in the opening round and then knocked off Florida on Sunday to reach the 20-win plateau. The Musketeers finished ninth in the Big East Conference standings this season after losing 7 of 9 to end the regular season.
But head coach Jonas Hayes’ team was still in the at-large discussion when Selection Sunday rolled around thanks to a NET ranking of 40. It has nine wins over teams considered Quad 1 and/or Quad 2.
Junior forward Jack Nunge – a seven-footer – leads a balanced scoring attack (five Musketeers are averaging at least 10 points) with 13.4 points per game. He and sophomore guard Colby Jones both pull in 7.4 rebounds per contest.
“We have to come out with the approach of doing what we need to do on both ends of the floor,” Stackhouse said. “They got shooters, they got ball-handlers that can get down, they got bigs that can pop, bigs that can post. They’re pretty much a carbon-copy of us in a lot of sense so should be a really good matchup.”
- A victory Tuesday would give the Commodores six road wins this season which would be the most since winning six in the 2011-12 season.
- Tuesday’s game for Vanderbilt is its latest in the month of March since playing March 24 in 2015 in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
- Vandy ranks ninth nationally in free throw attempts (757) and 12th in free throws made (527).
- Pippen Jr. (1,549) is still 12th on Vanderbilt’s all-time scoring list. Jeff Fosnes (1,579) is 11th.
- Pippen Jr. has 708 points this season, the most by a Vanderbilt player in a single season in program history.
- Pippen could still become the first SEC player to average at least 20 points per game in consecutive seasons since Ronnie Henderson of LSU did so from 1994-96. The junior is currently averaging 20.2 points per game this season.
- Pippen’s 20.2 points per game ranks 16th nationally.
- Pippen has the eighth-most steals in a Vanderbilt career with 142. Jeffery Taylor is seventh with 146.
- Pippen leads the nation with 289 free throw attempts and is second nationally with 215 free throws made.
- Jordan Wright has started 40 straight games for Vanderbilt.
- The Commodores are 1-5 all-time against Xavier and last met the Musketeers in 2012 at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The two programs have one meeting in the postseason, an 80-68 win by Xavier in the 1997 NCAA Tournament in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
- Vanderbilt has forced at least 15 turnovers in 15 games this season.
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.
