Dec. 13, 2017
By Zac Ellis
VUCommodores.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt head coach Bryce Drew couldn’t help but shake his head in the aftermath of a 66-63 loss to Middle Tennessee last week. The setback was the Commodores’ second straight at Memorial Gym, but perhaps more telling, it was yet another tight game to slip through the Dores’ fingers.
“This is the third one that we’ve gotten the short stick here at the end,” Drew said.
Vanderbilt entered finals week saddled with a 3-6 record in Drew’s second season. But the Dores are painfully close to riding a wave of momentum as they venture to face No. 5 Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz. (1 p.m. CT on Dec. 17). Vanderbilt has dropped three of its last four games at Memorial Gym by a combined 12 points. That included a 93-89 loss in overtime to then-No. 10 USC on Nov 19.
Drew reminded his team of that razor-thin margin following its loss to Middle Tennessee.
“It’s just learning how to win,” Drew said. “Like I told our team, two possessions, one more defensive stop and one more score and we win these three games at home and we’re in a totally different situation right now. We have to find a way to close out games. We have to find out which players can close out games for us and execute.”
Against the Blue Raiders, Vanderbilt led by as many as six points in the second half before succumbing to the visiting squad. The Dores trailed 62-60 with under 90 seconds left when Middle Tennessee’s Giddy Potts broke the hearts of a lively Memorial with a 3-pointer with 1:13 left, boosting MTSU’s lead to five.
That finish was déjàvu for the Commodores following similar losses to USC and Kansas State. The Dores took the Trojans to overtime before being outscored 7-0 to start the extra period. Against K-State, Vanderbilt whittled a 16-point deficit to a 71-71 tie with 3:33 left, but it couldn’t withstand a solid free-throw shooting night (22-24) from the visiting Wildcats.
The Dores say a loss is a loss, no matter the margin.
“Very frustrated,” senior forward Jeff Roberson said. “We’ve had a chance these past three games to win these games at home. We didn’t, but we’re getting better. We’re getting close. It’s about breaking through. Once we do, I think we’ll win a few in a row.”
When Vanderbilt faces Arizona State on Sunday, it will have been 11 days since the Dores’ last game. Drew said he hoped his staff would use his players’ week of final exams to diagnose the Commodores’ ills. Vanderbilt has used five different starting lineups through nine games, but a new-look locker room has yet to replicate last season’s sharpshooting ways: VU ranks 239th or worse in the country in effective field-goal percentage, 2-point percentage and 3-point percentage, per Ken Pomeroy.
The Dores have also yet to find an adequate replacement for departed All-SEC seven-footer Luke Kornet, struggling to do so against a top-40 strength of schedule. Yet Drew hopes the senior trio of Matthew Fisher-Davis, Riley LaChance and Roberson can spark consistency ahead of SEC play, which begins Dec. 30 at No. 22 Florida. Plus, many of these same Commodores helped rally from an 8-10 start last season to reach the NCAA tournament. They know how to engineer a turnaround.
Drew also knows not to expect an overnight fix.
“It’s going to be a process,” Drew said. “You kind of compare the maturation processes, you play well then the next step is playing really well when the game’s on the line. You have to make winning plays at the end. That’s something we have to work on as a team, making winning plays in the last three minutes.”
Zac Ellis is the Writer and Digital Media Editor for Vanderbilt Athletics.