June 19, 2009
Commodore basketball players at the professional level have well-stamped passports.
Southeastern Conference Players of the Year Derrick Byars and Shan Foster have been all over Western Europe, with Byars playing in Germany and France and Foster in Italy. Dan Cage currently plays in Spain, and Ross Neltner had a stint in Turkey before coming to Poland. Matt Freije has criss-crossed hemispheres, going to China and coming back to Puerto Rico.
Alex Gordon, Ted Skuchas and Corey Smith have also headed across the ocean to continue their careers.
But in the summer they’ve all had the same destination, and there’s no identification required.
It’s back to Vanderbilt, back to McGugin Athletic Center, back to Memorial Gym where they played before adoring crowds and turned the Commodores into one of the elite teams in the conference.
There, strength and conditioning coach Mark Davis welcomes back the former college stars to make use of their old stomping grounds to prepare for the next season in the pros. Neltner and Cage, teammates on the 2007 Sweet 16 team, were working out together last week, just like old times.
“We’re here for so many years in college and we develop these relationships,” Neltner said. “Coach Davis lets us come in here and work out in the weight room and we’ve got Coach (Kevin) Stallings and all his assistants and they’re there to help us work out, and we play pickup with the Vandy guys. It’s fun to be here in the summertime, it’s a good place to be.”
Over the last five years, former Commodores have made it a habit of returning to Nashville in the summer to work on strength and conditioning, improve their games and see old teammates.
Davis said the tradition began in 2004 when Freije and the Commodores who made it to the Sweet 16 that year began using McGugin as a workout hub in the offseason.
“The weight room is here, the basketball courts are here, so they can work on their strength training, they can condition, they can get shots up, they can get all their court work done in a pretty close area,” Davis said. “It’s only been the last several years that that’s started to happen but it’s pretty neat to see. I’m really heartened to see that’s going on and I hope that continues.”
Vanderbilt basketball began a run of success with that turnaround season five years ago. Shaking off an 11-18 record the year before, the 2003-04 Commodores won their first 12 games and advanced to their first NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 since 1993. The team reached the NIT the next two seasons and then earned consecutive NCAA Tournament berths in 2007 and 2008, the first back-to-back runs by the Commodores in nearly 20 years.
The only SEC team other than repeat national champion Florida to make two regional semifinals in the NCAAs from 2004-2007: Vanderbilt.
And while many players have graduated and gone on to professional careers, in the summertime they all keep coming back to the place where they made names for themselves, forged tight bonds and rocked Memorial Gym with victory after victory.
“The fans here are the absolute best in the country and I would say right up there at the top of the list in terms of the best fans in the world,” Cage said. “I love it here and I love the fans here. I love them for supporting me, and I’m happy to be one of them now.”
International basketball has been an adjustment, to say the least. The shot clocks are shorter, the gyms are smaller and the food is decidedly different. Cage, best known or his perimeter sharpshooting in his college days, said he had to learn to play point guard and small forward, in addition to learning the lifestyle of his new homes.
But he and Neltner have embraced it, so long as they can play their favorite game for a living.
“It’s experiencing some new cultures, and continuing to have the privilege to work on the game of basketball which I love and hope to do for a long time,” Cage said. “Can’t say enough good things about it.”
“The athletes aren’t quite what they are at the SEC level,” Neltner said. “But it’s good basketball. These guys are veterans and they know how to play. It’s different but it’s still fun. Basketball’s my passion and I’d like to do it as long as I can.”
Neltner plans to settle down in Nashville eventually, and Cage harbors an ambition to coach when his playing days are over.
For the Commodores, of course.
“Later on down the line, that’d be fun. Even Coach Stallings would say if he could be playing, he’d prefer to play rather than coach,” Cage said. “You want to play the game as long as you can. And when the game passes me by, then I hope to get involved in other ways, whether it’s coaching or doing something else.”
For now though, the former Dores are living their dreams of playing professional basketball. But there is a familial feeling in Nashville that the years of collegiate success provided for these players that can’t be found overseas.
Returning each summer to Vanderbilt is more than just an opportunity to make use of the university’s facilities. It’s really about coming home again.
“Getting back to a familiar place where you know everybody and you have all the resources for your profession at hand,” Davis said, “when you’ve got those familiar faces I think that probably has an added importance after you’ve been in a foreign country for a long time.”
