Oct. 4, 2012
The Commodore men’s basketball team enjoys its last respite before basketball practice begins in earnest next Friday, October 12, when the 20-hour/week practice period gets underway. Vanderbilt is on Fall Break Thursday and Friday of this week, and most of the team took the time off to go home and see family before the long season begins.
Vanderbilt’s first exhibition game is Friday, November 2, and season tickets are still available by calling 322-GOLD, logging into vucommodores.com, or swinging by the McGugin Center ticket office.
Some other news and notes from around the program:
Stallings Closing In On Becoming All-Time Winningest Vanderbilt Coach
Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings, who is in his 14th season as Commodore head coach, has 261 career victories with the Black and Gold, and trails all-time coaching leader Roy Skinner by only 17 wins (278 career wins). Stallings’ record as Vanderbilt head coach is 261-159.
After the 2011-12 campaign, Coach Stallings has had seven 20-win seasons in the last eight, with six NCAA tournament appearances and two Sweet 16’s (2004 and 2007). Stallings has the most 20-win campaigns in Vanderbilt history, and is the first Commodore coach to lead Vanderbilt to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments (2010, 2011, 2012).
20-Win Seasons
Vanderbilt’s 25 wins in 2011-12 was the most since the 2007-08 season and the second-most win total since the 1992-93 season. Additionally, the Commodores’ seven 20-win seasons in the last nine years is only third in the SEC to Florida, who has had nine, and Kentucky, who has had eight. Other school totals: Miss. St. (6), Tennessee (5), Ole Miss (4), S. Carolina (4), LSU (3), Alabama (3), Arkansas (3), Auburn (1), Georgia (1).
International Presence
The Commodores are represented by three countries on this year’s roster – the United States, Cameroon (James Siakam), and Germany (Kevin Bright) – to continue Vanderbilt’s line of foreign players. VU has had a player from outside of the United States on its roster for every season dating back to the 1996-97 campaign. The countries represented in the last 16 years include the Ivory Coast, Poland, Austria, England, Australia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Sweden, and Germany.
Content In The Works
The folks behind the scenes at vucommodores.com are busy preparing content to help fans get to know the latest group of Commodores in a variety of different ways.
Stay tuned to vucommodores.com as we all get prepared for the upcoming season.
NBA Update
Fes, John, and Jeff have all started their NBA camps in Golden State, Atlanta, and Charlotte, respectively.
Golden State had their media day on Monday, and Fes can be seen in a few photos here.
Charlotte also had their media day, and there are a couple of great photos of Jeff in this gallery.
John was in town last week leading up to camp and worked out with the guys for a few days. Check out the latest from Hawks camp here.
