March 15, 2010
NCAA Ticket Information | Tournament Central
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The 20th-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores will travel a long way to play a team from Kentucky.
The Commodores are a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament, matching their highest seeding under coach Kevin Stallings. They will be playing 13th-seeded Murray State, the Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament champs, on Thursday in San Jose in the West Regional.
“It’s kind of ironic that we have to go 2,500, 3,000 miles to play them,” Stallings said Sunday night.
Murray State coach Billy Kennedy brought his Racers to Memorial Gym just over a week ago to practice during the OVC tournament. The Racers’ home campus is about two hours away in Murray, Ky.
“I was thinking about just calling him and see if he just wanted to play the game here and not have to travel all the way to San Jose. Jermaine (Beal) wouldn’t like that because he said he wanted us to play as far away from here as we could. I think you got your wish,” Stallings said.
The Commodores go into the NCAA tournament having lost two of three after a 62-52 loss to Mississippi State in the Southeastern Conference tournament semifinals Saturday. But this is their 11th trip overall and fourth in Stallings’ 11 seasons and first since missing out last season.
Vanderbilt is 9-11 overall in NCAA play, but the Commodores have been very successful recently–reaching the regional semifinals in 2004 and 2007. Their last trip didn’t end very well despite earning a No. 4 seed that was their highest yet under Stallings as they lost to Siena in the opening round 83-62.
Beal and A.J. Ogilvy were on that team, and Stallings said they learned that being seeded fourth guarantees nothing.
“The hard way,” Ogilvy said of that lesson.
Vanderbilt missed the postseason a year ago with a freshmen-stocked team.
The Commodores bounced back and earned Vanderbilt’s fourth NCAA appearance with Stallings by finishing 24-8 and second in the Southeastern Conference East. It also was the second-highest seed among the four SEC teams that made the tournament.
Stallings feels they were rewarded for going 6-2 on the road in the SEC. The Commodores also won in California at Saint Mary’s–a rare home loss for that team–in November.
Vanderbilt was in the Phoenix Regional in that 2004 run to the regional semifinals and won the first two games in Sacramento, Calif., in 2007 before losing to Georgetown 66-65 in the East Regional semifinal. Stallings also recalled beating Tennessee playing out west while coaching Illinois State in 1998.
“The West has been blessed for us, or for me, and hopefully it will be again,” Stallings said.
Thanks to the Internet and DVDs, his staff started breaking down Murray State games and other scouting reports almost immediately after learning when and where they would play. Stallings noted the Racers (30-4) were the first Division I team in the country to win 30 games.
And Stallings already knows that some critics already are picking against his Commodores.
“My son texted me and told me (Jay) Bilas and (Doug) Gottlieb already picked us to lose. So the experts apparently think we’re in trouble already, so we’ll have to see how we can handle that,” the coach said.
