Meeting a Unique Challenge

Stackhouse, Vandy men's hoops adjusts to current restrictions

by Chad Bishop

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Vanderbilt basketball program and head coach Jerry Stackhouse were looking forward to an offseason of continuing to build for the future as a team on campus.

But the global health threat brought forth by COVID-19 means the Commodores are on their own moving forward. Stackhouse, approaching the one-year anniversary of his hiring to lead Vandy, must keep the expectations high for his student-athletes to maintain a level of commitment academically and athletically through an uncertain transition period.

“There’s a lot of trust in them,” he said. “It’s not like we have them right under our thumb the way we had them last spring to where we really controlled everything and started to build some habits. Hopefully some of those habits we built over this past year will carry over into our guys and they’ll come back even hungrier and eager to get better.”

Vanderbilt ended its season March 11 with an 86-73 loss to Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference tournament. That turned out to be the last men’s basketball game played by any league member.

The SEC and NCAA quickly moved to postpone – and then cancel – all remaining scheduled events for the spring of 2020. Vanderbilt University, earlier this month, closed campus in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19.

That meant that Stackhouse, his staff and his student-athletes dispersed with the obligation of taking care of their own business from wherever home may be. Vanderbilt’s head coach credited chief of staff Adell Harris and director of operations Shasha Brown with helping to lead the program.

“I think (the student-athletes have) done a great job of making sure they understand how to be able to go about finishing up the way that they should,” Stackhouse said. “(Vanderbilt strength and conditioning coach) Carlos (Daniel) has been talking to the guys, continuing to send them their workouts. And we had some guys that had a couple little nagging injuries so they had some things they needed to do with therapy and a couple things and all of that is being followed up with (athletic trainer) Brandon (Wells) and the training staff.”

With Stackhouse still being in the building phase of the program in terms of personnel, recruiting the next class of Vanderbilt student-athlete becomes a challenge as well. The NCAA announced this month a recruiting dead period until April 15 which means the former NBA and University of North Carolina star will have to find unique ways to connect with prospects.

“We’re still able to reach out to guys via phone and be creative,” he said. “April is a big month to get out and recruit and see guys at different tournaments and all of that – we’re not going to be there for the foreseeable future.

“But it’s everybody’s challenge. It’s not like it’s just something against us, so from that standpoint we know that whenever things do kick back into gear that we’ll be ready.”

Vanderbilt will look toward a 2020-21 season with a roster that includes rising senior Maxwell Evans, rising sophomore point guard Scotty Pippen, rising sophomore guards Jordan Wright and Braelee Albert and forwards Dylan Disu (a rising sophomore) and Ejike Obinna (a rising redshirt-junior). Notre Dame transfer DJ Harvey and Rice transfer Quentin Millora-Brown will also be eligible.

Aaron Nesmith, a rising junior, and Saben Lee, a rising senior, have each declared for the 2020 NBA Draft. Incoming freshman Myles Stute signed with the program in November.

Getting those student-athletes to form a stronger bond as teammates will just have to be done at a distance – for now.

“It’s challenging, but at the same time I think everyone’s health and safety is of the utmost importance,” Stackhouse said. “So it’s just kind of a wait-and-see mentality.”

Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com. Follow him @MrChadBishop.