March 15, 2012
Vanderbilt NCAA Tournament Guide 
| NCAA Tournament Bracket
The Vanderbilt women’s basketball team is set to host Middle Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, March 18. Tipoff between the seventh-seeded Commodores (22-9) and 10th-seeded Blue Raiders (26-6) is set for 4:10 p.m. CT at Memorial Gym. The game can be seen on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com. On the radio, the game can be heard in Nashville on WNSR 560 AM, as well as free on the web at VUCommodores.com.
Memorial Gym is also playing host to Duke and Samford. The Blue Devils are the second seed in the Fresno Region and they will face the 15th-seeded Bulldogs 30 minutes following the conclusion of the Vanderbilt-MTSU game. The winners return to Memorial for the second round on Tuesday, March 20, at 8:30 p.m.
Scouting The Commodores
Vanderbilt goes to the NCAA Tournament for the 25th time and 13th-straight year with a 22-9 record. The Commodores are led by SEC scoring champion and First Team All-SEC selection Christina Foggie. The sophomore guard is averaging 17.8 points per contest, while also shooting an SEC-best 42.1% from three-point range. Foggie’s backcourt-mate is also her classmate, Jasmine Lister. Lister was a Second Team All-SEC selection and she leads the league in assists per game (5.2), while also contributing 12.2 points per outing. Junior forward Tiffany Clarke joined Lister on the All-SEC Second Team after posting 13.4 points and 7.5 rebounds per game during league play, totals that were sixth and fourth in the conference. The fourth Commodore in double-figures is center Stephanie Holzer, who posted 11.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Vanderbilt also boasts SEC All-Freshman Team member Kady Schrann, who averaged 7.0 points and stared 27 games as a true freshman. Vanderbilt is one of the best shooting teams in the country, as they are sixth in the nation in field goal percentage (46.6%) and ninth in three-point percentage (37.0%). Head Coach Melanie Balcomb has coached Vanderbilt to 20-plus wins and the NCAA Tournament each season during her decade on West End.
Scouting The Blue Raiders
Middle Tennessee State will be playing in its 15th NCAA Tournament and sixth over the seven-year tenure of Head Coach Rick Insell. The Blue Raiders went 26-6 on the season, including a 16-0 record in Sun Belt play. Their 71-70 overtime loss to Arkansas-Little Rock in the Sun Belt title game snapped a 20-game winning streak. They posted a 1-2 record against SEC schools this year, falling at Tennessee and versus Arkansas, but defeating SEC regular season champion Kentucky, 70-58, at home. Kortni Jones is the leading scorer at 17.0 points per game. She made 113 three-pointers on the season, setting a Sun Belt record. She was joined on the All-Sun Belt first team by Ebony Rowe, who is averaging just shy of a double-double with 16.5 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Also in double-figures for the Blue Raiders is Icelyn Elie at 13.9 points, while also contributing 7.7 rebounds per game. All-time, MTSU is 5-14 in NCAA play, 2-9 in the Tournament when facing a team on its home court.
Vanderbilt vs. Middle Tennessee – The Series
Despite being separated by just 37 miles, this will be the first meeting between Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee since January 30, 1992, when the Commodores took a 90-61 victory at Memorial Gym. MTSU leads the all-time series, 8-7, but six of their seven wins came from 1978-83, during Vanderbilt’s first six seasons of women’s basketball. The Commodores then took six of the next seven from 1983-92. The teams have had one previous post-season meeting, with MTSU taking a 76-57 win in the 1980 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Tournament, which was the premier women’s basketball tournament prior to the NCAA adding a women’s basketball championship in 1982. At Memorial Gym, Vanderbilt leads the series 5-4 and has won the last four meetings on West End.
On-Deck
The winner of the Vanderbilt-Middle Tennessee game will move on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and face the winner of the contest between second-seeded Duke and 15th-seeded Samford. The contest between the Blue Devils and Bulldogs takes place at Memorial Gym 30 minutes following the conclusion of the Vandy-MTSU game. The winners return to Memorial on Tuesday, March 20, at 8:30 p.m CT.
Vanderbilt In The NCAA Tournament
Vanderbilt is making its 25th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and 13th-consecutive. All-time, Vanderbilt is 37-24 in NCAA play, following last season’s first round loss to Louisville, 81-62, in Cincinnati. It marked the first time in 11 seasons the Commodores failed to win at least one game in the Tournament. Vanderbilt has made 14 Sweet 16 appearances, including six over the last 11 seasons (last in 2009). The last Elite Eight trip came in 2002, while Vanderbilt’s lone Final Four appearance was in 1993. In first and second round contests, Vanderbilt is 31-10, while they are 15-2 in opening round games since the NCAA expanded the field to 64 teams in 1994.
March Madness With A Dose Of Memorial Magic
This marks the 10th season in which Vanderbilt will play host to NCAA action at Memorial Gym. All-time, Vandy is 14-1 in NCAA play at Memorial. During the previous nine times they hosted, the Commodores advanced to regional play on eight occasions. It will be just the second time Melanie Balcomb gets to coach her squad at Memorial during the Tournament. Her 2005-06 team lost to top-seeded North Carolina, 89-70, in the second round that year. It is the only time Vanderbilt has lost an NCAA Tournament game at Memorial Gym. Since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1994, this is the seventh time Vanderbilt will host. It is just the second time during that stretch that the Commodores will not be the highest-seeded team at the site (2006 – Vandy was eight seed with North Carolina as the one seed).
Lucky Number Seven
This is the first time in Vanderbilt’s 25 NCAA Tournament appearances that they have been a seven seed. Last season, Vanderbilt was a 10 seed in the Spokane Region, while the season before they were the six seed in the Sacramento Region. As the seven seed in the Fresno Region, Vanderbilt will be looking to improve upon a 7-5 record in the West/Western-most Region. The Commodores have been in the region five previous times (including 2008 & 2011 in the Spokane Region and 2010 in the Sacramento Region). The first three times in the region (1995, 1997 & 2008), Vanderbilt advanced to the Sweet 16. In 2010, it fell in the second round, while last season it was defeated in the first round.
