March 2, 2007
By Will Matthews
DULUTH, Ga. – When the Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball team takes the court Friday in the 2007 Southeastern Conference Tournament, there will be more on its agenda than simply trying to win their first conference championship since 2004. They will be seeking redemption.
On the heels of a 73-53 loss to rival Tennessee which closed the regular season, ended the team’s seven game win streak and which senior guard Caroline Williams called “embarrassing,” the Commodores will be looking to turn the page and prove they can compete with the upper echelon of women’s college basketball as they move toward the NCAA Tournament.
“We don’t want to see that happen again,” Williams said. “We got a bad taste in our mouth after that game. So we will come in and practice and do what we have to do to not let that happen again.”
Even with Sunday’s loss in Knoxville, Vanderbilt enjoyed one of its finest regular seasons in several years, going 24-5 overall, finishing third in the SEC and earning the number three seed in the SEC Tournament and the first round bye that comes with it.
Vanderbilt will play its first game of the tournament Friday against Florida, a 67-60 upset winner over Mississippi State Thursday, and a team that Vanderbilt beat Jan. 14 82-69 in Nashville.
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| Senior Point Guard Dee Davis |
Much of the Commodores’ regular season success was based on the strong play all year of seniors Williams, who led the nation in three-point shooting accuracy, guard Dee Davis, who averaged more than five assists per game during conference play and forward Carla Thomas, who averaged 15.8 points per game in the conference.
Both Davis and Thomas were named first-team All-SEC selections this week, while Williams was named to the All-SEC second team.
Head Coach Melanie Balcomb this week was quick to acknowledge that this is a team that depends on contributions from throughout the roster. But there also is little doubt that Vanderbilt will go as far in the postseason as its senior trio can manage to take them.
“There is nothing like experience and there is nothing like having been there and done that,” Balcomb said. “You are excited, but you are also calm in situations. The tournaments, whether it is the SEC or the NCAA, brings a whole new atmosphere and a whole new feeling. It is essential to have players who know that atmosphere and who have had success in it and know what it is going to feel like.”
Led by Williams, the Commodores led the nation in three-point shooting accuracy on the year, and were one the of nation’s best shooting teams from the floor overall. But the Commodores were held to just 32.7 percent shooting in the game Sunday against Tennessee, and shot just 25.9 percent in the second half.
The team watched film Tuesday of Sunday’s loss prior to departing for Duluth Wednesday evening. While the team doesn’t always watch film of itself in order to prepare for upcoming games, Balcomb said it was necessary in this case.
“We want to get past it, we want to get by it,” Balcomb said. “But we also want to learn from it. We don’t just want to forget it. When they win and when they play well and especially when their effort is good we don’t watch us. We just move forward. We can learn from it and move on, and I want to learn from it first.”
Balcomb said the team needs to do a better job of playing the role of attacking aggressor both on defense and offense to have the kind of postseason success it wants to have.
But she also said that within the loss is the possibility of drawing some added motivation that could well fuel a postseason run deep into March.
“I always tell them, `Do you want to be sad or do you want to be mad and get it back,'” Balcomb said. “The character of your team is always determined by how you come off a loss and how hungry you are. You don’t want to be sulking around and be sad about it.”
Despite the loss, the Commodores carry no lack of confidence into the SEC tournament, and even say they are anxious for a rematch with Tennessee should the brackets play out that way. The two teams could meet Sunday in the championship if both are able to advance that far.
“Any team that we play, we are going to be ready for,” Williams said. “But it seems like we do get a chance to play Tennessee in the postseason, whether it is the SEC tournament, or the NCAA’s. If we get another shot at them, we’ll be ready.”
Will Matthews spent three years as an investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group in Southern California. He is currently in his third year at Vanderbilt Divinity School.