March 17, 2007
Click Here for NCAA Tournament Central
[2] Vanderbilt vs. [15] Delaware State
First Round- Sunday, March 18 at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN
By Will Matthews
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EAST LANSING, Mich. – It has been 13 days since the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team last played a game, 13 days since it played its best basketball of the year during a three-game run to the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship.
But while such a lengthy layoff would seemingly pose a challenge to a team that built some significant momentum by beating Florida, Georgia and Louisiana State on consecutive nights earlier this month in capturing its second SEC title in the past four years, Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb says the time off has allowed the Commodores to focus on the only thing that that really matters: themselves.
“We don’t spend a whole lot of time on our opponent normally,” Balcomb said Saturday on the eve of her team’s first game in the NCAA Tournament. “We really spend a lot of time on ourselves and doing what we do at Vanderbilt and not so much about the other team.”
Vanderbilt enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Greensboro region and will play Sunday at the Breslin Center on the campus of Michigan State University against 15th-seeded Delaware State – champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
But for Vanderbilt, the devil is not in the details.
The Commodores didn’t know until Monday’s revealing of the tournament bracket who or where they would play, but they say that suited them just fine. They have spent their nearly two weeks of down time zeroing in on the things they say will be essential to enabling them to make the kind of deep NCAA run they believe they are capable of.
“We have had a lot of days off, but we have practiced hard and when we have practiced we have had some really tough practices,” said senior guard Caroline Williams. “We have worked a lot on defense and specifically on getting our hands ready and our feet ready to play defense and really working on pressuring the ball.”
It was the defensive effort that ultimately propelled Vanderbilt to the SEC crown in Duluth, Ga., and despite boasting one of the nation’s most accurate perimeter attacks and a roster full of players that can knock down shots from almost anywhere on the floor, the Commodores say their ability on the defensive end of the floor is what has them positioned to be a team to be reckoned with in the NCAA Tournament.
Vanderbilt also brings into the tournament the essential yet intangible quality of senior leadership in the form of Williams, guard Dee Davis and forward Carla Thomas, an asset Balcomb says cannot be understated.
“I feel very comfortable, obviously, going into postseason play with all three of our seniors and the experience that they have in tournament play and postseason play and the success they have had,” Balcomb said. “Not only that, I have a lot of confidence because of their confidence and how they are carrying themselves right now. Their leadership has really been impressive all season long.”
There is little debate that Vanderbilt – ranked seventh in the country by the Associated Press entering the tournament – is one of the most talented teams in the country.
But in a Greensboro region that includes the No. 1 team in the nation in Duke, an Arizona State team that battled its way to the Pac-10 Tournament championship game and a Rutgers squad that won the Big East Tournament by upsetting Connecticut in the championship game, Balcomb is hopeful that the team chemistry her three seniors have helped cultivate will prove to be the difference.
“The best teams end up winning, and not necessarily the teams with the best talent,” Balcomb said. “I also think you have to have a combination of talent and a good team and I think that we have that.”
For the three seniors, this tournament marks their last opportunity to get farther than the Sweet 16, something Vanderbilt has not done since 2002. After reaching the regional semifinals in 2004 and 2005, the Commodores suffered a disappointing second round exit last season.
“We are going to make the best of it,” Davis said. “It is the best of the best right now. We don’t want to go home any time soon. We know we have six games that we need to take care of and we are going to do it one by one. Our team is ready and focused. Every game is going to be a challenge. Everybody is out here to upset people so we’re just going to be on our game every time we step on the court and be ready.”
Will Matthews spent three years as an investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group in Southern California. He is currently in this third year at Vanderbilt Divinity School.