Jan. 20, 2008
MORE COVERAGE: Vanderbilt 92 LSU 76
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Following a season-high 16 point performance with no turnovers in Vanderbilt’s 92-76 victory over LSU on Saturday, it didn’t take long for starting forward Ross Neltner to determine which personal statistic meant more to him.
“Zero turnovers,” he responded without hesitation.
As the guy that often does the things that go unnoticed in making the Commodores’ offense operate, Neltner had one uncharacteristic number that popped out in the box scores of Vanderbilt’s previous two losses at Kentucky and Tennessee: 13 total turnovers.
Knowing how vital the fifth-year senior is to the success of this year’s squad, head coach Kevin Stallings wasn’t ready to throw in the towel based on only two outings.
“Ross is completely a team guy … maybe he just had two bad games,” said Stallings. “He’s entitled. He’s a really important player to us and we know he will be there when we need him.”
Neltner hinted that he may have spent too much time analyzing his recent play.
“I just have to relax and play,” he said. “Instead of going out there and over thinking and playing passive, I just need to go out and be aggressive and assert myself.”
It wouldn’t be fair to place the blame of the team’s defeats solely on the shoulders of one player, though.
In each of those games, Vanderbilt turned the ball over a season-high 22 times as a team, resulting in 57 points for the opposition. Saturday’s season-low eight miscues against the Tigers was a step in the right direction, especially if the Commodores intend to compete for a conference title and more.
“We knew we hadn’t played up to our standard (in the previous two games) and got beat,” noted Stallings. “It was important to come out today and reestablish who we are and the way we want to be. This was a critical game for us, without question. By and large, I thought our players played like it.”
“The way we were playing lately turning the ball over wasn’t going to get it done in the SEC, so that was the focus since we got back from Tennessee and since we got back from Rupp (Arena),” added Neltner. “It worked out for us tonight with eight (turnovers) and 21 (assists) … if we keep playing like that, we are going to get a lot of wins.”
With eight days to prepare for next Sunday’s road game with Florida at the O’Connell Center, a place that the Gators have only lost on three occasions in the last three years, Stallings plans to use the time to continue to workout some of the kinks that have recently plagued the Commodores including taking care of the ball.
“I think the break will be good for us,” he said. “We have some modifications that we need to make and need some time to deal with some things. With just two days (of practice between games), it’s hard to make any significant changes. Hopefully, we’ll have some time to maybe tweak some things to our benefit.”
But for the moment, he couldn’t have been more pleased to see Neltner as well as the rest of the team get back to its winning ways.
“I liked the energy we played with today, the aggressiveness and the way we pushed the ball,” he said. “I thought we played free on offense and took great care of the ball. That was a nice thing to see.”
“I thought Ross was terrific. He picked his spots, took the ball to the basket when he needed to and took the (outside) shot when he should. He is a very steadying influence on our team and he’s one of our toughest guys. We knew he was going to bounce back.”