Nov. 19, 2008
ESPN360.com Webcast | 
Live Audio | 
| Game Notes 
NASHVILLE – Big Ten foe Illinois comes to Memorial Gym for a regionally televised game against the Commodores on FSN this Thursday. Tip off is set for 7 p.m., with Dave Neal and Barry Booker on the call for FSN. Joe Fisher and Tim Thompson will call the action for the Vanderbilt-ISP Radio Network.
The Fighting Illini, who own a 4-3 lead in the overall series, will make their third appearance at Memorial Gym and their first since Dec. 6, 1983, when Illinois defeated Vanderbilt, 69-55. The Commodores won the other meeting in Nashville on Dec. 23, 1971, 95-92. There have been two games in Champaign, and three on neutral floors. The Illini will be the first Big Ten opponent to play at Memorial Gym since the 2003-04 season, when Indiana (Nov. 24) and Michigan (Dec. 6) both played in Nashville.
Vanderbilt enters the game with a 1-0 record after knocking off Morehead State, 74-48, on Sunday in its season opener. Five Commodore players scored in double figures, including three freshmen, Jeffery Taylor, Brad Tinsley and Lance Goulbourne.
Taylor led all scorers with 16 points, followed by A.J. Ogilvy and Tinsley, who tallied 12 points, Goulbourne, who added 11, and Jermaine Beal, who chipped in 10 points. The win over the Eagles Sunday was Vanderbilt’s largest margin of victory in a season opener since the 2001-02 season when Vanderbilt topped Liberty, 96-61, at Memorial Gym.
Illinois enters the contest with a 2-0 record after two early season wins over Eastern Washington and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Illini are led by senior guard Trent Meacham, who averages 16.0 points per game, sophomore forward Mike Davis, who averages 13.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per contest, and sophomore guard, Demetri McCamey, who adds 12.0 points per game.
Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings has never faced Illinois in his 16 seasons as a head coach at both Vanderbilt and Illinois State.
Vanderbilt is 20-26 all-time against the Big Ten Conference. The last meeting with a Big Ten school came against Indiana in the first round of the NIT in Bloomington, Ind., a game Vanderbilt won 67-60, in March 2005. The Commodores are 11-6 all-time at Memorial Gym against Big Ten opponents.
Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings and Illinois head coach Bruce Weber’s connections go back to Stallings’ undergraduate days at Purdue. Weber was an assistant coach in the 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons in Stallings’ last two seasons with the Boilermakers as a player, and both were assistant coaches together on legendary Purdue head coach Gene Keady’s staff from 1982-88.
Vanderbilt brings a 20-game Memorial Gym winning streak into Thursday’s game after going a perfect 19-0 at home in 2007-08 and winning the season opener this year against Morehead State. The longest winning streak in the 57-year old facility is 26 games – from Feb. 5, 1955, to Jan. 26, 1957.
Tip-off time is set for 7 p.m.