Jan. 23, 2012
Game Preview | Stallings Interview | Goulbourne Interview
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) â€â€ Time is quickly running out for the Vanderbilt Commodores to figure out how to regain their home-court edge at Memorial Gym.
The Commodores are coming off their fourth loss in the Southeastern Conference’s oldest basketball arena, a place where they traditionally find some magic with all the crowd noise bouncing off the cinderblock walls. They snapped an eight-game winning streak with a 78-77 overtime loss to then-No. 20 Mississippi State over the weekend.
Next up is Tennessee on Tuesday night with Vandy’s instate rival coming off a big win over defending national champion Connecticut, and the Vols have swept Vanderbilt two of the past three seasons.
“I don’t even want to lose anymore home games,” Vanderbilt senior Lance Goulbourne said Monday before practice. “We’ve lost enough of them here. Not lose anymore home games, not losing to Tennessee, not losing my last one against Tennessee here, so it’ll be a pretty big one for us.”
Vanderbilt (14-5, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) looked like it had fixed its second-half lapses that led to home losses to then-No. 18 Xavier and Indiana State and on the road to then-No. 6 Louisville during the winning streak. The Commodores had been allowing 58.1 points per game during the eight straight wins and holding opponents to 38.1 percent shooting.
Against Mississippi State, the Commodores let the Bulldogs hit eight of nine points to open the second half. They led twice in overtime but missed a shot at the end of regulation and overtime in losing. Goulbourne said it’s hard in the moment to tell what’s going on but they understand it’s about not letting their intensity drop.
Blowing leads in the second half highlighted last season for Vanderbilt. The Commodores were up 11 in the second half only to lose both games to Tennessee, and they blew a nine-point lead in the second half over Richmond in losing in the NCAA tournament opener.
“We just didn’t have it like we did in the first half for what reason I don’t know why …,” Goulbourne said. “We were a little flat even in the halftime locker room situation. We want to make sure we maintain our same intensity, but during the time it’s really hard to pinpoint what’s really going wrong. Just kind of got to learn from it and not let it happen again.”
Both the Commodores and coach Kevin Stallings can’t wait to get back on the court.
“We feel like we let a game get away that we, for whatever reason, stopped defending the way we had been defending for a good several games,” Stallings said.
It won’t be easy against Tennessee (9-10, 1-3), a team that has big home wins of its own against Florida and Connecticut this month. Freshman Jarnell Stokes was named the SEC’s freshman of the week Monday for 16 points and 12 rebounds in that 60-57 win over UConn. Goulbourne called that a big win for the SEC and makes the Vols a team that Vanderbilt can’t overlook.
Tennessee’s challenge is getting a road win. The Vols have lost at the College of Charleston, Memphis, Mississippi State and Georgia. Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin said Monday wins like last weekend show the Vols are good enough to win on the road.
“Now it’s just a matter of the mental part taking over down the stretch of games,” Martin said. “You’ve put yourself in position to win the game, now you just have to win it. But it’s not an easy thing to do to win games on the road, even for some of the best teams in America. It’s just putting ourselves in position and then trying to win the game.”
This will be Martin’s first trip to Memorial where team benches are on the end lines rather than the sideline. His first look will be Tuesday’s shootaround, but he said some of his assistants and several of the Vols have played in Memorial. A key for the Vols will be they don’t call plays vocally, which should help.
There’s also a different level of respect between the coaches in this rivalry now. Bruce Pearl, fired in March, pulled out his bright orange blazer for games with Vanderbilt.
Martin, like Stallings, played at Purdue for coach Gene Keady, though in 1995 a few years after Stallings finished 1982. Stallings said he hasn’t had a chance to talk with Martin, who was an assistant coach with the U.S. team and worked with Vanderbilt junior guard John Jenkins at the World University Games in China last summer.
“He’s doing a terrific job I think with their program,” Stallings said. “I think their team plays well and plays the right way and acts the right way, and they just I just think he’s doing a nice job.”