Feb. 21, 2013
The tournament: Vanderbilt will compete in Alabama A&M’s Holiday Classic Friday through Sunday in Bessemer, Ala.
The field (national rank): Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Arkansas State (4), Jackson State, Sam Houston State (8), Houston, Tulane, UAB, Texas Southern, Valparaiso (15), Vanderbilt (5).
Format: There will be five, 4-game Bakers Friday starting at 2:45 p.m. Saturday’s five team games start at 9:30 and Sunday’s best four of seven Baker bracket begins at 8:30.
Vandy’s contingent: The Commodores will travel seniors Jessica Earnest and Kim Carper, junior Lauren Rhein, sophomores Natalie Goodman and Nicole Mosesso and freshmen Robyn Renslow, Tori Ferris and Amanda Fry.
Last year: Vanderbilt and Arkansas State hooked up in an interesting and somewhatunusual championship match. Arkansas State prevailed, 4 games to 3, and whatwas noteworthy is that the left lane was red hot and the right lane seeminglyice cold. As the top seed, the Red Wolves wisely took the left side for the deciding seventh game where they had averaged 64 pins per game more.
Pink out: Vanderbilt will break out its pink jerseys on Saturday as has been its recent custom.
Webcast available: The Commodores’ UStream channel will be operational.
Coach comment: “We’ve spent the last two weeks focusing on us and trying to be the best ‘us’ we can be,” says John Williamson. “We put a premium on competition in our practice sessions. We did modified bakers that emphasized shot making. We plan to compete and execute at a high level in Alabama.”