Sept. 18, 2014
Head coach Melanie Balcomb and the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team announced the 2014-15 non-conference schedule on Thursday.
The Commodores, who have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of the past 15 seasons, will face a challenging slate that includes multiple teams who advanced to postseason play last year and several potential preseason Top-25 teams.
The non-conference lineup — which complements the SEC schedule that was previously released — features eight games (including an exhibition game) at Memorial Gym. Belmont, James Madison and Dayton are among the teams that will come to Nashville.
The Commodores’ non-conference lineup also includes road trips to Wisconsin, Elon and Marquette, along with a visit to Estero, Fla., to compete in the Gulf Coast Showcase during the Thanksgiving holidays.
Television designations and tip-off times for some games will be announced at a later time.
“It’s a challenging — but very exciting — non-conference schedule,” said Balcomb. “We always look forward to playing quality opponents that will allow our team to compete at a high level, game in and game out. The Vanderbilt fans can look forward to seeing some terrific competition at Memorial Gym again this season.”
Including the SEC schedule, the Commodores will face at least nine teams that made the NCAA tournament last year. The list includes non-conference foes James Madison and Dayton, along with SEC rivals Tennessee, Georgia, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Florida, LSU and Kentucky.
The Commodores could potentially face several more NCAA tournament teams during the Gulf Coast Showcase, which will feature defending national champion UConn, along with Georgia Tech and Arizona State. Vanderbilt opens the Showcase against Minnesota. For Gulf Coast Showcase bracket, click here.
Vanderbilt will open its home schedule with a preseason exhibition game against Coker College on Nov. 8. The Commodores will then open the regular season with home games against Belmont (Nov. 14) and Wisconsin-Green Bay (Nov. 17) before making their first road trip of the year, traveling to Wisconsin to face the Badgers on Nov. 20.
Other home dates include games against St. Louis (Nov. 24), Mississippi Valley State (Dec. 3), Dayton (Dec. 21), James Madison (Dec. 29) and Alabama-Huntsville (Jan. 15). Non-conference road trips also include trips to Elon (Dec. 14) and Marquette (Dec. 18).