Feb. 19, 2016
After two consecutive games on the road, the Commodores return to Memorial Gym on Saturday to take on Georgia in their first and only regular season meeting of the year. The game will tip off at 11 a.m. CT and will be televised on ESPN2, with all of the action also available on the Vanderbilt IMG Sports Radio Network.
Vanderbilt dropped to 15-11, 7-6 in the SEC after losing at the buzzer to Mississippi State, 75-74, Tuesday night in Starkville in their last time out. The Commodores led by as many as 17 points before the Bulldogs chipped away at the lead and eventually won on a three pointer by Quinndary Weatherspoon in the deep corner as time expired.
Damian Jones led Vanderbilt with his sixth double-double of the season and 13th of his career with a 20-point, 10-rebound effort. Matthew Fisher-Davis tied a career high with 20 points and also tied a career-best with six made threes. Jeff Roberson added 12 points and Wade Baldwin IV added 10 points. Baldwin also dished out nine assists, his fifth consecutive game with seven or more assists. Roberson has scored in double figures in eight of 12 league games this season.
Vanderbilt, who entered the Mississippi State game leading the nation in three-point field goal percentage defense, allowed the Bulldogs to shoot 41.2% from three, the first time since the Arkansas game on January 5 that VU has allowed a team to shoot 40% or better from three, a stretch of 13 games. Despite Mississippi State’s hot shooting, the Commodores are still second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage defense, limiting opponents to only 28.0% from beyond-the-arc.
The Commodores’ meeting with Georgia will be the 140th meeting between the two schools and the 69th at Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt leads the all-time series, 88-51, and the series record at Vanderbilt, 54-14.
Game 27/ Vanderbilt (15-11, 7-6 SEC) vs. Georgia (14-10, 7-6 SEC)
Nashville, Tenn. – Memorial Gym – 11 a.m. CT
TV: ESPN2
TV Talent: Mark Jones (pxp), Kara Lawson (analyst)
Radio: Vanderbilt Radio Network from IMG College, vucommodores.com
Radio Talent: Joe Fisher (pxp), Tim Thompson (analyst)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 81, XM 81
Live Stats: vucommodores.com
Twitter Updates: @VandyMBB
Series Information
Series Record: Vanderbilt leads, 88-51.
Last Meeting: UGA win, 70-62, on Jan. 27, 2015.
Record at Vanderbilt: VU leads, 54-14.
Record at UGA: UGA leads, 34-29.
Record at Neutral Site: VU leads, 5-3.
Coach Stallings vs. UGA: Coach Stallings is 20-12 vs. Georgia.
Quick Hitters
- Nationally, Vanderbilt is second in the nation in 3FG% defense at 28.0%. Vanderbilt also ranks 7th in FG% defense (38.0%), and 14th in blocks (5.5). Individually, Luke Kornet is ninth in blocks (2.90)
- Vanderbilt ranks first in all games in the SEC in 3FG% defense (.280) and second in FG% Defense (.380), 3FG% (.390), Blocks (5.5), and 3FG Made (8.5). In league games only, Vanderbilt leads the conference in blocks with 5.5 per game.
- The Commodores are 11-2 on the season at home and is averaging 80.2 points per game with a +17.5 scoring margin in those games. Vanderbilt is shooting 48.5% from the floor and 42% from three, while limiting opponents to only 36.9% from the field and 27.9% from beyond-the-arc.
- Luke Kornet’s 10 blocks against Auburn in Nashville set a new program record for blocks in a game – he surpassed three games with seven blocks by Will Perdue (vs. East Carolina, 12/28/87), Festus Ezeli (at Georgia, 2/16/11) and Damian Jones (at South Carolina, 2/13/14). The 10 blocks is also the most in the nation this season.
- Kornet leads the SEC in blocks in all games and in SEC games only, and Jones is sixth in all games and seventh in SEC games.
- Ten players have scored in double figures in a game this season – Wade Baldwin, Luke Kornet, Damian Jones, Jeff Roberson, Riley LaChance, Matthew Fisher-Davis, Nolan Cressler, Camron Justice, Josh Henderson, and Joe Toye.
- Fisher-Davis is first in the SEC in all games in 3-Point Field Goal Percentage (.466).
- Vanderbilt is 11-2 on the season when Kornet attempts more two point baskets than three’s.
- Head Coach Kevin Stallings, the school’s all-time winningest coach, is in his 17th season with the Commodores and 23rd overall as a head coach, and is now the dean of SEC coaches. Stallings has 328 career wins at Vanderbilt and 451 overall as a head coach. He has eight 20-win seasons in the last 12 seasons, with 11 total postseason appearances, six NCAA tournaments, and two Sweet 16’s (2004 and 2007). He is also one of five SEC coaches to win 300 or more games at one institution, joining Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp, Florida’s Billy Donovan, and LSU’s Dale Brown and Harry Rabenhorst, and is in 6th place all-time on the SEC wins list.
- Vanderbilt’s win over the eighth-ranked Texas A&M Aggies on February 4 was the Commodores’ first win over a ranked opponent since March 11, 2012, in a win over #1-ranked Kentucky in the SEC Tournament Championship. It was Vanderbilt’s first win at Memorial Gym over a ranked opponent since defeating Florida on February 28, 2012 (77-67).
- The Commodores have three players at seven feet or higher in their front court – Josh Henderson (7’0), Damian Jones (7’0), and Luke Kornet (7’1). LSU has two seven footers, and the rest of the league has one or fewer.
957
Vanderbilt has made a 3-pointer in 957 consecutive games, a streak which began at the inception of the 3-point line in 1986-87. The Commodores rank second only to UNLV for the longest streak in Division I basketball. Vanderbilt, UNLV and Princeton are the only three schools in college basketball to have made at least one 3-pointer in every game played since the 3-point line was implemented.
Academic Success
Eight members of this year’s team were named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll or the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll for 2014-15. Junior Luke Kornet was also recently named to the CoSIDA All-District Three Academic Team.
Baldwin and Assists
Sophomore Wade Baldwin has 283 assists and a 4.6 assist per game average in his career, which puts him second on the all-time Vanderbilt career assist-per-game list behind Jan van Breda Kolff, who played from 1972-74 and averaged 5.38 assists per game. This season, Baldwin is averaging 4.9 assists per contest, which ranks him eighth on Vanderbilt’s single season list.
Schedule Tough
The Commodores have faced nine teams in the top 34 of the current NCAA RPI (Kansas, 1st; Kentucky, 9th; Dayton, 12th; Purdue, 19th; Texas, 21st; Texas A&M, 25th; Baylor, 26th; Florida, 30th; South Carolina, 34th).
Block Party
Junior Luke Kornet is eighth in the nation in blocks at 2.95 blocks per game, and he has spurred the team to 140 blocks on the season (already 6th all-time team total in program history) and blocking 10 or shots in a game on three separate occasions. Damian Jones is second on the career blocks list with 159, and his 1.75 blocks per game career mark is the best in program history, while Kornet is fifth in the program’s history in career blocks per game (1.34) and sixth in total blocks (114). Kornet’s 2015-16 total of 59 is fifth all-time in a single season by a VU player, while Jones’ 46 blocks is 10th.
About Georgia
- Georgia enters the game with a 14-10 overall record and a 7-6 mark in the SEC.
- Yante Maten leads four Georgia players in double figures with 15.8 points per game. J.J. Frazier (15.2), Kenny Gaines (13.0), and Charles Mann (10.9) also average double figures.
- The Bulldogs’ starting backcourt includes two seniors (Gaines, Mann) and one junior (Frazier).
- Georgia swept the season series with VU last year for the first time since the 2000-01 campaign.