Feb. 22, 2016
Vanderbilt Gamenotes 
| Florida Gamenotes
After knocking off the Georgia Bulldogs at home on Saturday, Vanderbilt returns to the road to face the Florida Gators for the second time this season, this time with the meeting taking place in Gainesville. The game will tip off at 6 p.m. CT and will be televised on the SEC Network, with all of the action also available on the Vanderbilt IMG Sports Radio Network.
Vanderbilt improved to 16-11 overall and 8-6 in league play with a 80-67 win over Georgia on Saturday at Memorial Gym. Vanderbilt’s starting five – Wade Baldwin IV, Luke Kornet, Damian Jones, Jeff Roberson, and Matthew Fisher-Davis – all finished the game scoring in double digits.
Baldwin led Vanderbilt in scoring. Baldwin finished the night with 17 points and had seven assists to go along with six rebounds. Jones added his 21st double digit performance of the season and his 7th double double of the season. Jones finished with 15 points and 16 rebounds. The 16 rebounds in a game set a new career high for Jones.
Fisher-Davis finished the game in double digits for the 13th time this season with 13 points and was 3-7 from three point range. It is the 13th time this season that Fisher-Davis has made at least 3 threes in a game. Fisher-Davis has made 16 threes in his last four games (16-35, 45.7%).
Roberson recorded double figures for the 15th time this season and 10th time in league play. Roberson finished with 12 points. Kornet finished the game with 11 points and 4 rebounds.
This will be the 130th all-time meeting between the two schools, with Vanderbilt holding a 66-63 all-time lead in the series. However, the Gators lead the series in games played at Florida, 42-21. The Commodores won an earlier meeting on January 26 at Memorial Gym, 60-59, behind a 24-point performance from Baldwin and a 20-point, 12-rebound effort from Jones.
Game 28/ Vanderbilt (16-11, 8-6 SEC) vs. Florida (17-10, 8-6 SEC)
Gainesville, Fla. – O’Connell Center – 6 p.m. CT
TV: SEC Network
TV Talent: John Saunders (pxp), Jon Sundvold (analyst), Kayle Hartung (sidelines)
Radio: Vanderbilt Radio Network from IMG College, vucommodores.com
Radio Talent: Joe Fisher (pxp), Tim Thompson (analyst)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 145, XM 191
Live Stats: vucommodores.com
Twitter Updates: @VandyMBB
Series Information
Series Record: VU leads, 66-63.
Last Meeting: VU win, 60-59, 1/26/16, in Nashville.
Record at Vanderbilt: VU leads, 43-15.
Record at Florida: UF leads, 42-21.
Record at Neutral Site: UF leads, 6-2.
Coach Stallings vs. Florida: Coach Stallings is 10-23 against Florida.
Quick Hitters
- Nationally, Vanderbilt is third in the nation in 3FG% defense at 28.6%. Vanderbilt also ranks 6th in FG% defense (38.0%), and 17th in blocks (5.4).
- Vanderbilt ranks first in all games in the SEC in FG% defense (.380) and 3FG% defense (.286) and 3FG% (.388), blocks (5.4), and 3FG made (8.4). In league games only, Vanderbilt leads the conference in blocks with 5.4 per game and is second in 3FG% (.300), 3FG made (8.4), and assists (15.3).
- The Commodores are 12-2 on the season at home and 2-8 in true road games this year, with the two wins coming at Tennessee and Auburn.
- 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 tied for sixth 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 (.464).
- 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 329 career wins at Vanderbilt and 452 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.
- Roberson is fifth in the SEC in all games in free throw percentage at 83.3% and second in league games only at 87.8%.
- 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.
958
Vanderbilt has made a 3-pointer in 958 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 290 assists and a 4.7 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 5.0 assists per contest, which ranks him in a tie for seventh on Vanderbilt’s single season list.
Schedule Tough
The Commodores have faced nine teams in the top 32 of the current NCAA RPI (Kansas, 1st; Kentucky, 12th; Dayton, 17th; Baylor, 21st; Purdue, 23rd; Texas A&M, 24th; Texas, 28th; South Carolina, 31st; Florida, 32nd).
Block Party
Junior Luke Kornet is 12th in the nation in blocks at 2.82 blocks per game, and he has spurred the team to 147 blocks on the season (already 5th 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 162, and his 1.74 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 fourth in total blocks (117). Kornet’s 2015-16 total of 62 is fifth all-time in a single season by a VU player, while Jones’ 49 blocks is tied for 7th.
About Florida
- Florida enters the game with a 17-10 overall record and an 8-6 mark in league play.
- Dorian Finney-Smith leads the team in scoring with 15.2 points per game. KeVaughn Allen (11.8) and John Egbunu (10.6) also average double figures.
- The Commodores won the first meeting between the two teams, 60-59, on January 26.
- Vanderbilt has lost four consecutive games at the O’Connell Center, dating back to a 64-60 win on March 2, 2010.