Feb. 3, 2017
By Zac Ellis
VUCommodores.com
On campus in Nashville – As Vanderbilt prepares for its final stretch of the regular season, head coach Stephanie White has made it a point to focus on specific attributes during practice. Asked to describe her objectives this week, White rattles off a laundry list of coveted coaching characteristics.
“Mentality. Toughness. Habits,” White said.
Nothing is off the table for the Commodores as they work to reverse their fortunes for the final seven games of the regular season. After a 10-1 start that included a win over Duke (currently ranked No. 15 nationally), Vanderbilt has won just one of its past 11 games. That run has featured a 1-8 start to SEC play.
A young Commodores roster, which features five freshmen who play significant minutes, has struggled to put teams away. Five of Vanderbilt’s SEC losses have come by a combined 21 points. In those five games, the ‘Dores either led, were tied or trailed by three points or fewer in the final minute. Turnovers and late-game breakdowns often combined to foil Vanderbilt’s shot at SEC wins.
Senior forward Marqu’es Webb said the ‘Dores find ways to shoot themselves in the foot in key moments. “There have been a lot of circumstances since the start of the SEC season where we’ve really put ourselves in a hole and, in some cases, beat ourselves,” Webb said.
Added White: “We have to focus on the things that we keep repeating. We can’t be having the same breakdowns that we had in November and December.”
This week, Vanderbilt enjoyed a rare seven-day break between games. White and company travel to face No. 25 Kentucky on Sunday (11 a.m. CT on SEC Network) one week after dropping a 93-73 loss to Florida. With no mid-week game, White and her staff used this week to focus their players’ toughness and mentality.
That approach included new practice points during workouts. One particular drill featured a line of chairs placed on the sideline, with a single basketball placed in each chair. Each time the Commodores failed to execute a point of emphasis on the floor – make a stop, grab a rebound, etc. – a basketball was removed from one chair and placed on a ball rack. If every ball is removed before players finished the drill, the entire team does sprints.
“We’ve improved so much physically, but now we’ve got to improve mentally,” White said. “We’ve challenged them in ways that we probably haven’t challenged them before. We’ve challenged them to think about things bigger than themselves, to think about why they play this game. We’ve done drills to put them in tough situations where, mentally, they have to push through.”
Vanderbilt hopes to push through its final seven games of the regular season and head to the SEC tournament in Greenville, S.C. with momentum. The ‘Dores last stretch includes road matchups with ranked foes Kentucky, Mississippi State and South Carolina, but Webb said her teammates view these seven contests as a chance to flip their narrative. Don’t be surprised if Vanderbilt makes some noise in February, Webb said.
“We didn’t start 2017 very well, but we have a really good opportunity to have a way better February than we had in January,” Webb said. “We’re going to work hard every single possession, value every possession and try to get better. I’m really looking forward to February and what we can do.”