Reflecting On a Historic Streak

Looking back at Vanderbilt's famous run of consecutive games with a 3-pointer

by Chad Bishop

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — All streaks must come to an end.

And as disappointing as it was to see Vanderbilt’s famous run of consecutive games played with at least one made 3 end, it’s time to step back and pay tribute to one of the greater streaks in college basketball history.

The Commodores had made at least one 3 in 1,080 straight games before finishing Saturday’s game against Tennessee without a triple. Vandy had made a 3 in every game it had ever played since the 3-point shot went into play at the start of the 1986-87 season – a span of more than 33 years.

Princeton and UNLV now stand alone in having sunk a 3-pointer in everyone of their respective games since 1986.

Scott Draud made the first-ever Vanderbilt 3. He unknowingly started the streak Nov. 28, 1986, during the Hawaiian Airlines Silversword Invitational at the Maui War Memorial Gymnasium in Wailuka, Hawaii. Charlie McAlexander had the radio call of that shot in a game that wasn’t televised.

Draud’s triple came at the 12:01 mark of the first half in a 75-67 win over Virginia Commonwealth. The Commodores connected on at least one in every game since.

Draud also hit the first 3 inside Memorial Gymnasium during the first half of a 93-64 win win against Chattanooga on Dec. 3, 1986.

Vanderbilt junior Saben Lee had the last 3 in the streak when he hit one Jan. 15 at Arkansas with 6:50 to go in the second half.

 

 

The streak almost ended Jan. 24, 1996 (Vandy was 1 of 7 from deep that day) before Drew Maddux made the Commodores’ only 3 in a 77-55 loss at Florida. But it lived on for another 23-plus years and, in total, Vanderbilt made 8,009 3-pointers from start to finish during the streak.

Just last season the streak nearly came to an end when the Commodores finished 3-for-24 from distance in an SEC Tournament game against Texas A&M – the first coming 2:12 into the second half.

 

 

Other tidbits related to Vanderbilt’s streak? There are plenty.

• C.M. Newton coached the Commodores when the streak started. Eddie Fogler, Jan van Breda Kolff, Kevin Stallings, Bryce Drew and Jerry Stackhouse have led the program since.

• Ronald Reagan was President of the United States at the streak’s outset.

• Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” was the nation’s top song on the Billboard Hot 100 and while Crocodile Dundee and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ruled the motion picture box office.

• G. Alexander Heard, Joe B. Wyatt, E. Gordon Gee and Nicholas S. Zeppos all served as Vanderbilt University chancellor during the streak’s existence.

• Shan Foster (367), John Jenkins (306) and Ronnie McMahan (296) made the most 3s during the streak. Both Foster (2007-08) and Jenkins (2011-12) each hold the Vandy record for 3s in a season with 134, Barry Booker made 46 percent of his 3s and Billy McCaffrey made 51.2 percent of his shots from downtown in 1992-93.

• Draud, Foster and Mario Moore each hold the Vanderbilt record for 3s made in a single game with nine.

• More than 1.9 million people live in metro Davidson County today. It rested near 550,000 in 1986.

• Since 1996-97, 310 different Division I teams made zero 3s in a game (1,148 different instances by those 310 teams). Vanderbilt was one of 27 different Division I teams to make a 3 in every game from the beginning of 1996-97 until last Saturday. At least one active Division 1 head coach was not born when that streak started: Southern Illinois’ Bryan Mullins, who was born on Jan. 13, 1987.

• There have only been five NBA teams with a longer streak of 3-pointers made than Vandy. Here’s every NBA streak of 1,000+ games: Phoenix Suns (1,264 starting in 2004), Golden State Warriors (1,261 starting in 2004), San Antonio Spurs (1,180 starting in 2005), Dallas Mavericks (1,108 starting in 1999), Houston Rockets (1,108 starting in 2005), Orlando Magic (1,028 starting in 2007), Indiana Pacers (1,025 starting in 2007).

• Only 36 of 502 active NBA players were alive when Vandy’s streak started.

There are countless other memories and historical tidbits associated with Vandy’s 3-point streak and The Tennessean documented many of those instances here.

 

 

Below is a list of every Commodore who made at least one 3 during the famous streak:

Bud Adams

Braelee Albert

Kevin Anglin

Trace Arbuckle

Larry Austin

Wade Baldwin IV

Jermaine Beal

Keegan Bell

Aaron Beth

Barry Booker

Kevin Bright

Clevon Brown

Derrick Byars

Dan Cage

DeMarre Carroll

Nolan Cressler

Gianni Cugini

Willy Daunic

Dylan Disu

Billy Di Splatro

George Drake

Scott Draud

Joe Duffy

Bruce Elder

Malik Evans

Maxwell Evans

Matthew Fisher-Davis

Shan Foster

Vince Ford

Matt Freije

Kyle Fuller

Darius Garland

Clem Glen

Barry Goheen

Alex Gordon

Lance Goulbourne

Jamie Graham

Steve Grant

Aubrey Hammond

Josh Henderson

Charles Hinkle

Jason Holwerda

Sam Howard

Scott Hundley

Mac Hunt

John Jenkins

Sheldon Jeter

Kedren Johnson

Damian Jones

Rick Jones

Camron Justice

Frank Kornet

Luke Kornet

Russell Lakey

Dan Langhi

Greg LaPointe

Chris Lawson

Michael LeBlanc

Riley LaChance

Saben Lee

J.J. Lucas

Drew Maddux

Matt Maloney

Charles Mayes

Billy McCaffrey

Darshawn McClellan

Eric McClellan

Phillip McGloin

Ronnie McMahan

Alan Metcalfe

Shelby Moats

Chuck Moore

Deandre Moore

Mario Moore

Matthew Moyer

Todd Milholland

Shelton Mitchell

Ross Neltner

Aaron Nesmith

Rod Odom

A.J. Ogilvy

Dai-Jon Parker

Adam Payton

Scotty Pippen Jr.

Brendan Plavich

Atiba Prater

Howard Pride

Dawid Przybyszewski

Jeff Roberson

Billy Richmond

Isaiah Rice

Chris Rucker

Matt Ryan

Frank Seckar

Samir Sehic

Chad Sheron

Simi Shittu

James Siakam

Jordan Smart

Corey Smith

James Strong

Jeffery Taylor

Steve Tchiengang

Brad Tinsley

Joe Toye

Andre Walker

Markese Watkins

Nathan Watkins

Yanni Wetzell

Morgan Wheat

Pax Whitehead

Derrick Wilcox

Anthony Williams

Brian Williams

Payton Willis

Jordan Wright

Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com. Follow him @MrChadBishop.