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.