March 14, 2012
It’s getting closer…
The Vanderbilt women’s basketball team has been waiting a long time since the SEC Tournament to get back on the floor, but they finally get to do just that on Sunday, March 18, when they take on Middle Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Memorial Gym.
If you don’t have tickets yet, act fast because they have been moving. The pace of ticket sales has picked up since the announcement that Middle Tennessee would be Vanderbilt’s first round opponent, creating the first women’s basketball meeting between the schools that are just 37 miles apart since January 30, 1992.
To help the fans get ready, VUCommodores.com has a few hoops tidbits as we work our way closer March Madness.
400 For Balcomb
Prior to the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, the team took a moment to honor Head Coach Melanie Balcomb’s 400th career win. Balcomb picked up win 400 in the first round of the SEC Tournament against Mississippi State.
Balcomb is in her 10th season at Vanderbilt, where she has posted a record 237-93. Prior to that she spent seven years at Xavier, where she went 135-78, and Ashland, where she posted a mark of 28-26.
With the team, coaches, support staff and former players gathered at Memorial Gym to watch the Selection Show, it provided the perfect opportunity for Vice Chancellor David Williams to present Balcomb with a commemorative game ball marking the occasion.
More All-SEC Honors
With yesterday’s news that Christina Foggie was named First Team All-SEC by the Associated Press, there were even more Commodores who received honors from the writers.
Tiffany Clarke, Jasmine Lister and Stephanie Holzer were all named Honorable Mention All-SEC by the AP. Coupled with Kady Schrann’s selection to the coaches’ All-Freshman team, this means five Vanderbilt players received All-SEC honors from the coaches or the writers.
Hitting The Airwaves
Being a Division I head coach is about more than just X’s and O’s and Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb is proving that this week.
Balcomb has been hitting the airwaves all week to promote the fact that the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament are coming to Memorial Gym. Local interest has increased even more since the announcement that Middle Tennessee will be Vanderbilt’s first round opponent.
To get things started, Balcomb made an appearance on the ESPNU NCAA Tournament Special on Tuesday, which featured coaches from all 64 NCAA Tournament Teams.
On Wednesday she made a pair of radio appearances in Music City. She first joined the voice of Vanderbilt women’s basketball, Charlie Mattos, during his day/morning job as co-host of Coffee, Country & Cody on WSM 650 AM.
She followed that up by talking with Greg Pogue and David Coleman on The Morning Sports Page, the morning show on WNSR 560 AM. WNSR is the flagship station of Vanderbilt women’s basketball and you can hear Mattos on the call for Sunday’s game at 4:00 p.m. CT.
If you haven’t heard Balcomb yet, you’ll have two more chances this week.
Thursday she’ll talk to Darren McFarland and Brad Hopkins during the Wendy’s First Quarter on 102.5 FM The Game. Balcomb will join the duo early in the morning, at about 6:45 a.m.
Friday morning the coach will head up the dial to 104.5 The Zone to visit with Mark Howard, Frank Wycheck and Kevin Ingram just after 9:00 a.m.
Vanderbilt Basketball Is Equal Opportunity
During a year that marks the 40th anniversary of Title IX, Vanderbilt basketball is doing its best to promote gender equity.
With the men’s and women’s basketball teams both making the NCAA Tournament for the third-straight year, Vanderbilt is one of only 10 Division I institutions to accomplish that. In the Southeastern Conference, only Vandy and Kentucky can boast going 6-for-6 over the three-year span. The other eight schools are Duke, Georgetown Gonzaga, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Texas and West Virginia.
In addition, Christina Foggie and John Jenkins each brought SEC scoring titles back to West End. It marks just the fourth time in conference history the same school has won the men’s and women’s scoring title and it is the first time Vanderbilt has accomplished the feat. The most recent time it happened was 2006 when LSU’s Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Seimone Augustus each won scoring titles.
Home Away From Home
Just as it did during the SEC Tournament in Nashville, the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team will do its best to treat the NCAAs as any other year in the Tournament.
On Friday after dinner, the team will head to a hotel in Nashville to get away from the hustle and bustle of campus. Saturday, they will come to Memorial for practice, then stay at the hotel Saturday night as they make final preparations for Middle Tennessee. Sunday they will go through the same routine as a road game, heading to the gym in the morning for shoot around and back to the hotel for pregame meal.
Be sure to check back to VUCommodores.com to follow the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team for the duration of its stay in the NCAA Tournament
