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January 08, 2008

BARDO’S BREAKDOWN III

Programs such as North Carolina, Memphis, and Kansas rarely go under the radar when they are doing the expected. The top three teams in the nation are still undefeated as you might expect heading into conference play. Yet there’s one team that’s doing the unexpected and still haven’t gotten any love for their achievements.

The Vanderbilt Commodores are ranked 12th in the ESPN/USA Today polls and they were the first team to reach 10-0 this season. You may be surprised at the success Vandy is enjoying this season but this is not an aberration for their program. Last year’s squad took Final Four participant Georgetown down to the wire only to lose by a point in the Sweet Sixteen.

The head coach is Kevin Stallings. Not a household name unless you work in college basketball. Kevin was a terrific high school player at Collinsville high school in Illinois. Stallings took his game to West Lafayette, Indiana and starred at Purdue under Gene Keady. He then became an assistant coach at Purdue and Kansas before taking his first head coaching opportunity at Illinois State. His career coaching numbers are 282-171 while coaching in the Missouri Valley and SEC, yet you don’t hear his name mentioned among the elite.

But to me what really sets this situation apart from most in college basketball are the stringent academic standards Vanderbilt has in place. One of the nicknames for Vandy is the “Harvard of the South”. With median SAT scores of 1400 and ACT of 31 for incoming freshmen, Vanderbilt ranks right up there with the top institutions in the nation. These numbers suggest a similar student-athlete balance that Stanford and Duke enjoy, but where’s the love?

This year the Commodores have one of the best inside-out duos in the SEC. Shane Foster is a senior swing man that leads the SEC in scoring at 21.1 ppg. His silky smooth jumper and surprising hops gives him the ability to score from anywhere on the floor. His partner is crime is A.J. Ogilvy, a multi-skilled freshman big man from Australia. AJ is second in the SEC in scoring at 19.3 ppg.

Vanderbilt likes to get it out and go as they average over 87 points per game. They’ve weathered the storms of non-conference play winning at DePaul 91-85 in overtime after coming from 18 down in the second half. But the real fun begins with a trip to #9 Tennessee January 17th.

If all goes well in the next week or so for the Commodores their home court (Memorial Gym) will become a “Brickhouse” for SEC opponents and their play will continue to be “Easy Like Sunday Morning”!

Stephen Bardo is a college basketball analyst for ESPN. You can see him every Thursday in studio for game wraps and College Gamenight. He covers the West Coast Conference (Mondays), Big 12 (Wednesdays), and Big 10 (Saturdays). Check out his site at www.stephenbardo.com.