Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Vanderbilt 101

Now that Kentucky has fallen by the wayside, did you know that Vanderbilt now controls its own destiny in the SEC East?? Okay, sure, they have 12 conference games left including a tilt on ESPNU tonite at Tennessee and a trip to Lexington on Saturday but let's take a glimpse at Frank Seckar's alma mater.

Entering play tonite, they have a healthy 28 RPI. They're led by two foreign born players, swingman Jeffrey Taylor and Australian-born (And Bogut look-alike) C AJ Ogilivy. At 15-3, they have nice wins at South Carolina, Alabama & St. Mary's. At home, they've knocked off Florida & Mizzou. The one loss that hurts, was an early season loss at Western Kentucky who hasn't had a good season. The also lost at home to an average Cincinnati team.

Numbers that matter for the Commodores:

They're outscoring opponents by an average of 79 to 66 a game, though that margin is smaller in 4 conference games. They're also shooting at a 50% clip and holding opponents to around 40% a game. They're even on the boards and turn the ball over a bit much at 14 a game and shoot a very pedestrian 68% from the charity stripe.

If they win one of the next two, that'll go a long way for them as the two other tough road games are at Ole Miss and Florida.

They're not a Final 4 team but Kevin Stallings continues to a fine job and don't be surprised if they win a game or two in the dance.

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