Sunday, February 10, 2008

So This Is How the Driver's Seat Feels...

What a difference a week makes. Vanderbilt's struggles last Saturday at home aganist Auburn made me, and the rest of Commodore Nation, nervous heading into this past two game SEC East roadtrip. And while neither win was pretty, Vanderbilt won two HUGE games to life their record to 20-4 overall, and 5-4 in conference. With this past week's performance, Kevin Stallings' Commodores did a lot to silence the critics who said this team couldn't win on the road.

Shan Foster returned to form by pouring in 21 points on the road; the team played very good defense by holding the Cocks to 65 points and the SEC's leading scorer Devan Downey to 10 points; and Vanderbilt was able to come from behind thanks to Dolla Beal's last second drive to the bucket. Vanderbilt's got 4 of their next 5, and 5 of their last 7 in the friendly confines of Memorial Gym. Granted, with Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi State coming to town, holding serve at home won't be easy. But with this week's wins, we've given ourselves a "cushion" and a realistic shot at a first round bye in the SEC Tournament.

What's your take?

11 comments:

Douglas James said...

Oglivy needs to improve his mental toughness if we are going to do anything in either the SEC tournament and beyond. I'm still waiting for a legite 3rd option on offense. And I guess a Kevin Stallings team will never learn to rebound

BP said...

I thought Vandy did a much better job rebounding on Saturday; we out-rebounded S.C. 35-29.

And I think with two outstanding offensive weapons, do we really need a "legit 3rd option"? I would rather have three very serviceable role players.

Try enjoying the wins...it's much more fun.

Anonymous said...

Drivers seat? i doubt it, but a good win. Stop smoking the crack O'shea.

Anonymous said...

In the words of Joe Fisher:
YYESSSSSS!!!

Time for some payback over the next 10 days or so in Memorial.

BTW: An older VU operations maintenance guy told me during my days in the 'ville that Bo Jackson once hit a home run that carried to the roof of Memorial on the fly...he swore it was true. It has to be 600+ feet. Anyone else heard this?

it could be bullshit, but with Bo I'm inclined to believe it.

Anonymous said...

Don't know the veracity of the Bo story, but do remember that the current incarnation of Hawkins field (put up around 2000, if I'm not mistaken) would not be the one Bo played on. So, to truly know the dimensions, you'd have to know where the plate was placed before that. Obviously, I might be wrong on this, and the distance from Memorial might be the same, but it's something to look into. Also, I would think the roof to be no more than 500 feet from home currently. Remember, we have a short porch in left with a wall to compensate.

Stanimal said...

With such a short amount of time left on the clock, I thought we were done. I was fortunate to be sitting behind the Vandy basket in the second half. Things looked bleak.

Dolla's drive and shot was awesome. The arena which had exploded after the lay-up earlier went deafly silent and I was the only one cheering.

It was awesome, what a big win.

Anonymous said...

i have also heard these rumors about a homer on top of memorial... no idea about distance though.

and as far as a thrd scorer: i'm not saying he'll average anything near AJ and Shan, but coach's decision to leave the last second shot completely in Dolla's hands tells me something... not to mention that half court shot against Auburn... i really think the kid is coming into his own...

Anonymous said...

Agreed, it's time to put the dolla into wide circulation.

Luke Wyatt, a.k.a. Vandy's head equipment mgr. and one of the nicest guys I've ever met once told me that his counterpart at Auburn informed him that Bo took his pads off one day after practice and ran a high 4.2's hand timed 40, on grass.

That kind of once in a lifetime crazy shit is why I believed the home run story.

Anonymous said...

Bo was the best. I was at the Yankee game where he hit three home runs in three at bats before getting hurt in the outfield. If I remember correctly, I think he got hurt diving for a ball that ended up being an inside the park home run for Deion Sanders.

Seamus O'Toole said...

As an 8-year-old kid, while Bo Jackson was with the Royals, I approached him in the lobby of his Baltimore hotel after an Orioles game and said, "Can I have your autograph, Mr. Jackson?" He looked down at me and uttered four words that nearly sent me to tears: "I don't do that."

Unknown said...

Wow, that's a Belichick type move.

Screw Bo.