Friday, February 12, 2010

VSL Gets You Ready: Vanderbilt Hosts LSU

As our friends at Anchor of Gold highlight in their preview for tomorrow's game, the key to stopping LSU is senior forward Tasmin Mitchell. The 6'7 Mitchell is averaging 17.2 points and 9.8 rebounds a game. Mitchell is second in the league in scoring and third in boards. He hasn't played less than 30 minutes a game all season, and is averaging 37.3 minutes during SEC play. He's played 40 minutes in 7 games, including 3 in conference. Basically, he is far and away the Tigers' best player.

AoG thinks we should take our chances with junior guard Bo Spencer and sophomore forward Storm Warren. Spencer is averaging 15 points and just under 3 assists, while Warren nets 12 points and 7.4 rebounds a contest. Warren has only scored in double figures 3 times in conference play, while Spencer raised his average from 15th to 9th best in the conference after back-to-back 25 point performances. However, Spencer suffered an ankle injury Wednesday in Fayetteville that makes him "questionable" according to the LSU Game Notes.

SEC play hasn't been kind to the Tigers. They are only averaging 55 points a game in conference, and 62 points a game overall, good enough for last in the conference.

For Vanderbilt, this is a classic "trap" game. LSU is 0-10 and awful. They are small (two tallest starters are 6'7), they aren't deep, and it's possible their second leading scorer will be watching from the sidelines, replaced by walk-on Daron Populist, Dennis Harris, or Garrett Green, none of whom are averaging more than 14 minutes a game.

This is a game where A.J. Ogilvy should be able to have his way. In addition, there is reason to think Jeffery Taylor's midseason slide is behind him after his performance against Tennessee. Vanderbilt's depth, talent, and home-court should be enough...but given #22 Cornell's loss to the 3-15 Penn, no game can be taken for granted.


Here's some other sources to check out:

CBSSports.com

VUCommodores.com

Vanderbilt Game Notes

LSU Game Notes

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

they have 2 6'10 players, they just suck

AD said...

Planning to be in attendance and hoping they get off to a better start than they did vs. Auburn.

Chuck Heston said...

Just a random thought for anyone who cares. While I'm a fan of the SEC, I think that the Big East is head and shoulders above all of the other conferences for quite a few year now.

Did you know, however, that in the last 5 yrs. a team from the Big East has not made it to the NCAA Tournament Championship? That means that a Big East team has not won a Final Four game for the last half-decade.

In the last 10 yrs., only 2 Big East team won a Final Four game, UConn and Syracuse, who both went on to win the final.

Is is possible that the Big East regular season and tournament just wears those teams out?

Anonymous said...
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Drubaru said...

Maybe, but they say the same about SEC football (beat each other up), but then they go on and win the title year after year.

It's not a one-to-one comparison, I know. In reality, I believe it is the simple fact that in the last five years, those particular Big East Final Four teams have run into some excellent non-Big East teams, like UNC, Florida, etc. Yes, they are the most competitive conference top to bottom, but that doesn't mean they will have the best team in the country when its down to the last four. And as you pointed out, they've had a couple of champions in the last 10 years. No cause for alarm.