Saturday, February 12, 2011

Vanderbilt Takes Down #18 Kentucky 81-77

Sound off below. The Commodores are now 6-4 in conference and in sole possession of 2nd place. It pains me to say it, but tonight I'll be rooting for UT. It's not "show friends," it's "show business"

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

great win! stevie t was huge with taylor and lance not having their best games. and not enough can be said about jj. he's going to be a rich man's jimmer fredette in short order. even the freshmen were solid when we needed them. uk's youth showed at the end and not having any time outs left killed them. bring on the bulldogs!

macpfled said...

Great win. It really feels like Jenkins stroke is here to stay for the season, you just can't keep him off the scoreboard no matter what you do. Also love the work from Odom and Fuller. Fuller especially has made huge contributions for us the last two games. I was planning on going off on JT for another no-show but his two big plays down the stretch were huge! Hope he has a good attitude about this win, and doesn't worry about his stats. Overall, best 40 minutes of basketball we have played this season. We beat Kentucky at their best. They will never play better than that.

Anonymous said...

Team played great. JT wasnt huge in terms of points, but his layup towards the end was huge. He also did a great job on Knight. Steve was HUGE! 12 points at the half... who saw that coming? Fuller and Odom were big as well. Coming into the season, I didnt see our freshmen being critical players but they have come through. Tinsley has been clutch as of late and thats awesome considering how shakey he was in the begining of the season. And then... John jenkins... 32 points and 39 - 40 minutes of play. Enough said.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to cheer for UT tonight to, but we'd still have to beat them at Memorial to ensure we overcome them as well. Though if UF continues to win it's pretty much out of reach.

AD said...

agree with everything macpfled wrote. Fuller and Odom are getting a lot of great minutes and they're showing they deserve them. As much as we all think Walker is panacea when this team struggles, the play of Fuller and Odom meant we didn't have to go to Walker before he's ready for game-speed action, especially down the stretch of a close game.

Considering the struggles this year, it feels good to be 6-4 in conference play.

Andrew Smith said...

1. The general move to give JT a pass reflects worse on him than anger would. It basically says we've all conceded that while he'll have some good games, he'll never really be a star. Night in and night out, he's the team's third or possibly fourth best player. (Yes, he scores more than Fez or Tinsley but he gets all his points in the first ten minutes, when everyone is relaxed enough to score.) If anyone thought there was any real chance of him beating his mental demons, everyone would be livid about his no show.

2. JT's unending inadequacies look much, much worse because he has to share the floor with JJ, who is an unending demonstration of how the will to score allows you to dominate men with lesser wills. For all that he has the great stroke and has learned to create space, none of that explains his greatness. It's pure will. He is the anti JT.

3. The freshmen were great today. Frankly, I've not been all that impressed with them to date, and they're certainly weaker than previous two freshman classes, but they both showed a lot of good play today.

4. Steve T looks to have fully recovered from his injuries. Lance hasn't looked good in weeks. I don't know if he needs to sit a few games to heal properly, but if so, he needs to sit, even if it costs us a couple losses. This team doesn't need to worry about making the tourney. It needs to worry about firing on all cylinders when the tourney starts and Lance demonstrated earlier that he can be a force when healthy.

5. Why the hell can't we box out and get defensive boards?

Anonymous said...

There are TWO things I refuse to do.

#1- pull for the orange thugs of Knoxville and their coach Pearlnocchio.

#2- watch so-called "reality" t.v. shows, especially american idol.

Thus I will be pulling for Florida and not watching american idol.

Anonymous said...

Fun fact. Vandy is 11-1 this season when scoring 80+ points. The loss was to Mizzo in OT.

Anonymous said...

JT will have to come back for his Senior year - good for us. Too many fouls are his main issue in a lot of games.

Anonymous said...

Andrew:

I don't agree w/ your assessment that JT is the 3rd or 4th best player. He is 2nd behind JJ, who quite frankly, is making a strong case for SEC Player of the Year. JT scored 19 against 'Bama. The unfortunate part is that there will always be games where he doesn't show up, or shows up for a short while. But there are other games where he'll be the slasher that we need to open up the perimeter.

You are ABSOLUTELY spot on w/ #5 though. Inexcusable and the source of much of my profanity.

Andrew Smith said...

@ JT being 3rd or 4th best player

I certainly haven't kept the stats, but my gut says that both Fez and Tinsley have scored more and been generally more productive late in close games. Actually, the same could be said for Lance before he got hurt.

And frankly, I haven't been impressed by his vaunted defense. He's either gotten in severe foul trouble (last couple games) or been owned (Florida, Arkansas...).

Okay, he's still probably the second best player -- but only very marginally. It's JJ way above and then the rest. Any professional writer/announcer who refers to JT as our best player ever again should be immediately fired for idiocy.

DRW said...

If anyone can tell me how to buy this photo, I will be forever grateful:

http://grfx.cstv.com/schools/vand/graphics/auto/jenkins500-uk-students.jpg

I believe it's one of "Russell's Photos" on vucommodores.com...

AD said...

From the AP:

"John Jenkins' mother texted him before Vanderbilt's game Saturday and told him to score 25 points or more.

The sophomore guard followed the order.

Jenkins scored a career-high 32 points, hitting six 3-pointers, to lift Vanderbilt (No. 24 ESPN/USA Today, No. 23 AP) to an 81-77 victory over No. 18 Kentucky despite his sprained right shoulder aching so bad he needed heat at halftime and a big bag of ice afterward.
...
Jenkins wound up playing nearly 40 minutes, resting 30 seconds in the first half. Jenkins was 11 of 17 with three rebounds, three assists, a steal, a blocked shot and only one turnover. An assistant coach kept reminding Stallings that Jenkins had been in the entire game. Stallings said he'll get Jenkins out tomorrow."

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310430238