Saturday, March 12, 2011

Vanderbilt Loses 77 - 66 to the Florida Gators; Commodores Will Await Their Seeding Tomorrow

It was a tough loss. Vanderbilt led by 12 in the second half, but Florida's hot shooting ultimately proved too much for Vanderbilt. Jeffery Taylor had another stellar game, netting 21 points on 7-13 shooting, Festus Ezeli had 17 points and 9 boards, while Lance added 9 points and 12 rebounds. John Jenkins struggled, shooting 3-15 from the floor, and just 2-12 from downtown. The Commodores were a terrible 18% (6-33) from downtown, while the Gators were 52% (11-21) from behind the arc.

The Commodores looked good most of the game, but Florida was the better team. There is still reason for Commodore fans to be optimistic, but right now, everything depends on our match-ups in the NCAA Tournament.

Sound off below

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess UF owns VU this year. Clearly UF will win its first SEC Tournament. What today should demonstrate is how critical it was to get the 2nd seed in the East.

Anonymous said...

If you missed this game, don't worry. Next Thursday or Friday you will see a repeat. I am 100 percent certain that this team will blow its first round game.

AspenVU said...

Vu will win 3 in NCAA (elite 8)

Owen said...

outrebounded again and totally outshot in the 2nd half. can't win with the 2 guards knocking down a ton of 3s like that.

Anonymous said...

I actually disagree with the second comment above. I actually was encouraged with this performance. We are a jump shooting team (aside from Ezeli inside) and in order to make your jump shots you have to have your legs under you and it showed how tired we were given already playing two games and also having played on such a quick turnaround from last night. I said a couple of days ago that I thought Jenkins not playing vs. LSU was the best thing to happen to Jeff Taylor b/c it forced him to be the man and he has continued a strong showing. Ezeli is a beast right now and I don't know that there is a 5 man in the country that could shut him down the way he is playing. Jenkins will get healthy, Taylor will continue his hot streak, and Ezeli will continue to dominate inside. Even Brad looks more confidant shooting the ball which will be a huge asset. Right now the two most disappointing players are Steve and Rod. If we can get a good draw, I see no reason that this team can't make it at least to the Sweet 16. Florida is a very good team. Heck, they shot above 50% from the 3 point line. The fact that they made 11 3s and yet we still had the lead for most of the game I think shows how capable this team is. We had more second chance points than them and we are continuing to improve on the boards (even though we got outrebounded today). I think we've got a real chance moving forward from here.

Anonymous said...

Now now. I feel a lot better about this team then I did a week ago. My main reason, the play of Jeff Taylor. He is playing his best ball right now and that's what we need. Stallings won't admit it, but he knows them not getting out of the gym until midnight last night was a factor. Still, even in the loss, I think we are starting to play our best ball right now and will finish playing our best ball in the tourni. Go Dores.

Anonymous said...

This was also Stallings best showing in this tourni in a LONG time. Might have been his best showing. I feel good about it

AspenVU said...

If NCAA is the focus - we'll be better rested mentally and Physically w day off Sunday. (very glad this loss not to UT) Still gotta play 40

Andrew Smith said...

I agree, mostly, with the optimists. Our losses of late don't look -- to me -- to stem from nerves.

That said, we have been losing a lot, mostly because of two issues we need to address.

1. $%^&!!@ REBOUNDS: The rational part of me knows that CKS has been great for Vandy, but much of me wants to fire him because of his seeming inability to teach these kids something they should have learned by the time they were 12. If we tied opponents in rebounding every game, we'd have three or four losses now, a two seed and a real shot at the Final Four.

2. Jenkins is doing Really Stupid Things: JJ is great when he has room to operate but teams figured out about three weeks ago that you could nearly eliminate him by, um, guarding him. The team needs to do things to get him open -- and I frankly can't believe our screening is as bad as it is -- but if we can't get him open, he needs to stop forcing it. His "shots" against Florida were effectively and extra ten turnovers.

One other note: Chandler Parsons is only marginally more qualified than I am to be the SEC player of the year. I'd say he's the third best player on Florida. I don't think he even has a shot at the EuroLeague. He runs like there's a piano strapped to his back.

Anonymous said...

I think the rebounding stats for this game are misleading - so much of it was due to poor shot selection by VU.

AspenVU said...

Andrew has a great analysis - I dont understand why we seem to panic with 3-4 min left and a close game?

Agree JJ is really struggling at this point. Fes and JT should touch ball each possession.

If JT leaves he will be in Euro league next year.

Anonymous said...

JJ is really struggling??? He scored 29 friggin points last night. This was a team that was tired, with an injured JJ, that just ran out of gas.

Anonymous said...

I want to feel the sunshine of the optimists, but when I look at this season, one thing is pretty clear. Vandy does not beat good teams outside of Memorial gym. As things stand now, we beat one tournament team outside of Memorial. But, the UNC team Vandy beat was still struggling to incorporate Harrison Barnes, so I am not convinced UNC was a good team when Vandy beat them.

Unfortunately, next week we will be facing a good team, and we won't be playing in memorial.

Another thing that worries me is our perimeter defense, I don't think it is a coincidence that everyone shots the three pointer well against us. Mitchell from WVU shot 6-12, Ellington from USC also shot 6-12, Arkansas' Clarke 6-8, Mississippi State shot 47 percent from three last night. Florida shot 52 percent from three 3 today. Teams in the tournament tend to be good a shooting from downtown.

On paper this team looks great - a good true center, a greater shooter, maybe the best on-ball defender in the conference, solid glue guys on the bench. But to me, none of that matters, because when I watch them play, they seem so apathetic. I hate to say it, but I feel like in a number of games Vandy's opponent has decided it wanted the game more, and the 'Dore tucked tail between legs and let them take it. I don't think you can shake that kind of mental baggage off after 33 games.

I was an avid Ogilvy defender when he was with the team, but I think his critics had a point. Maybe Ogilvy body is long gone, but his soft spirit seems to be stuck with the Commodores.

I was a James Franklin doubter, but now admit to being absolutely wrong and fully converted. I hope I can write that same thing about this basketball team at this time next week.

Anonymous said...

Disagree about Parsons.

He is similar to Mike Dunlevy Jr. who has had a long and $$$ NBA career.