Unfinished Business

Steve Megargee at Rivals.com has an excellent article explaining how Vanderbilt basketball finds itself this year in the decidedly uncharted territory of being mentioned alongside the likes of North Carolina, Kentucky, and UConn as a potential national title contender.  The back story doesn't offer much that will come as news to folks out there in VSL Nation, although it's always helpful to be reminded of just how rare it is -- particularly in the present one-and-done era of college basketball -- to have a team that starts four seniors and one junior, three of whom are potential first-round picks.

The article boasts a handful of good quotes from our players, too.  There can be no doubt that ever since the Ezeli-Jenkins-Taylor decision, these guys have said all the right things when it comes to endearing themselves to Vanderbilt fans.  Case in point -- here's JT on the Dores' unfinished business:

"It probably would have been more tempting to leave if you had actually accomplished something as a team...But it was just the fact that we love representing Vanderbilt and want a lot of good for Vanderbilt. As a group, we haven't really accomplished a lot of what [w]e had set out from the beginning to do.

"As a competitor, you always want to do well and want to leave some kind of legacy. We feel as though we've won big games, we've done well, we've been ranked high. But we haven't hung any banners. That's what it's all about in the end."

Hear, hear.

(Also worth a gander: Jason King asks "10 questions entering the '11-'12 college hoops season.")