We can talk about the past, and it won’t paint a pretty picture for Vanderbilt. Several schools in the SEC have a storied history. Kentucky, Arkansas and Florida have National Championship banners hanging from the rafters. But Vanderbilt doesn’t. There are no Final Four banners either. The farthest Vanderbilt has made it into March is the Elite Eight. And that came in 1965. Just in case you need a reminder, that was 46 years ago.  Vandy hasn’t had overwhelming success within the confines of the SEC either. The ‘Dores won the SEC Tournament title once. In 1951. They’ve won the regular season title three times — 1965, 1974, and most recently in 1993. The players in Vanderbilt’s talented incoming freshman class were born in 1993. In other words, the collective future of this Vanderbilt squad has never seen the Commodores win anything of significance.

Show Us Som Swagger, John...

Vanderbilt players may not remember 1993, but surely they remember last year. And last year reeks of enough disappointment and underachievement to fill a lifetime. Kevin Stallings’ team lost a troubling 11 games, going 9-7 in conference play. The Commodores seemed to lack the mental and physical toughness to close out winnable games. They blew double-figure leads in five of their 11 losses, including four in the second half. The keys to Vandy’s collapses were an inability to hold onto the basketball (Jeffery Taylor led the team with 2.6 TOPG) and poor defense (9th in the SEC in scoring defense, and 88th in the nation in adjusted defense according to kenpom.com). Even more important than the inconsistent play on the court, Vanderbilt lost confidence in themselves down the stretch.

This year is supposed to be different.  Last season, and the many other years of standing in the shadows of more accomplished and storied programs, can be a thing of the past. Vanderbilt has the potential to win the SEC regular season title for the first time since 1993 and go all the way to its first Final Four in school history. Kevin Stallings has an efficient offensive team with tons of talent and experience, including the wisdom that comes with beating the likes of both North Carolina and Kentucky last year. Vandy has to move forward while correcting the mistakes of the past.

The ‘Dores have plenty of believers. But they don’t need others’ support. The players are the ones who need to believe in themselves. It’s called swagger. Swag. Confidence. Returning leader John Jenkins set expectations for this year by saying, “we want to win an SEC championship. We want to go far in the NCAA Tournament. We want to leave a legacy, but we look at the banners hanging every day, and we don’t have any of our years up there.” That doesn’t sound like swagger to me. That sounds like a team that is dejected. Beaten down. Accustomed to letdown. “We want to” is a very different statement from “we will.” For Jenkins and the rest of the ‘Dores, their legacy is in their own hands. If Vandy is to avoid the mistakes of the past, they need to start acting like it. Championship teams don’t “want to” do something. Championship teams expect it, then do it. Vanderbilt must adopt a winning attitude if Jenkins and company realistically hope to see a banner hanging in Memorial Gymnasium.  Will this be the year?

Brian Joyce (333 Posts)

Brian Joyce is an advanced metrics enthusiast, college hoops junkie, and writer for the SEC basketball microsite for Rush the Court.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 24th, 2011 at 9:30 am by Brian Joyce and is filed under microsites, sec. Tagged: jeffery taylor, john jenkins, kevin stallings, vanderbilt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.