Vandy’s Stallings earns first NCAA berth
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings finally can relax.
His Commodores earned their first NCAA tournament berth Sunday in his five seasons with the school, surviving a situation eerily reminiscent of his first year in 2000 when they were snubbed despite the same 8-8 Southeastern Conference record.
“I saw the neatest thing that I’ve ever seen in all my years in college athletics (Sunday) when our name came up on the screen in my living room,” Stallings said. “The reaction was completely joyous and overwhelming. It was really a special scene. I wish I had taped it.”
The Commodores grabbed the No. 6 seed in the Phoenix regional, the highest seed of any of the three teams from Tennessee going to the NCAA tournament. Memphis was seeded seventh in the East Rutherford regional, while East Tennessee State’s play last season bumped the Bucs two spots to a No. 13 seed in the Atlanta regional.
Vanderbilt’s last NCAA berth was in 1997, but the Commodores (21-9) make their eight trip overall fresh off a run into the Southeastern Conference tournament semifinals that included an upset over fourth-ranked Mississippi State.
That performance boosted their seeding, which gave Stallings some confidence as the bracket announcement rolled to the final two games with still no talk of Vanderbilt. After beating Kentucky and Florida this season, he was more confident than in 2000 when he felt assured of a bid.
“There was some trepidation in the room. Quite frankly, I didn’t feel any. I didn’t think that there was any chance that we were not in this tournament,” Stallings said.
Vanderbilt will play No. 11 seed Western Michigan (26-4) Friday in Orlando, which immediately made Stallings’ children happy.
Stallings, who took Southern Illinois to the tournament twice, said he knows how motivated teams are once in the tournament. He found his own motivation in hearing some analysts already favoring Western Michigan.
“Obviously, there’s already a bunch of people who think they’ll beat us. By the time Friday gets here, we’ll probably be severe underdogs,” Stallings said.
There was no celebrating at Memphis coach John Calipari’s living room, where the No. 23 Tigers (21-7) reacted in quiet when hearing they would play 10th-seeded South Carolina (23-10) in Kansas City on Friday.
The Tigers also were seeded seventh last year when they lost in the opening round to Arizona State.
Memphis is making its 17th appearance and hopes to lift its level of play back to its 11-game winning streak earlier this season.
“If we play like we did when we went on the winning streak, and not the last three out of four games, we’ll be fine,” freshman forward Sean Banks said. “The last three games have been like tournament-style games down to the wire. It’s better to make mistakes then than in the next one.”
East Tennessee State wanted respect for nearly upsetting Wake Forest as a No. 15 seed in the tournament last season and for a 16-game winning streak this season. Consider that job accomplished.
Now the Bucs (27-5) make their seventh trip overall and will play fourth-seeded Cincinnati (24-6) Friday in Columbus, Ohio. First-year coach Murry Bartow knows Bearcats coach Bob Huggins well from his time at Alabama-Birmingham, and he said Huggins still has a close relationship with his father, Gene.
Bartow had talked with Bearcats assistant coach Andy Kennedy, who had worked for him at Alabama-Birmingham, within the last few days. They had hoped to stay away from each other because they remain good friends.
“We obviously know it’s going to be an incredibly hard game playing Cincinnati right there in Columbus, Ohio,” Bartow said.