Vandy men enjoying proving doubters wrong
NASHVILLE (AP) — Too soft. Can’t win the big game. Not committed to big-time athletics.
Now Vanderbilt has another slight to add to a growing list: too fast.
Coach Kevin Stallings said Monday a friend pointed out his Commodores have the quickest game turnaround — by 17 minutes — as the first team to play Thursday night when they meet third-seeded Connecticut (29-6) in the Phoenix Regional semifinals.
Oklahoma State and Pittsburgh also played Sunday and tip off just after Vandy in the East Rutherford regional. But Stallings hadn’t had a chance to point that out to his Commodores (23-9).
“We haven’t talked about it since yesterday,” Stallings said Monday. “Of course, we haven’t met today.”
All insults are filed away by the Commodores, who are enjoying proving their doubters wrong in their first trip to an NCAA tournament regional semifinal since 1993 and only the third overall in school history.
“People have been downing us not only the past couple weeks but all year,” senior guard Russell Lakey said. “People didn’t know what we could do. We knew.”
This is the school that announced last September it was eliminating its athletic department. Athletic director Todd Turner, who hired Stallings in 2000, was fired, and Stallings had to deal with rumors resulting from Vandy lumping varsity athletics into the same department as intramurals.
“There were a lot of fires we had to put out because of the way it was released,” Stallings said.
Stallings already had a team that went 11-18 last season, losing nine of their final 10 and putting his job in jeopardy.
With help of a preseason trip to Spain and a four-man senior class led by all-time leading scorer Matt Freije, the Commodores came together as they beat Kentucky and snapped a 14-game SEC road losing skid. They also upset Mississippi State in the SEC tournament, earning themselves a No. 6 seed in the NCAAs.
Then the insults started.
“We’re sitting there watching TV, and everyone says, ‘We’re going to pick Western Michigan. We’re going to pick N.C. State. (Vanderbilt) can’t do it because they’re too white to do it,” said junior Corey Smith, one of three black starters for the Commodores.
That accusation came from Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan during a national radio show. Ryan said he was just kidding, but that didn’t stop the Commodores from adding it to their motivation.
“He was trying to be funny, which turned out bad,” Lakey said. “So guys want to tell him (he) got us a little more publicity, so thank you for getting us in the paper and bringing Vanderbilt to the attention of more households.”
Stallings told his team no one could call them soft after winning Sunday despite trailing by 11 with 3:45 left against N.C. State.
Freije started the comeback with six straight free throws followed by a 3-pointer. Smith capped the spurt with a backdoor layup on a play installed before their trip to Spain. He also was fouled on the play and made the free throw.
Their play has created a buzz on a campus starved for athletic success after 21 straight losing seasons in football. School officials were busy Monday trying to line up a trip for students to Phoenix even if it means chartering a plane.
Sophomore Emily Morris, an engineering major from Alabama, missed only two games this season and said she wants a ticket.
“If I can’t find some way to get to Phoenix, I’ll be in front of the TV screaming my head off,” she said.
Stallings said his Commodores will be ready as they try to reach the final eight — which would be a first for the only private school in the SEC.
“We’re still playing and one of 16 teams still playing for our sport’s national championship,” Stallings said. “And there was a while last week we felt we might have been given an invitation by accident or mistake. But maybe the committee knew we belonged.”
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