*** 2014-2015 BASKETBALL SEASON RECAP *** (part two)
Apr 7, 2015 18:16:34 GMT
Post by Admin on Apr 7, 2015 18:16:34 GMT
*** 2014-2015 BASKETBALL SEASON RECAP *** (part two)
SEC regular season
Home SEC opening game vs. Bruce and his Auburn team
Siakam's double-double and a huge rebounding advantage are key to a 12 point win in front of an excited crowd. It was the Commodore's tenth win in a row over Auburn and rant the record to a respectable 11-3. This created a fair amount of buzz within the VU sports fanbase. There was talk about a big dance opportunity. There was also concern that Baldwin and Fisher-Davis were held to a combined 2 points and 4 turnovers which was ignored by the majority of the fans, who were too giddy over being 1-0 in the SEC to acknowledge those stats and those who were not present in person didn't witness how frail Fisher-Davis appeared compared to the older and thick-body built Auburn players. (He did appear stronger at the end of the season and an off-season in the weight room will do wonders for his basketball future, because as we all found out in the N.I.T. - the guy can flat out hit a run of jump shots that will demoralize another team when he is "feeling it." (aka - "in a zone")
It all comes crashing down... an unexpected seven game skid
The after-glow of beating the much despised Bruce "show cause" Pearl was short lived. Arkansas has historically been a hard place to win and this season was no exception as Bobby Portis upstaged Damian Jones in the expected battle of the bigs by hitting a remarkable 13 of 18 on the way to a 32 point day. To their credit, this young Dores team cut the deficit to one point in the second half but clutch plays by All-SEC guard Michael Qualls help the Hogs to a 12 point win. Fisher-Davis was the story for Vandy that day, hitting 4 of 6 from deep in an impressive bounceback outing. Not discouraged, everybody looked forward to a home win over Georgia. The Dogs hadn't won in Memorial in ten years and historically had struggled to win there ever. A hard to explain sloppy ineffective first half did Vandy in. The crowd was discouraged from the opening moments as Georgia got off to a fast start. Some fans compared watching the first half to the joys of having a painful root canal. But the young Dores showed real fight in the second half, playing like a whole new team and finally falling by only three. Siakam and Baldwin were saddled with foul trouble and as the season progress, it became clear that they were the leaders in the "tough" and "glue" department and to win SEC games would require solid contributions from them. Everybody had the game at Mississippi St. circled as a win all season, so this was going to be the turnaround game. Right? Not so fast my friend. One thing about young teams with talent, is they still manage to gag one up at the worst time. Maybe overconfidence from an early 12 point lead was the fools gold the paved the way for this collapse. Coach Stallings was now 10-11 all time vs. State - a stat that didn't sit well with some of the fanbase. It was State's first SEC win in forever and with a trip to Rupp Arena to face the unbeaten and top ranked Wildcats couldn't have been worse timing. However, with young teams, you never know. Kind of like Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates rant on the park bench in Savannah. The young Dores brought it the entire game at Rupp, not intimidated for a minute by the crowd, the city, the arena, the history, or anything else. They were focused on playing ball and trailed only four at the half. LaChance and Fisher-Davis hit 7 of 11 from deep to keep VU in the game. Unfortunately, Kornet picked the worst time to go cold, going 0-5 from three. Kentucky shot 32 free throws to Vandy's 12 raising the age old questions about games at Rupp and both teams were master brick masons at the line as UK missed eleven while VU went a concerning 50% themselves. Not discouraged by a competitive loss at Rupp, Vandy battled a talented and experienced LSU team at Memorial next. The Bengal Tigers would run their record to an impressive 15-4 with an overtime win. Fisher-Davis, LaChance, and Mitchell were a combined 0-9 from three while the re-emergence of Baldwin and Kornet kept Vandy squarely in the hunt as they combined for 40 points. Next up was a trip to Athens, Ga. for a rematch with the Bulldogs and a game where neither team played particularly great. Vanderbilt missed five straight shots and turned it over three times, going nearly 5-1/2 minutes without scoring at one point. Georgia out-rebounded the Dores to hang on for an ugly eight point win. Next up was Texas A&M who was on their longest winning steak in years. They were up wire-to-wire in a game where it felt like Vandy really didn't have a shot at pulling it out even after near misses vs. powers UK and LSU.
Happy days are here again (except for two of the remaining ten games)
Yes, this wasn't one of Donavan's powerhouse Florida teams, but a welcome win. Vanderbilt's 15-point lead at the start was its biggest since the Commodores' last win when they were up 19 against Auburn on Jan. 6th and Siakam tied his career-high with his five blocks. Vandy had a 9-2 edge in blocks. Dores hung on for the six point win despite missing 13 free throws. The free throw miss bug would come back to haunt Vandy soon enough. But not in the next game against hapless Mizzou. Yes, the Dores were 50% at the line that afternoon but it mattered little as Mizzou struggled to get one player into double figures while the Dores dominated the glass by a 20 rebound margin and the were up on the scoreboard by as much as 27 during the mismatch. This provided momentum for a shocking 54 point second half in Knoxville and a win over the rotten orange. Vanderbilt made its last 13 field-goal attempts to beat the rotten vile orange clad team 73-65 which was made even sweeter because it was the orange team's fourth straight loss. Previous to this, the Dores exploded from a 12 point deficit to beat South Carolina by 15. Yes, that is a 27 point turnaround as this team was starting to really show some "never say die" in their game. An 18-0 run had much to do with this. This was followed by an badly timed free throw debacle at home vs. the rotten orange allowing them to salvage a regular season split. Next: A road win at Alabama in a well played game with only seven VU turnover, certainly showing a great deal of maturation for the young team. Jones canned 7 of 11 field goals and 6 of 9 free throws, his sixth 20-point game of the season. Unfortunately after the road win at Bama, the Dores were outrebounded by an undermanned Florida team in in Gainesville for a close loss. The Gators outscored VU 26-10 in the paint. The Dores returned home and gained a season split vs. Mississippi State. Only a sub-50% performance at the free throw line looked negative on that stat sheet. The best was yet to come. In the final regular season game, at Oxford MS on senior night, the Dores were impressive for all 40 minutes against a very good and experienced Rebels/Bears team. LaChance was sterling with 19 points and a career best 8 assists. Not only did it run the regular season record to an impressive 19-12, it guaranteed at least a .500 SEC regular season in spite of the 7 game skid. VU ran off to a 46-33 lead at the half backed by 9 of 15 barrage from 3-point land. It was a rare occasion that Vandy had five players score in double figures made even more impressive because VU only used a total of eight players (while Ole Miss played ten) yet the Dores win solidly despite only shooting 19 free throws to OM's 27. The traits that emerge during this second part of the season that foreshadow potentially big things for next season include the ability to fight from behind to pull out wins, the ability to win even while being outrebounded and/or getting to the free throw line less times, the ability to put five players in double figures (on the road at that) and the ability for coming back from heart breaking defeats (like in OT vs. the rotten orange) to notch solid wins (like the one at Alabama).
PART THREE will be next...the SEC-T...the N.I.T. plus predictions for next season - stay tuned!
SEC regular season
Home SEC opening game vs. Bruce and his Auburn team
Siakam's double-double and a huge rebounding advantage are key to a 12 point win in front of an excited crowd. It was the Commodore's tenth win in a row over Auburn and rant the record to a respectable 11-3. This created a fair amount of buzz within the VU sports fanbase. There was talk about a big dance opportunity. There was also concern that Baldwin and Fisher-Davis were held to a combined 2 points and 4 turnovers which was ignored by the majority of the fans, who were too giddy over being 1-0 in the SEC to acknowledge those stats and those who were not present in person didn't witness how frail Fisher-Davis appeared compared to the older and thick-body built Auburn players. (He did appear stronger at the end of the season and an off-season in the weight room will do wonders for his basketball future, because as we all found out in the N.I.T. - the guy can flat out hit a run of jump shots that will demoralize another team when he is "feeling it." (aka - "in a zone")
It all comes crashing down... an unexpected seven game skid
The after-glow of beating the much despised Bruce "show cause" Pearl was short lived. Arkansas has historically been a hard place to win and this season was no exception as Bobby Portis upstaged Damian Jones in the expected battle of the bigs by hitting a remarkable 13 of 18 on the way to a 32 point day. To their credit, this young Dores team cut the deficit to one point in the second half but clutch plays by All-SEC guard Michael Qualls help the Hogs to a 12 point win. Fisher-Davis was the story for Vandy that day, hitting 4 of 6 from deep in an impressive bounceback outing. Not discouraged, everybody looked forward to a home win over Georgia. The Dogs hadn't won in Memorial in ten years and historically had struggled to win there ever. A hard to explain sloppy ineffective first half did Vandy in. The crowd was discouraged from the opening moments as Georgia got off to a fast start. Some fans compared watching the first half to the joys of having a painful root canal. But the young Dores showed real fight in the second half, playing like a whole new team and finally falling by only three. Siakam and Baldwin were saddled with foul trouble and as the season progress, it became clear that they were the leaders in the "tough" and "glue" department and to win SEC games would require solid contributions from them. Everybody had the game at Mississippi St. circled as a win all season, so this was going to be the turnaround game. Right? Not so fast my friend. One thing about young teams with talent, is they still manage to gag one up at the worst time. Maybe overconfidence from an early 12 point lead was the fools gold the paved the way for this collapse. Coach Stallings was now 10-11 all time vs. State - a stat that didn't sit well with some of the fanbase. It was State's first SEC win in forever and with a trip to Rupp Arena to face the unbeaten and top ranked Wildcats couldn't have been worse timing. However, with young teams, you never know. Kind of like Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates rant on the park bench in Savannah. The young Dores brought it the entire game at Rupp, not intimidated for a minute by the crowd, the city, the arena, the history, or anything else. They were focused on playing ball and trailed only four at the half. LaChance and Fisher-Davis hit 7 of 11 from deep to keep VU in the game. Unfortunately, Kornet picked the worst time to go cold, going 0-5 from three. Kentucky shot 32 free throws to Vandy's 12 raising the age old questions about games at Rupp and both teams were master brick masons at the line as UK missed eleven while VU went a concerning 50% themselves. Not discouraged by a competitive loss at Rupp, Vandy battled a talented and experienced LSU team at Memorial next. The Bengal Tigers would run their record to an impressive 15-4 with an overtime win. Fisher-Davis, LaChance, and Mitchell were a combined 0-9 from three while the re-emergence of Baldwin and Kornet kept Vandy squarely in the hunt as they combined for 40 points. Next up was a trip to Athens, Ga. for a rematch with the Bulldogs and a game where neither team played particularly great. Vanderbilt missed five straight shots and turned it over three times, going nearly 5-1/2 minutes without scoring at one point. Georgia out-rebounded the Dores to hang on for an ugly eight point win. Next up was Texas A&M who was on their longest winning steak in years. They were up wire-to-wire in a game where it felt like Vandy really didn't have a shot at pulling it out even after near misses vs. powers UK and LSU.
Happy days are here again (except for two of the remaining ten games)
Yes, this wasn't one of Donavan's powerhouse Florida teams, but a welcome win. Vanderbilt's 15-point lead at the start was its biggest since the Commodores' last win when they were up 19 against Auburn on Jan. 6th and Siakam tied his career-high with his five blocks. Vandy had a 9-2 edge in blocks. Dores hung on for the six point win despite missing 13 free throws. The free throw miss bug would come back to haunt Vandy soon enough. But not in the next game against hapless Mizzou. Yes, the Dores were 50% at the line that afternoon but it mattered little as Mizzou struggled to get one player into double figures while the Dores dominated the glass by a 20 rebound margin and the were up on the scoreboard by as much as 27 during the mismatch. This provided momentum for a shocking 54 point second half in Knoxville and a win over the rotten orange. Vanderbilt made its last 13 field-goal attempts to beat the rotten vile orange clad team 73-65 which was made even sweeter because it was the orange team's fourth straight loss. Previous to this, the Dores exploded from a 12 point deficit to beat South Carolina by 15. Yes, that is a 27 point turnaround as this team was starting to really show some "never say die" in their game. An 18-0 run had much to do with this. This was followed by an badly timed free throw debacle at home vs. the rotten orange allowing them to salvage a regular season split. Next: A road win at Alabama in a well played game with only seven VU turnover, certainly showing a great deal of maturation for the young team. Jones canned 7 of 11 field goals and 6 of 9 free throws, his sixth 20-point game of the season. Unfortunately after the road win at Bama, the Dores were outrebounded by an undermanned Florida team in in Gainesville for a close loss. The Gators outscored VU 26-10 in the paint. The Dores returned home and gained a season split vs. Mississippi State. Only a sub-50% performance at the free throw line looked negative on that stat sheet. The best was yet to come. In the final regular season game, at Oxford MS on senior night, the Dores were impressive for all 40 minutes against a very good and experienced Rebels/Bears team. LaChance was sterling with 19 points and a career best 8 assists. Not only did it run the regular season record to an impressive 19-12, it guaranteed at least a .500 SEC regular season in spite of the 7 game skid. VU ran off to a 46-33 lead at the half backed by 9 of 15 barrage from 3-point land. It was a rare occasion that Vandy had five players score in double figures made even more impressive because VU only used a total of eight players (while Ole Miss played ten) yet the Dores win solidly despite only shooting 19 free throws to OM's 27. The traits that emerge during this second part of the season that foreshadow potentially big things for next season include the ability to fight from behind to pull out wins, the ability to win even while being outrebounded and/or getting to the free throw line less times, the ability to put five players in double figures (on the road at that) and the ability for coming back from heart breaking defeats (like in OT vs. the rotten orange) to notch solid wins (like the one at Alabama).
PART THREE will be next...the SEC-T...the N.I.T. plus predictions for next season - stay tuned!