Vanderbilt continued its excellent stretch as it finished a season sweep of South Carolina in Tuesday night’s Valentine’s Day contest.
The Commodores extended their win streak to four and moved to 7-6 in league play in their 75-64 win at Colonial Life Arena on Tuesday night.
Within minutes this one wasn’t in doubt.
After a quick South Carolina basket to open the game, Vanderbilt stormed back on a 15-0 run.
From there the biggest question wasn’t anything that had to do with win-loss records, it was how ugly this one would get.
South Carolina cut Vanderbilt’s lead to single digits in the second half after trailing by 20 heading into halftime, but it was too little, too late.
The Commodores finished Tuesday night’s game with four double-digit scorers and were led by 24 points from Liam Robbins along with 13 from Ezra Manjon.
Vanderbilt shows separation from the bottom of the league
For much of the season Vanderbilt seemed to be a shoe-in for one the two opening night games of the SEC tournament.
As Jerry Stackhouse’s team has hit their stride, they have proven to be unworthy of that label.
Tuesday night’s contest moved Vanderbilt to a record above .500 in league play for the first time since its last win over South Carolina on January 3rd.
The win puts Vanderbilt two wins above the highest seeded team that will be playing on that Wednesday night in Bridgestone arena and all but secures it avoiding the play-in section of the tournament.
It wasn’t just where the standings stood that provided an example of Vanderbilt’s growth and separation from the bottom of the league, either. It was about the way in which it won just as much.
In the Commodores’ first matchup with South Carolina, it took overtime and the Gamecocks’ bigs falling into foul trouble for Vanderbilt to walk off the Memorial Gymnasium floor with a win.
In Tuesday night’s 11-point win it was never a question as to whether Vanderbilt would have an enjoyable flight home, the only question was about how convincing the win would be.
That statement marks significant progress from where Vanderbilt was that dreary January night in Nashville.
It still remains to be seen whether Stackhouse’s team can go on enough of a run down the stretch to put themselves in the conversation for postseason play. One thing is clear, though. Vanderbilt isn’t the bottom dweller it looked to be a month ago.
Three quick takes:
Vanderbilt desperately needed to avoid the bad loss and it did
Vanderbilt picked up what could be considered to be its two most important wins of the season last week. As it rolled into Colombia on Tuesday night, it was imperative that what happened during the Commodores three-game winning streak wasn’t erased.
Had Vanderbilt lost to the 9-16 Gamecocks, who haven’t won a home game in SEC play, it would have picked up its second quad-four loss of the season and effectively killed any case it had for an at-large bid.
What’s holding the Commodores back from having their name in the field is the metrics. Tuesday night’s blowout win will likely give the ‘Dores a boost in the computers but what may be just as important is the way it avoided dropping with a loss.
It will take a 4-1 or 5-0 finish for Stackhouse’s team to even find their way in the bubble conversation but with their win on Tuesday night, hope is still alive for the 14-12 Commodores.
Vanderbilt won convincingly but left food on the plate
Even as Vanderbilt led by 20 points at halftime it felt like there was still plenty of room for improvement for Stackhouse’s team.
28 of the Commodores’ 40 field goals in the first half came from beyond the arc and while the Commodores knocked down seven of those attempts. For each of those makes it felt like there were just as many open ones missed or ill-advised attempts.
The first half felt like one in which the Commodores’ offense was a bit too casual.
When shots from 3-point range weren’t falling, Vanderbilt continued to settle for shots from beyond the arc and were over reliant on what it could do from 3-point range. Vanderbilt generated just six points in the paint before the break.
A solid defensive performance and South Carolina’s offensive woes allowed Vanderbilt to make this one a no-doubter, but the final margin could’ve been even more drastic had Vanderbilt played a more complete offensive game.
One of Vanderbilt’s key issues from non-conference play seems to have been eradicated
Part of the effort that Stackhouse made to teach his team to “learn how to win” involved a controllable issue, turnovers.
Stackhouse’s veteran-led group competed with the best teams on their schedule but threw away too many possessions to close out those games.
As Stackhouse’s team struggled it wasn’t an uncommon sight to see Vanderbilt involved in performances against long, athletic teams that pushed 20 turnovers.
As the group has played their best basketball it isn’t a coincidence that that has coincided with taking care of the ball.
Over Vanderbilt’s four-game winning streak, the Commodores have turned it over just 7.25 times per game.
It seems as if the Commodores have turned a corner in the turnover department and may have in general.
