The Commodores entered the halfway point of Southeastern Conference play at last-place Georgia brimming with optimism after winning 11 of 12 games, and they left asking themselves some hard questions.
Does a really good team squander an eight-point advantage against a far weaker opponent? Do they get killed on the boards (43-28) by a smaller team? Do they only have five assists and shoot 32 percent from the field?
No, but then again, that didn’t look like the Commodores we’d been accustomed to over the past few weeks. No. 18 Vanderbilt (17-5, 6-2) was out-hustled and out-played more badly the final 15 minutes of a 72-58 loss to Georgia than it had since losing to Western Kentucky nearly two months ago.
The play of the Commodores these past few weeks has indicated two things: This team is immensely talented, and this team still has not hit its ceiling.
That’s an exciting thing; after all, despite the loss, Vanderbilt still has a great record, excellent RPI and the easier half of the schedule on the horizon.
But its up-and-down play over the past three games still puzzles to a certain degree. The Commodores have such a deep roster that any given night a different player can take over. Unfortunately, too many took Saturday night off against Georgia (10-11, 2-6), who’s better than its record but still a mediocre squad.
Besides the continued inspired play of senior guard Jermaine Beal, who led the team in scoring for the fourth straight contest with 21 points, and the marked improvement of sophomore guard Brad Tinsley, who had 18, the rest of the Commodores looked like they just wanted to get on the bus back to Nashville.
Beal and Tinsley were a combined 14-28 (50 percent) from the floor; everyone else shot 6-33 (18.2 percent). The 43-28 rebounding disadvantage was embarrassing. After being harassed with great defense for the first half and the beginning of the second, Georgia solved Vanderbilt’s press and routed them down the stretch, outscoring the Commodores 42-20 over the final 15 minutes.
In a squeaker win over Mississippi State Wednesday night, Vanderbilt looked terrific for most of the night before nearly falling apart in the final four minutes with mental errors and tight play.
Perhaps most emblematic of the mercurial Vanderbilt squad is the underwhelming play of junior center A.J. Ogilvy. Routinely referred to by commentators as one of the conference’s top big men, Ogilvy has not shown that ability on a consistent basis. Rather, he’s consistently been out-muscled, out-rebounded and out-played by smaller, more skilled players. He had just six points on 2-8 shooting against the Bulldogs and struggled mightily against Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins and Tennessee’s Wayne Chism.
Ogilvy has the ability to be a game-changer, though. Look no further than his outstanding play in wins over Florida, Missouri and Arizona. So do sophomore forward Jeff Taylor, who has been in a mini-slump over the last few games, and freshman guard John Jenkins, who had a rare off night against Georgia, going 0-9 from the field.
Vanderbilt has more great players than it has ever had in Kevin Stallings’ tenure, and that has included Sweet 16 runs.
When and if this group puts it all together at once, working hard on the backboards and doing a better job of defending the 3, the Commodores will be as dangerous as any team in the country.
Tennessee is first on the docket for the second half of the schedule on Tuesday night. Think Vanderbilt wants to have its brooms ready? A season sweep of the Vols, who are also 6-2 in the SEC, and firm control of second place in the East is in its grasp, the loss to Georgia notwithstanding.
Both teams are going to be hungry for this one. The deeper, more talented team that won when these two teams met in Knoxville won’t necessarily win this time though, as the Commodores showed when they laid an egg in Athens. The hungrier one will.
