How important is defense in basketball? Ask Jermaine Beal, or any Commodore for that matter, and you're likely to hear the same answer.

"Defense wins championships," said the junior point guard. "Our goal this year is to win a championship, so we have to work on defense every day."

If you're wondering if the practice is paying off, look at Wednesday night's game against Georgia. The Commodores managed just 50 points with only sophomore A.J. Ogilvy scoring in double figures. After watching his team shoot 2-16 from downtown, you'd expect coach Kevin Stallings to make his players sleep in Memorial Gym.

But nothing could be further from the truth. He knew his team had an off night shooting.

"Well if you like offensive basketball, tonight was your night," Stallings said jokingly.

Sure, he was happy his team won, but it was how the Commodores won that had him in a good mood - the 20 forced turnovers, Georgia's 33 percent field goal shooting and the 40 points allowed.

It was defense.

"I commend our guys for their effort and how hard they played defensively - our ability to force turnovers and keep their field goals down," Stallings said. "You look at what our guys did defensively and I thought that was huge."

Vanderbilt's defense gave the Bulldogs fits all night. Georgia's two leading scorers, Howard Thompkins and Terrance Woodbury, managed just seven baskets on 27 attempts. The Bulldogs only shot two free throws and missed both. On Wednesday night, the Commodores didn't need offense.

"You can survive bad shooting nights if your defense is solid," said Stallings, whose players have held opponents to a lowly 36 percent shooting on the season, best in the country. "It wasn't a thing of beauty offensively, but we played great defensively."

Commodore fans aren't used to this. Last year, a high-scoring offense gave the Commodores a high NCAA tournament seed but a sub-par defensive effort sent them packing after the first round. This year, with five freshmen coming in and playing significant minutes, Stallings expected plenty of growing pains for this year's team on the defensive end. To his surprise, the newcomers embraced the team's defensive mindset quicker than expected.

"Usually you get these guys out of high school and they can't guard their butt with either hand," Stallings said. "It's been a credit to them that they've come in and really bought into the concept of how hard we try to play defensively and how we have to play to be successful on the defensive end. Those guys are doing a nice job - they really are."

Despite some inconsistency on offense, the Commodores head deeper into conference play with a confident outlook. Did Vanderbilt's defensive effort during Wednesday night's league opener give us an early glimpse of a surprise season?

When you're playing solid defense night in and night out, anything is possible.