Aside from solid performances by A.J. Ogilvy and Brad Tinsley (who scored 18 and 12 points respectively), the Commodores struggled to keep up with the impressive offense of the Gators in an 82-68 loss on Saturday. Five Gator players scored 10 points or more, and the team shot 61.2 percent from the field. Florida continued its mastery of Vanderbilt, sweeping this season's series and marking its 15th victory in its last 18 games against the Commodores.
Saturday's loss wasn't as ugly as Vanderbilt's last game against Florida, a 94-69 beatdown at Memorial Gym. To be fair, Ogilvy played sparingly because of a foot injury and Florida's generally mediocre Chandler Parsons blacked out like Will Ferrell in Old School and shot 10 for 11 from the field for 27 points. Regardless, losing by 25 points at home is always embarrassing. Although the final score was closer this time, Vanderbilt still never seemed like they had a chance to win.
I'll get the clich?©s out of the way now: young teams struggle on the road. But there's a difference between struggling and just plain not showing up in the first half. Vanderbilt never seemed to be competitive at any point in either of its last two road games.
The primary reason the team never seemed to be in those games was because the team basically took 10 minutes to actually start playing basketball. Here's an alarming stat: in the first 10 minutes of the last two road games, Vanderbilt has averaged 5 points (4 points against UF, 6 points against UT).
Essentially this is equivalent to scoring 10 points in a full half, and that is something most experts would describe as "not good." It's probably safe to assume that coach Kevin Stallings isn't giving pre-game speeches instructing the team not to score until the clock gets below 10 minutes, but for some reason these slow road starts are becoming a consistent problem.
Playing that poorly out of the gate takes the team out of the game as soon as it starts, and Vanderbilt needs to figure out a solution if it wants to be successful on the road in future games.
This season isn't the first in which Vanderbilt has seen struggles on the road. Last season the team led by Vanderbilt legend/demigod Shan Foster looked unbeatable at home (and consequently didn't lose), but struggled horribly on the road, finishing with an underwhelming 2-6 record away from Memorial Gym in SEC play.
Despite making an appearance in top 25 polls during the regular season, the team's ineffective play away from home led to a blowout loss to Siena in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Right now, the Commodores have a 1-5 record on the road in SEC games. This team is built to compete in future seasons and to gain experience for now.
It's possible for this team to end up being a winner that's capable of a run in the NCAA tournament in the next few years. But the team's future success will depend on whether or not it learns how to bring its best game on the road instead of leaving it at Memorial Gym.
