When Kentucky’s freshman act like, well, freshmen, John Calipari is usually willing to cut them some slack.
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Shelbyville’s Barry Stewart scored 14 points to lead Mississippi State to a 62-52 win over Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament semifinals at Bridgestone Arena.
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With the SEC Tournament in town, Kentucky fans have turned out en masse and turned downtown Nashville into their own cheering section.
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John Jenkins scored 22 of his career-high 25 points in the second half, and Vanderbilt got by a tough quarterfinal opponent in Georgia 78-66 in the SEC Tournament.
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Vanderbilt’s plan was to treat Jermaine Beal to one last home win and roll into the SEC Tournament with a shot at a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
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Vanderbilt’s lone senior, Jermaine Beal, is also alone in the Commodore record books as the winningest player in school history.
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The SEC’s coaching carousel has finally come to a stop. Vanderbilt has hired Mike Pelton – a former assistant at Iowa State and Troy — as their new defensive ends coach.
Pelton fills the vacancy created when linebackers coach Warren Belin was hired by Mark Richt and Georgia.
Defensive coordinator Bruce Fowler will assume the linebacker duties. Rick Logo will continue to coach the Vandy D-line… which at this point obviously means “tackles.”
Pelton was a linebacker and defensive lineman at Auburn in the 1990s.
Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings never had won in Bud Walton Arena before the 16th-ranked Commodores beat Arkansas 89-72 on Saturday.
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Physical play has never been a trademark of Vanderbilt basketball. It’s a reputation the Commodores are trying to overcome this season.
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More than 3,500 people poured into a Powder Springs, Georgia high school gym last night to hear numerous tributes to Rajaan Bennett — murdered last week, less than a month after signing to play football at Vanderbilt.
Vandy head coach Bobby Johnson spoke at the service. “Rajaan Bennett was a dynamic football player and a great leader. But at the same time, he was humble, loving, caring and dedicated to his family. Fortunately for all of us who knew him, Rajaan showed us the way. He left us the blueprint for living a life that matters.”
Five other Vanderbilt offensive coaches attended the memorial as well.
At one point, Bennett’s literature teacher fought through tears to read an essay that Bennett had written just a week before his death. ESPN.com’s Chris Low has posted the essay in it’s entirety here.
Bennett was murdered by his mother’s ex-boyfriend, who then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.
Senseless.
Vanderbilt ticket takers seized 54 counterfeit tickets at the door on Saturday prior to the Commodores’ sold-out game against Kentucky at Memorial Gym.
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It counts as only one loss, but No. 17 Vanderbilt took Saturday’s 58-56 defeat to No. 2 Kentucky like a punch to the gut as their dreams of an SEC title likely were dashed.
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Kentucky Coach John Calipari spoke of taking not one team, but two teams to Nashville for Saturday’s highly anticipated Southeastern Conference showdown with Vanderbilt.
The Commodores and Wildcats meet today with first place in the SEC East on the line.
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The Vanderbilt football program continues to deal with the murder of their top recruit Rajaan Bennett, who was apparently murdered by the ex-boyfriend of his mother in the family’s Powder Springs, Georgia home.
An emotional Bobby Johnson spoke to media yesterday as he deals with the second shooting death of one of his players since 2004. Running back Kwane Doster was shot and killed near his hometown of Tampa little more than five years ago.
“The questions just go through your mind right away: How could this happen? Why did it happen? Why did it have to happen to a good guy like Kwane or Rajaan?
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the answers to those. That’s the bad part about it. Not only did it happen once. It’s happened twice.”
For a tremendous eulogy-style piece on the young man and the loss the Vanderbilt family has suffered, check out this offering by the ever-excellent David Climer of The Tennessean.
(And while something as tragic as this plays out in Nashville and Powder Springs, some idiot out there is picking up his phone to prank call an SEC coach or player. There are more important things in life than sending insults to an opponent, folks.)
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Lance Goulbourne came off the bench to score a career-high 18 points as Vanderbilt overcame a gritty LSU team 77-69 at Memorial Gym.
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When I say “Vanderbilt football,” I’m guessing “offense” isn’t the first thing that pops into your head. With the exception of Jay Cutler’s senior season, VU has had to rely on defense-first for the majority of Bobby Johnson’s stay in Nashville.
After last year’s stunning failures on the offensive side of the ball (8.9 points per game in SEC play), Vandy made an extra effort to target offensive players on signing day.
Now Johnson is shaking up his coaching staff as well.
Last year’s offensive coordinator, Ted Cain, has been made the special teams coordinator instead. He will continue to coach the Commodores’ tight ends.
Jimmy Kiser — who called plays for Vandy last year — has been promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator.
“Jimmy was calling the plays, but he didn’t have complete control over what plays were planned,” said Johnson. “I thought it was extremely important that the guy calling plays should have the opportunity to craft the gameplan around what they like to call in certain situations.”
Running backs coach Des Kitchings has been named running game coordinator for 2011. And receivers coach Charlie Fisher has been given the title of passing game coordinator.
In other words, every offensive coach on Vandy’s staff has the word “coordinator” somewhere in his title. Which just shows how meaningless titles are these days.
Johnson will now focus on finding a replacement for linebackers coach Warren Belin who left for Georgia last week.
Pressured into early turnovers, Georgia settled down and rallied to beat No. 18 Vanderbilt 72-58 Saturday night.
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Vanderbilt linebackers coach Warren Belin is departing the staff for a similar job at Georgia.
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Vanderbilt junior center A.J. Ogilvy has shown flashes of attitude and aggressiveness with multiple hair color and facial hair options this season.
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Vanderbilt came into Saturday’s game against Kentucky on a 10-game winning streak and leading the SEC East. But like so many times before, they left Rupp Arena with a loss.
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Kentucky’s rise to the top of the polls has been powered by its remarkable freshman class. But Vanderbilt has a pretty good freshman of its own.
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Vanderbilt overcame a 16-point deficit and a dismal defensive first half to beat Auburn 82-74 on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Gym.
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Any word of the upcoming road trips to Tennessee and Kentucky is strictly taboo for Vanderbilt players, who face Auburn today at Memorial Gym.
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Vanderbilt is fifth in the SEC in free throw shooting, but in Wednesday’s nice win at Alabama, the Commodores struggled mightily, making just 20 of 37 tries.
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