COACH: Kevin Stallings, 12 years at Vanderbilt, five years in NCAA tournament.
HOW THEY GOT IN: At-large bid.
GO-TO GUYS: Sophomore G John Jenkins is the guy the Commodores want with the ball in his hands in the closing seconds of a close game. He's a career 44-percent three-point shooter who averages nearly 20 points a game. Junior G/F Jeffery Taylor averaged 14.5 points per game in the regular season and is a solid defender. Junior C Festus Ezeli has given the Commodores more of an athletic presence inside than they had a year ago with A.J. Ogilvy. He's one of the SEC's top shot-blockers (3.0 per game in games).
X FACTOR: Junior PG Brad Tinsley has decent numbers with his 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio in league play second only to the 3.4 of Georgia's Dustin Ware, and he also averaged nearly 12 points per game in the regular season. But there is more to playing the position than mere numbers. If the Commodores are to make it past the second round of the tournament, he is going to have to make the right decisions and get the ball to the right people at the right time, especially at the end of close games.
STRENGTHS: Vandy was the best shooting team in the SEC (46.2 percent) in the regular season and No. 2 to Kentucky from three-point range (38.4). The Commodores also defend the perimeter well, holding foes to a league-low 29.4 percent from 3-point range. Vandy also is more athletic than some Commodore teams of the past, continuing a trend that began a couple of years ago. This isn't a team that shies away from pushing the envelope on offense, averaging nearly 77 points a game in the regular season and league-best 74 in league play.
WEAKNESSES: The Commodores held a plus-2.6 advantage in rebounding for the season, but they were outrebounded by a little under one a game in 16 SEC contests, including a 13-rebound deficit in the loss to Florida in their regular-season finale. At times, they don't exhibit the toughness on defense they need to. Consistency is the issue, not ability. They also wound up the regular season on the negative side in turnover margin, making about one more a game than their opponents.
