2008–09 Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team

The 2008–09 Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team represented Vanderbilt University in the 2008–09 NCAA Division I men's college basketball season. The team competed in the East Division of the Southeastern Conference and finished with an overall record of 19–12 (SEC: 8–8). They were led by Kevin Stallings, in his ninth year as head coach, and played their home games at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee. It was their sixth straight winning season, although they failed to play in a post-season tournament for the first time in five years.

2008–09 Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball
ConferenceSoutheastern Conference
Record19–12 (8–8 SEC)
Head coach
Assistant coaches
Home arenaMemorial Gymnasium
Seasons
2008–09 Southeastern Conference men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
East
South Carolina 10 6   .625 21 10   .677
Tennessee 10 6   .625 21 13   .618
Florida 9 7   .563 25 11   .694
Vanderbilt 8 8   .500 19 12   .613
Kentucky 8 8   .500 22 14   .611
Georgia 3 13   .188 12 20   .375
West
No. 21 LSU 13 3   .813 27 8   .771
Auburn 10 6   .625 24 12   .667
Mississippi State 9 7   .563 23 13   .639
Alabama 7 9   .438 18 14   .563
Ole Miss 7 9   .438 16 15   .516
Arkansas 2 14   .125 14 16   .467
† SEC Tournament winner
Rankings from AP Poll

The previous year's 2007–08 team finished 26–8 and ranked 25th in both the AP Poll and the ESPN/USA Today (Coaches) poll.

Entering the season, Vanderbilt was picked by the media attending the SEC's media days in October to finish 4th in the SEC East, behind Tennessee, Florida and Kentucky.[1]

Vanderbilt lost three starters from the previous year's team—2008 SEC-player of the year swingman Shan Foster (20.3 ppg), shooting guard Alex (Red) Gordon (10.8 ppg) and power forward Ross Neltner (8.3 ppg) – and returned two starters—sophomore center A.J. Ogilvy and junior point guard Jermaine Beal. With no seniors and only two juniors (Beal and junior guard George Drake), the Commodores were one of the youngest team's in Division I.

Ogilvy, the Commodores' leading rebounder (6.7 rpg) and second leading scorer (17.0 ppg) the previous season, was selected by the SEC media[1] and SEC coaches[2] to the pre-season all-SEC first team.

Roster edit

# Name Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown High School GP Min Ppg Rpg Apg
0 Jermaine Beal G 6–3 210 Junior DeSoto, TX DeSoto 31 33.1 12.5 3.5 3.2
1 Brad Tinsley G 6–3 180 Freshman Oregon City, OR Oregon City 31 31.0 11.0 2.5 2.8
2 Charles Hinkle G/F 6–6 200 Freshman Los Alamitos, CA Hebron Academy (Maine)/Los Alamitos 25 8.4 2.0 0.9 0.4
3 Festus Ezeli C 6–11 245 Freshman Benin City, Nigeria Igbinedion Education Center 29 12.4 3.8 2.6 0.0
4 Andrew (A.J.) Ogilvy C 6–11 250 Sophomore Sydney, Australia Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra 29 27.6 15.4 7.1 1.3
5 Lance Goulbourne G/F 6–7 215 Freshman Brooklyn, NY The Hun School 23 14.1 5.1 3.3 0.3
12 Jordan Smart2 G/F 6–6 170 Freshman Lexington, KY Lexington Catholic 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
15 Elliott Cole2 G 5–11 175 Sophomore Memphis, TN Memphis University School 10 1.7 0.3 0.1 0.0
21 Darshawn McClellan F 6–7 220 Sophomore Fresno, CA Edison (Fresno) 31 16.9 2.1 3.0 1.1
22 Jamie Graham2 G 5–11 180 Sophomore Nashville, TN Whites Creek 5 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.2
24 Andre Walker1 F 6–7 214 Sophomore Flossmoor, IL Brewster Academy (N.H.)/Homewood-Flossmoor 3 23.7 4.7 4.7 1.3
33 Steve Tchiengang F 6–8 240 Freshman Douala, Cameroon Montverde Academy/Cypress Community Christian 25 17.3 3.6 3.2 0.5
34 George Drake G 6–4 210 Junior Calera, AL Calera 30 17.4 5.4 2.7 1.2
44 Jeffery Taylor G-F 6–7 200 Freshman Norrköping, Sweden Hobbs High School, Hobbs, NM 31 26.0 12.2 6.2 1.7

1 Missed the season after torn ACL against MTSU. 2 Walk-on.

Source: ESPN.com[3]

2008–09 schedule and results edit

Date
time, TV
Rank# Opponent# Result Record Site (attendance)
city, state
Exhibition
November 9*
4:00 pm
Alabama-Huntsville W 84–65 
Memorial Gymnasium (11,655)
Nashville, TN
Regular season
November 16*
4:00 pm
Morehead State W 74–48  1–0
Memorial Gymnasium (12,562)
Nashville, TN
November 20*
7:00 pm, FSN
Illinois L 63–69  1–1
Memorial Gymnasium (12,630)
Nashville, TN
November 24*
7:00 pm, CSS
Middle Tennessee State W 65–57  2–1
Memorial Gymnasium (12,502)
Nashville, TN
November 26*
7:00 pm
Central Arkansas
Cancun Challenge
W 83–62  3–1
Memorial Gymnasium (12,126)
Nashville, TN
November 29*
7:30 pm, CBSCS
vs. Drake
Cancun Challenge
W 72–57  4–1
Moon Palace Resort (275)
Cancun, MX
November 30*
9:30 pm, CBSCS
vs. VCU
Cancun Challenge
W 71–66  5–1
Moon Palace Resort (312)
Cancun, MX
December 3*
7:00 pm
Illinois-Chicago L 55–74  5–2
Memorial Gymnasium (13,214)
Nashville, TN
December 6*
1:00 pm, FSN
at Georgia Tech L 51–63  5–3
Alexander Memorial Coliseum (7,219)
Atlanta, GA
December 10*
7:00 pm, CSS
Alabama A&M W 78–55  6–3
Memorial Gymnasium (12,662)
Nashville, TN
December 16*
6:00 pm, ESPN2
South Florida
Big East/SEC Challenge
W 71–52  7–3
Sommet Center (9,498)
Nashville, TN
December 20*
5:00 pm, CSS
Tennessee Tech W 83–63  8–3
Memorial Gymnasium (12,700)
Nashville, TN
December 22*
8:00 pm, CSS
Furman W 68–49  9–3
Memorial Gymnasium (11,961)
Nashville, TN
December 31*
11:00 am
Saint Francis (PA) W 84–55  10–3
Memorial Gymnasium (12,496)
Nashville, TN
January 3*
4:00 pm, CBSCS
at Massachusetts W 78–48  11–3
Mullins Center (5,698)
Amherst, Massachusetts
January 10
1:00 pm, LFS
at Kentucky L 60–70  11–4
(0–1)
Rupp Arena (24,249)
Lexington, KY
January 14
7:00 pm
Georgia W 50–40  12–4
(1–1)
Memorial Gymnasium (13,972)
Nashville, TN
January 17
7:00 pm, FSN
at Mississippi State L 66–73  12–5
(1–2)
Humphrey Coliseum (9,268)
Starkville, MS
January 20
8:00 pm, ESPN
Tennessee
Super Tuesday
L 63–76  12–6
(1–3)
Memorial Gymnasium (14,057)
Nashville, TN
January 25
12:30 pm, CBS
No. 24 Florida L 69–94  12–7
(1–4)
Memorial Gymnasium (13,993)
Nashville, TN
January 28
6:00 pm
at South Carolina L 76–86  12–8
(1–5)
Colonial Life Arena (12,766)
Columbia, SC
January 31
1:00 pm
at Auburn W 82–75  13–8
(2–5)
Beard–Eaves–Memorial Coliseum (6,896)
Auburn, AL
February 5
6:00 pm, ESPN2
Alabama W 79–74  14–8
(3–5)
Memorial Gymnasium (13,850)
Nashville, TN
February 7
12:00 pm, CBS
Mississippi W 71–61  15–8
(4–5)
Memorial Gymnasium (14,316)
Nashville, TN
February 14
2:00 pm, LFS
at Tennessee L 50–69  15–9
(4–6)
Thompson–Boling Arena (20,375)
Knoxville, TN
February 17
8:00 pm, ESPN
Kentucky
Super Tuesday
W 77–64  16–9
(5–6)
Memorial Gymnasium (14,366)
Nashville, TN
February 21
2:00 pm, LFS
at Florida L 68–82  16–10
(5–7)
O'Connell Center (12,543)
Gainesville, FL
February 25
6:30 pm
at Georgia L 57–61  16–11
(5–8)
Stegeman Coliseum (5,841)
Athens, GA
February 28
8:00 pm, ESPNU
South Carolina W 96–83  17–11
(6–8)
Memorial Gymnasium (13,963)
Nashville, TN
March 4
7:00 pm
at No. 12 LSU W 75–67  18–11
(7–8)
Pete Maravich Assembly Center (13,249)
Baton Rouge, LA
March 8
1:00 pm, LFS
Arkansas W 75–58  19–11
(8–8)
Memorial Gymnasium (14,316)
Nashville, TN
SEC tournament
March 12
6:30 pm, LFS
vs. Alabama
Round 1
L 75–82  19–12
St. Pete Times Forum (12,152)
Tampa, FL
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.
All times are in Central Time.

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Ogilvy named to Preseason All-SEC First Team". VUCommodores.com. Retrieved April 24, 2009.
  2. ^ "Ogilvy named to Coaches' Preseason All-SEC 1st Team". VUCommodores.com. Retrieved April 24, 2009.
  3. ^ "Vanderbilt Commodores' Clubhouse". ESPN.com. Retrieved April 20, 2009.