More About Vanderbilt, Memorial Gymnasium

Yesterday, in the wake of Vanderbilt's win over #1 Tennessee, we made note of Vanderbilt's impressive historical record of defeating #1 teams in games played at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gymnasium.

"Vanderbilt (24-4, 9-4) has hosted the No. 1 team nine times in its 56 years at Memorial Gym, and the Commodores improved to 6-3 overall in those games with victories in the past four, including then-No. 1 Florida last year. The Commodores also now have won all 18 home games this season and 31 of their last 32."

Rush the Court has more about the legendary Memorial Gymnasium.

Vanderbilt Knocks Off #1 Tennessee

Four days after winning the biggest game in the history of their basketball program (Saturday's 66-62 win over then #1 Memphis), Tennessee was upset by #18 Vanderbilt 72-69 Tuesday night.

Tennessee was ranked #1 for the first time in school history when this week's AP Top 25 was released on Monday, but the Volunteers' stay at #1 appears certain to be short lived.

In the wake of Saturday's historic win over Memphis, head coach Bruce Pearl and his Tennessee squad were the beneficiaries of a tremendous amount of media attention. Tennessee, it was said, had climbed the mountain to elite basketball status. So it's fitting that Tennessee's sudden downfall came at the hands of their old in-state conference rival Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt has a history of knocking off #1 teams. As the above Sports Illustrated article says (see the link in the first paragraph of this post):

"Vanderbilt (24-4, 9-4) has hosted the No. 1 team nine times in its 56 years at Memorial Gym, and the Commodores improved to 6-3 overall in those games with victories in the past four, including then-No. 1 Florida last year. The Commodores also now have won all 18 home games this season and 31 of their last 32."

Over the course of the last four days, two different basketball programs from the state of Tennessee have held the #1 ranking in the nation, and both of those programs have been knocked off by in state rivals.

This season, the state of Tennessee has become the epicenter of college basketball; a title that has, historically, belonged to states that border Tennessee: Kentucky and North Carolina. And despite the college basketball mania to its North and East, college football has always been king in the Volunteer state.

But, at least for 2008, things have definitely changed.

One more thing: although he's built a great program at Vanderbilt (and may well be content to stay there), head coach Kevin Stallings is certain to be a hot prospect to fill one of the big name coaching vacancies that will arise at the conclusion of the college basketball regular season. One can expect to hear his name associated with some of the more well publicized coaching searches (especially Indiana).

Vanderbilt Hands Kentucky 41 Point Loss

Yesterday, Drive and Dish marveled over how new coach Billy Gillispie and Kentucky had righted their ship and were beginning to make up for their early season woes.

We noted that Kentucky had won its previous five games. We mentioned their upset wins over Vanderbilt and Tennessee. We even said that Kentucky basketball was undergoing a resurgence.

Well, no sooner did Drive and Dish coronate Kentucky college basketball's "comeback kids" of 2008, than did Kentucky stumble off Vanderbilt's raised court as the owners of a 41 point loss courtesy of the same Vanderbilt Commodores team that they had triumphantly upset a mere month ago.

Vanderbilt embarrassed Kentucky, 93-52.

Call it payback. Call it revenge. Call it schadenfreude.

Call it what you will.

But whatever you call it, there's no denying what Vanderbilt did to Kentucky last night: Vandy absolutely put the smack down on Billy Gillispie and the Wildcats.

Just when Kentucky was starting to surge, they went out and got handed the program's worst loss since an ignominious 150-95 drubbing by Kansas in 1989 (Rick Pitino's first year as Kentucky's coach).

Kentucky is now 12-10, and 6-3 in the SEC.

The Wildcats are still, technically, on the post season bubble. But tonight's humiliating loss put a crushing halt to Kentucky's recent momentum. Worse yet, the damage done by tonight's beat down could be enough to derail Kentucky's "resurgence" altogether.

Time will tell.

But Billy Gillispie is on the clock (again).

The Resurgence of Kentucky Basketball?

Today, Jason Brubaker at CollegeHoops.net argues that Kentucky basketball is undergoing a resurgence under first year head coach Billy Gillispie.

Gillispie got off to a rough start at Kentucky as the Wildcats lost to several "cupcake" teams early in the season, including an embarrassing season opening loss to Gardner Webb.

But Kentucky has been playing much better since the new year and the start of SEC play.

Don't look now, but Kentucky has won five straight games, has pulled off big upsets of Vanderbilt and Tennessee, and is currently ranked second in the SEC East.

In November and December, Kentucky fans were busy debating how long Billy Gillispie would last as the Wildcats' coach. Now they're debating how highly the Cats will be seeded in the NCAA Tournament.

Kentucky Upsets Tennessee

By Trashtalk Superstar

Just one day after Drive and Dish speculated about the possibility of John Calipari, Bruce Pearl and Kelvin Sampson -- princely souls that they are -- being in the top five in next week's AP Top 25, Kentucky upset Tennessee 72-66.

Drive and Dish has been tough on first year Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie. But after pulling major upsets over Vanderbilt and now Tennessee, it looks like "Billy Clyde" is starting to get things under control in Lexington. Two weeks ago, he was a goat to many Wildcats fans. But now he's probably the toast of the town ("toast" may not have been the best choice of words -- sorry about that -- but you know what I'm trying to say [Kentucky may be starting to embrace Gillispie]).

Tennessee plays a fun style of basketball. They throw full court pressure at teams and they look to turn turnovers into transition baskets. They've also got guys who can break you down off the dribble and get to the rack. And they LOVE to shoot the three. Best of all, they run, run, run and run some more.

Tennessee is fun to watch and they'd be fun to play for.

But Head Coach Bruce Pearl is a dirtbag. He's as sleazy a guy as you'll find in college basketball ... and that's really saying something.

Last night's loss aside, Tennessee will be a highly seeded team in the NCAA Tournament and they'll probably be a trendy Final Four pick in a lot of people's NCAA brackets. But I believe that they're overrated and that they're not likely to reach the Final Four.

Time will tell.

In the meantime, congratulations to Kentucky.