Commodores Hosts LSU still Looking to find a way to win

As the losses and injuries mounted, the Vanderbilt men's basketball team continued on and now other issues have placed questions in their path.

The hardest part sometimes is to place all the outside distractions away and focus on the task at hand. That's exactly what the Vanderbilt Commodores have to do tonight.

The Commodores host the LSU Tigers tonight at Memorial Gym in the wake of another upheaval within the athletic department after the resignation of athletic director Malcolm Turner, who hired head basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse as one of the first moves he made during his tenure. 

Stackhouse said all the right things on Tuesday as he addressed media following the announcement of Turner's resignation. And who knows, kids are resilient and this whole thing might have zero impact on them, but what of their coach. 

As for LSU, it wasn't that long ago the head coach Will Wade was in deep trouble, suspended by the NCAA and looking as if he would be fired and the Tigers slammed in NCAA jail. None of that happened miraculously and the Tigers are rolling on. 

The Tigers sport a 17-4 overall record and a perfect 8-0 mark in SEC play. Not exactly what a struggling Commodores squad needed right now, but that's the task to stop the Bayou Bunch that averages 79.8 ppg, good for 23rd nationally in scoring. 

On the defensive side, the Tigers allow 69.6 ppg, which means teams can score on them, but you don't want to get into a high scoring game, especially if you are offensively challenged.   

The Tigers are also glass eaters, meaning the usually win the rebounding battle against even good rebounding teams, thus compounding the challenge for the Commodores. 

Skylar Mays leads the Tigers offense, averaging 15.3 ppg as one of five Tigers averaging double figures on the season. Emmitt Williams, Trendon Watford, Javonta Smart and Darius Day are the others who are capable of providing a big game offensively at any time. 

The Tigers aren't the biggest team, with Watford at 6'9" 235-pounds providing the inside force, which has been the Achilles heel of the Commodores this season. The rest of the Tigers are simple 6'4" to 6'6" and ultra-athletic, which is another thing Vanderbilt has struggled with this season.

How did Jerry Stackhouse describe the Tigers on Tuesday? 

“Scary,” Stackhouse said. “They got four guys averaging over 12 points. They’re athletic, they got size, they crash the boards, they’re skilled – whatever other superlatives you can say, they’re right there.”

It will take a near-perfect game in every aspect for the Commodores to find their first conference win against the best team in the conference, even inside Memorial Gym, but then the "Memorial Magic" is due to make an appearance again at some point.

Here's to hoping it finds its way inside tonight. 

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