Commodores Still Showing Improvement Whether you Agree with me or not

I wrote last week that I felt like, despite the mounting loss total that this Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team was showing signs of improvement, and I stand by that today after their loss in Lexington last night.

Lexington-Ky.-The Kentucky Wildcats and Rupp Arena were just too much for the Vanderbilt Commodores to withstand Wednesday night as the 13th ranked Wildcats erased a 10-point second-half Commodores advantage in route to a 71-62 win. 

The loss, the twenty-fifth consecutive in Southeastern Conference regular-season games surpasses the previous record held by Sewanee (1938-40) for the longest such streak in SEC basketball history. 

I wrote last week that I believe if you look past the win-loss record- yes, I know that's why they keep score but stick with me- you can see where this team is making strides of improvement that should give hope that head coach Jerry Stackhouse and his staff have some answers to the current misery that is Vanderbilt men's basketball

Turns out, I'm not the only one who believed this. Add University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari as my proof. 

Coach Cal said as much during his weekly radio show in Lexington last week when he said, “We’re going to be in close games. We play Vanderbilt. … They’re good enough to beat us. I don’t care what their record is.”

While most thought he was babbling the usual "coach speak" about an inferior opponent, he was right and while his team walked away with the win, it was a battle and the 20,500 Big Blue faithful that packed Rupp Arena got more than they bargained for as they sat on their hands until late in the game when Kentucky finally seized control and took down the Commodores.   

Granted, it's not an improvement in the area that needs it the most, but considering the current situation this program finds itself in, any improvement must be seen as a positive. 

“They performed well. We went to Auburn early in the year and that was a spirited environment, just like here [Rupp]. This was a great test for them. Obviously, in the second half, we hit a low offensively. They had a bit of a rhythm, they [UK] make some tough shots, " said Stackhouse following the game. "Everything that was marginal didn’t go in our favor today, which happens when you’re on the road. You must be prepared for that. Hopefully, we continue to grow and know we must continue to get better. We also must play harder, especially when we’re on the road, as opposed to playing at home.”

The Commodores did play hard, just no hard enough in the end, or perhaps it's more of a lack of bodies that ultimately did them in.

Dylan Disu had perhaps the best game of his young career against the Cats, tossing in 13 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and blocking five shots, and those five blocks were more than the Wildcats had as a team in this one. 

“He was all over the place tonight. I think he was shooting the ball well, rebounding the ball really well, he was protecting the rim, had a couple of chase down blocks and different things. Like I said, marginal foul calls that changed the game for us when he had to leave the game. I brought him back earlier than I probably should’ve but he still came back seven, eight minutes because we couldn’t afford to have him out of the game, Stackhouse said. "Again, like I said, those are the things you deal with when you go on the road. You have to be ready and prepared to do more than enough, but I thought he was really good all night.”

Make no mistake, this team with all its deficiencies is playing with hustle, heart, and a no-quit attitude which should say something about the players and their coaches. 

As for the coaches, when this season started they had a certain style of play for this team, then suddenly fourteen games into the season they have an entirely different team without Aaron Nesmith and Clevon Brown.  

It took some time for them, and the players to figure out life without Nesmith in particular, but they seem to be finding a way to manage to compete.

Now they just have to find a way to win one, and that will be the next step in their improvement. 

It might not happen this week, and the misery might remain a while longer, but there are signs, even if some Commdore fans want to bash me for saying it.