2006-07 VANDERBILT COMMODORES MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM

The '2006-07 Vanderbilt Commodores men’s basketball team' finished with a 22-12 record (SEC East: 10-6, 2nd) and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Commodores were ranked No. 19 in the final ESPN/USA Today (Coaches) poll.

Contents

Preseason outlook

Regular season

NCAA Tournament

Awards

Roster and individual statistics

2006-07 schedule and results

References

Preseason outlook

Entering the season, Vanderbilt was picked by the media attending the SEC's media days in October to finish 4th in a strong SEC East, behind the defending national champion Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee.^[1] They returned three starters: swingmen Shan Foster and Derrick Byars and point guard Alex Gordon. Foster was their leading scorer last season and was the third-leading returning scorer in the SEC. Vanderbilt lost two starters: Julian Terrell, their top rebounder (7.2 rpg), and rising-junior DeMarre Carroll, their second-leading scorer (12.1 ppg). Terrell graduated, while Carroll unexpectedly decided to transfer to Missouri shortly after the 2005-06 season ended.^[2]
Junior Shan Foster was named by the league’s coaches to the preseason all-SEC first team.^[3]

Regular season

The Commodores got off to a rocky 1-3 start that included an embarrassing home loss to Furman (15-16 final record, 8-10 Southern Conference). After that, Vanderbilt won 17 of their next 22 games, culminating in an 83-70 home win over then-No. 1 Florida (33-5, SEC East: 14-2, 1st). They entered the NCAA Tournament winning only 2 of their last 5 games, including two losses to Arkansas (21-14, SEC West: 7-9, 3rd), but one of the wins was a come-from-behind 67-65 home win over Kentucky (22-12, SEC East: 9-7, 4th), their fourth straight win over the Wildcats.
Vanderbilt finished the regular season tied for 2nd with Tennessee (24-11, SEC East: 10-6) in the SEC East, four games behind eventual national champion Florida (35-5, SEC East: 14-2, 1st).

NCAA Tournament

The Commodores were the No. 6 seed in the East Regional and lost 66-65 to No. 2 seeded Georgetown (30-6, Big East: 13-3, 1st) at East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Commodores defeated No. 11 seeded George Washington (23-9, A-10: 11-5, 3rd) in the first round, 77-44, and No. 3 seeded Washington State (26-7, Pac-10: 13-5, 2nd), 78-74, in two overtimes, at ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California.

Awards

Following the end of the regular season, head coach Kevin Stallings was named SEC Coach of the Year by his fellow SEC coaches, while senior Derrick Byars was named SEC Player of the Year by the league coaches (the AP chose Chris Lofton of Tennessee). Stallings has now led the Commodores to 20 wins in three of the last four seasons. Byars led the Commodores in scoring with 17.0 points per game and was a unanimous selection to the All-SEC first team. Junior Shan Foster, who averaged 15.6 points per game, was named to the All-SEC second team.^[4]
Including NCAA Tournament games, Vanderbilt finished the season 7-3 against teams ranked in the Top 25.

Roster and individual statistics

'Number'	'Name'	'Position'	'Height'	'Weight'	'Year'	'Hometown'	'High School'	'GP'	'Min'	'Ppg'	'Rpg'	'Apg'
0	Jermaine Beal	G	6-3	205	Freshman	DeSoto, TX	DeSoto	34	16.8	3.8	1.8	1.8
2	David Rodriguez	G	6-2	180	Sophomore	Sarasota, FL	Out-of-Door Academy	2	2.0	0.5	0.0	0.5
3	Alex Gordon	G	5’11	164	Junior	Pensacola, FL	Pensacola	34	24.0	7.8	2.4	3.3
4	Derrick Byars	G-F	6-7	230	Senior	Memphis, TN	Ridgeway	34	31.4	17.0	4.9	3.4
11	Alan Metcalfe	F	6-9	265	Junior	St. Helens, England	Notre Dame Academy (Va.)	21	7.5	2.6	1.9	0.1
14	Aubrey Hammond	G	6-4	184	Junior	Charlottesville, VA	Woodberry Forest School	13	4.2	0.8	0.5	0.2
20	Dan Cage	G	6-5	215	Senior	Indianapolis, IN	Bishop Chatard	34	28.9	11.2	3.3	2.2
31	JeJuan Brown	F	6-7	226	Freshman	Biloxi, MS	Biloxi	34	13.3	3.1	2.5	0.6
32	Shan Foster	G-F	6-6	200	Junior	Kenner, LA	Bonnabel	34	32.4	15.6	4.6	2.3
34	George Drake	G	6-4	213	Freshman	Calera, AL	Calera	33	10.3	2.7	1.4	0.6
41	Ross Neltner	F	6-9	247	Junior	Fort Thomas, KY	Highlands	34	25.0	9.2	5.7	2.2
54	Ted Skuchas	C	6-11	242	Senior	Audubon, PA	Germantown Academy	34	15.5	4.0	2.6	0.4

2006-07 schedule and results

Date	Opponent	Location	Time	Result	Overall	Conf.
'Exhibition Game'
November 1, 2006	Northern State	Nashville, TN		'W' 98-94
'Regular Season'
November 15, 2006	No. 8 Georgetown	Nashville, TN		'L' 70-86	0-1	0-0
November 21, 2006	Wake Forest	Winston-Salem, NC		'L' 78-88	0-2	0-0
November 25, 2006	Elon	Nashville, TN		'W' 81-70	1-2	0-0
November 28, 2006	Furman	Nashville, TN		'L' 62-70	1-3	0-0
December 2, 2006	Toledo	Nashville, TN		'W' 98-93 (OT)	2-3	0-0
December 5, 2006	East Tennessee State	Nashville, TN		'W' 104-62	3-3	0-0
December 7, 2006	Lipscomb	Nashville, TN		'W' 59-50	4-3	0-0
December 9, 2006	No. 25 Georgia Tech	Nashville, TN		'W' 73-64	5-3	0-0
December 16, 2006	Nicholls State	Nashville, TN		'W' 76-40	6-3	0-0
December 19, 2006	UPR-Mayaquez1	San Juan, PR		'W' 102-59	7-3	0-0
December 20, 2006	Tennessee Tech1	San Juan, PR		'W' 75-62	8-3	0-0
December 21, 2006	Appalachian State1	San Juan, PR		'L' 79-87 (OT)	8-4	0-0
December 29, 2006	Alabama A&M	Nashville, TN		'W' 86-47	9-4	0-0
January 2, 2007	Rice	Houston, TX		'W' 74-69	10-4	0-0
January 6, 2007	Auburn	Auburn, AL		'L' 65-68	10-5	0-1
January 10, 2007	No. 16 Tennessee	Nashville, TN		'W' 82-81	11-5	1-1
January 13, 2007	Georgia	Athens, GA		'L' 73-85	11-6	1-2
January 17, 2007	No. 10 Alabama	Nashville, TN		'W' 94-73	12-6	2-2
January 20, 2007	No. 25 Kentucky	Lexington, KY		'W' 72-67	13-6	3-2
January 24, 2007	No. 21 LSU	Baton Rouge, LA		'W' 64-53	14-6	4-2
January 27, 2007	Ole Miss	Nashville, TN		'W' 85-80	15-6	5-2
January 31, 2007	No. 1 Florida	Gainesville, FL		'L' 64-74	15-7	5-3
February 3, 2007	Georgia	Nashville, TN		'W' 66-61	16-7	6-3
February 10, 2007	Tennessee	Knoxville, TN		'L' 57-84	16-8	6-4
February 14, 2007	South Carolina	Nashville, TN		'W' 78-68	17-8	7-4
February 17, 2007	No. 1 Florida	Nashville, TN		'W' 83-70	18-8	8-4
February 21, 2007	Mississippi State	Starkville, MS		'L' 70-83	18-9	8-5
February 25, 2007	Kentucky	Nashville, TN		'W' 67-65	19-9	9-5
February 28, 2007	South Carolina	Columbia, S.C.		'W' 99-90 (OT)	20-9	10-5
March 3, 2007	Arkansas	Nashville, TN		'L' 67-82	20-10	10-6
'SEC Tournament'
March 9, 2007	Arkansas	Atlanta, GA		'L' 71-72	20-11	10-6
'NCAA Tournament'
March 15, 2007	George Washington	Sacramento, CA		'W' 77-44	21-11	10-6
March 17, 2007	No. 13 Washington State	Sacramento, CA		'W' 78-74	22-11	10-6
March 23, 2007	No. 9 Georgetown	East Rutherford, NJ		'L' 65-66	22-12	10-6
★ Conference games in 'GREEN'. 1 San Juan Shoot-out

References

1. VU Makes Appearance at SEC Hoops Media Days
2. DeMarre Carroll Leaving Vanderbilt
3. Foster wins preseason honors
4. Coaches say Byars SEC's best