Save the Shield! A Vanderbilt sports blog

I’d be remiss not to post something on the great run of form both Vanderbilt basketball teams have exhibited since the middle of February.  Game-related details really aren’t my thing so I don’t have much to offer about the actual games.   In the overall, though, I’m quite satisfied with the way both teams have performed this season.

VU men’s hoops looked headed for a trying season in January.  To finish 8-8, two games out of the SEC lead, is a real feather in this team’s cap regardless of how the postseason shakes out.   Yes, it’s been a terrible year for the SEC by recent standards, and yes, all sports fans aspire for our respective teams to get to the proverbial point where they can reload instead of rebuilding.  But it’s been obvious for two years that this was going to be a season where VU lacked senior leadership.

In the end, men’s hoops ended up doing the expectedly unexpected.   Typically I expect that a young team will be high-variance, playing some games that are much better than its average performance and others that are woefully subpar.  That pretty much fits this team.   In the last 8 days they’ve beaten the best team in the conference and one of the best teams in the Eastern Division.  They’ve finished the regular season on a 7-3 run.   In addition to the road win over the new SEC champion, VU also beat the hottest team in the West right at the start of their late-season run.  I prefer to focus on those harbingers of future success, but there’s no denying that there were a couple of maddening losses this year, and a couple of home games against name-brand opponents where the team got blown out of the building.   It’s certainly been a learning process, but its not hard to get excited about where it’s leading.

Now it’s on to Tampa.   I won’t be making that trip again, thank you, but hopefully the team can exorcise all the horrific memories I have of that building.

As for the women, they’ve been inconsistent in their own way, but awfully impressive.   Any year that you finish ahead of Tennessee in the SEC standings, you’ve accomplished an awful lot.   Hopefully VU can punctuate it with another win over Auburn and another SEC Tournament championship.

In fact, as I sit here in the park typing, the thought occurs to me — I could go to that game!   I could just head over to North Little Rock to watch it.  I think I might just do that….

Epilogue

Curse you, XM Satellite Radio!

My entire crackpot last-minute plan of headed to Arkansas to watch the women’s final was based on the start time indicated on my XM receiver, 8:30 Eastern.  I left Memphis at 5:30 Central, figuring two hours for the trip to the Little Rock area, and at worst I might arrive a few minutes after tipoff.

You can probably figure out where this is headed.

So some 60 miles into Arkansas, I notice that my receiver now indicates the Auburn-Vanderbilt pregame.   “How cool,” I think.  “XM’s carrying an hour-long pregame show for the SEC Tournament final.”   Only, when I tune in, they’re giving lineups as though the game’s about to start.   Because of course, the game was about to start.

Thanks for a two-hour wild goose chase, XM.   I’m already considering canceling your service now that you’ve taken away the free online access, and you’re not doing yourself any favors.   So all I take away is a slightly funny story about my trip into Arkansas.