Save the Shield! A Vanderbilt sports blog

I can’t let the change of seasons go by without at least noting the excitement over the prospects in 2009-10 for men’s basketball. I think all our fans are really eager to see what this team can do.

I’ve seen very slight indications that people elsewhere in the SEC are starting to see us as a potential darkhorse, too. AFAICT most of the preseason mags put us 3rd behind Kentucky and Tennessee in that order. I’m coming around to Jesse Johnson’s view that Tennessee should be the rightful favorite, and that the media is just too caught up in the star power of the scumbag and his recruits right now. It’s also easier to sell preseason mags by putting UK first.

I heard a five-minute segment with Jay Bilas on Bob Valvano’s overnight show, and over half the time was spent just on Kentucky! Cats fans will no doubt claim Duke bias, and maybe Louisville bias from Bobby V., but apparently neither one of them is sold on the UK hype. Bilas made the cogent point that, although the scumbag has had successful one-and-dones such as Derrick Rose, they’ve all come into an established program. At no point has he based a whole team around them, let alone a team with a new coach bringing in a new system. And I can enjoy the knowledge that anything less than two SEC championships and a Final Four will be considered a failure for the scumbag. But there I go, giving that program more attention than it deserves like everyone else does.

Back to Vanderbilt — so to paraphrase the Huntsville Times preseason capsule, in any other division, in any other year, VU would be a favorite for the conference title. There’s enough talent here that, if Tennessee hits some negative variance, we could still win one. We’re really incredibly fortunate to be in a position to let Jenkins work his way into the starting lineup rather than needing to use him. It’s a little unfortunate that we’re in the much tougher division — sheesh, West favorite Miss State already has a bad loss! — which hurts us both for conference championship contention and in SEC-T seeding, but doesn’t hurt us in NCAA seeding.

It would be crazy to predict a Final Four, but this is surely the best shot we’ve had to reach one since Fogler left, and possibly the best shot since Jan van Breda Kolff was playing. So it’s hard for me to do what I know I ought to: rein in expectations, enjoy the ride, and be glad that we have something positive to occupy our attention.