Postgame: Vanderbilt 89, Missouri 83

by KingJamesIV on Dec 3, 2009 2:03 PM EST in Vanderbilt Commodores Basketball Comment 5 comments

I must say that despite how uncomfortable Missouri made the final five minutes of this game for the Commodores, I never truly felt that Vandy was going to let them steal this one. Give Missouri and Coach Anderson credit. Despite being in a hostile atmosphere down 14 points with 5:29 left to play, they never stopped giving their full effort or believing in themselves and nearly came away with a hard-fought road victory as a result.

Elmer's Glue Guy Of The Game

Andre Walker (6 pts, 12 rebs, 4 asts, 3 blks, 2 stls)

Relevant Links:

Game Page /// TSN Recap /// Box Score /// Official Vanderbilt Recap

Game Stories:

Commodores shake off road woes, fend off Missouri rally | Nashville City Paper

Missouri managed just three offensive rebounds in the first half and one in the first 14-plus minutes of the second. The one-and-done approach had a lot to do with the fact that Vanderbilt stretched a six-point halftime lead to 78-64 after an Ogilvy put-back.

Vanderbilt manages to beat Missouri | tennessean.com | The Tennessean

"I didn't think if we turned the ball over 24 times against them we would win," Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said. "We didn't play great, but that's because of them. They force you to play in a way that you're not accustomed to playing."

What was Impressive

Vanderbilt Free Throw Shooting - Prior to last night's game, Vanderbilt's FT% was 65.3% on the season. That is uncharacteristic for a Vanderbilt team and certainly not representative of the capabilities of the players. Against Missouri, Vandy FT% was 83.9%, and their FTRate was 53.4% (they converted 53.4% of their field goal attempts into free throw opportunities). John Jenkins was clutch down the stretch, nailing perhaps the biggest free throws of his basketball career.
Jeffery Taylor - His plus/minus below says it all. He is emerging as our best player. He really minimized one of his weaknesses thus far, turnovers, by having only 1 against one of the best teams in the nation at forcing them. His defense is outstanding. So long as he steps on the court in a Vanderbilt uniform, he will almost always be the most athletic player on the court. As soon as he realizes that, and begins to trust in his silky-smooth jumpshot, he will be impossible to defend. Trust in yourself, Jeff! Just watch the dunk in the highlights. Trust me.
Rebounding - Considering Vandy had been out-rebounded by 4.8 rebounds per game over the first five games, it was nice to see a +21 rebounding margin. Vandy even had 15 offensive rebounds to Missouri's 17 defensive rebounds! Quite the improvement. As Andre Walker said after the game, "I think as long as you make a conscientious effort all the time to hit somebody, you can get rebounds."
Mike Anderson - This was my first occasion to observe Missouri's head coach from the stands. I must say that I came away quite impressed with him. Missouri made an outstanding hire and I hope they do everything they can to hang on to him. Coach Anderson never seemed anything but confident and cool. Clearly this filters down to his players. I was very impressed.

Areas of Concern

Turnovers - 24 of them to be precise. The season average was 15.6 (still too high). Jermaine Beal had 4 and Brad Tinsley had 6. Not good. Sure, Missouri forces more turnovers per game than most teams, but the players can't exactly say the coaches didn't address this leading up to the game.
Half-Court Offense - The team really appears to be stagnant when forced to run their half-court offense. There doesn't seem to be very much movement away from the ball. I would very much like to see this improve over the next few games. I've got a feeling some half-court flow would do wonders for our current 3-point FG%, as the players individually are much better outside shooters than 34%.

Plus/Minus through the Missouri game:

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Comments

Great summary ....

I really appreciate the +/- … mostly because it means I don’t have to calculate it for myself anymore! I would not have guessed Taylor was +23 last night, but that’s very telling … would be interested to see the numbers on a per minute (or per 40) basis.

Keep up the good work …

by BrianSWard on Dec 3, 2009 4:40 PM EST reply actions

Per Minute Basis

I can do that. I’ll add it in soon. I’ll give the retroactive numbers as well

by KingJamesIV on Dec 3, 2009 4:49 PM EST up reply actions

I think I understand the system

But could you go over the plus/minus aspect one more time? If I understand correctly, you take the score the differential of Vandy’s score vs. it’s opponent at the time that player steps on the floor, and for every point scored that Vandy gains, they get + that number of points, conversely, for every point Vandy loses ground, they get minus points. Is that right?

by Stanimal@VSL on Dec 3, 2009 5:25 PM EST up reply actions

Yes.

Say Beal, Tinsley, Taylor, Walker, and Ogilvy are on the court to start the game. Vandy’s lead is 5 and all those players come off the floor for the rest of the game. No matter what happens the rest of the game, those players have +/- of +5.

If they go back in and the lead is still 5 points, then come out and the teams are tied, their +/- would be at 0.

And so on. I calculate it from the play by play section of the box scores (thx Excel; your formulas make creating things like this much easier).

by KingJamesIV on Dec 3, 2009 5:29 PM EST up reply actions

Nice

This is a real neat way to see if what you see matches what really happened. I wrote that Lance played very poorly, so it’s kinda nice to see that -9 there.

I like the idea of on a per 40 basis. That way you might be able to catch a glimpse of how subs can really impact a game on in a positive or negative way.

Great summary.

by doreposts on Dec 3, 2009 6:57 PM EST reply actions