Vanderbilt center Festus Ezeli (3) protects the ball from Georgia's Gerald Robinson (22) and Marcus Thornton, right, in this file photo. Vanderbilt has fallen out of the national rankings since the start of basketball season, but a healthy Ezeli could make the Commodores potent during their upcoming SEC schedule.Vanderbilt is unranked entering Saturday's Southeastern Conference basketball opener against visiting Auburn after beginning the season at No. 7, but the plummeting appears to be over.
The Commodores have won four straight games, including last Thursday's 74-57 thumping of No. 14 Marquette in Milwaukee. Their surge has coincided with a healthier 6-foot-11, 255-pound senior center Festus Ezeli, who sat out 10 games as the result of a sprained right knee and a six-game suspension for accepting a meal and a hotel room from a university alumnus.
"We learned to cope when we didn't have him," Commodores coach Kevin Stallings said Wednesday. "We learned to a degree to be an effective team without him, but I certainly don't think we were going to be a great team without him. He just gives us so much presence at the goal."
Vanderbilt is 10-4 heading into conference play, having lost in overtime to Louisville and Xavier but also suffering more inexplicable setbacks against Cleveland State and Indiana State. The Commodores are bidding for a third consecutive NCAA tournament trip, which would be a first for the program.
Stallings said Ezeli is closer to 100 percent on defense compared to offense, where he is averaging 7.3 points through four games after averaging 13.0 last season.
"We haven't allowed our players to get bogged down with the adversities and the troubles we've had so far, and our focus is on what's in front of us, and not what's behind us," Stallings said. "This is just sort of the second season, with the postseason being the third, and we just kind of approach it like that. The thing that we're inherently more excited about than anything else is that we finally feel like we're starting to get better and have all of our weapons available to us."
The SEC had three of the nation's top eight preseason teams with Kentucky (No. 2), Vanderbilt and Florida (No. 8). The Gators repeatedly have showcased their ability to score from the outside and are ranked No. 13 this week, while the Wildcats hold down the same spot they did in October.
Kentucky briefly ascended to No. 1 and knocked off preseason favorite North Carolina before losing 73-72 at Indiana.
"The talent level and coaching is going to elevate for all of us," Wildcats coach John Calipari said of the start of league play. "I'm anxious to see how my team responds."
Said South Carolina's Darrin Horn: "This might be their most talented team, and that's saying something with these last couple of years."
The SEC has employed two six-team divisions since Arkansas and South Carolina joined before the 1991-92 season, but all 12 teams now are lumped together. Each team will play 16 conference contests, with the programs formerly in the East Division still facing the other former East teams twice and the six former West teams once.
Of course, it all will change again next January when Missouri and Texas A&M begin conference play.
"There are a lot of good arguments out there, and we need to get in a room and hear them all and make a decision," Georgia's Mark Fox said. "One of the arguments that has been presented is to go to two divisions and play 19 conference games, where you play everybody on your side twice and everyone on the other side one time. I'm not sure people in Kentucky would like to go to 19 games because it affects nonconference scheduling.
"Yet I would think with 14 teams that you would need more than 16 games to figure out who the best team is."