Ready or not, here Vanderbilt goes.
A scattered season for Kevin Stallings and his Commodores will either continue or close tonight in Dayton, Ohio, when they face Wichita State (9:10 on truTV) in an NCAA basketball tournament “First Four” game. Vanderbilt is making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2012 and was expected to do so with a No. 18 preseason ranking in the Associated Press poll, but the Commodores are the third Southeastern Conference team in as many years having to advance the hard way.
Tennessee started out in Dayton two years ago and wound up winning three tournament games to reach the Sweet 16, and Ole Miss won its First Four game last year against BYU before getting thumped by Xavier.
“There are certainly different challenges in playing in this First Four game,” Stallings said Monday. “I spoke with (Ole Miss coach) Andy Kennedy over the weekend, because they had this experience last year, but there is certainly a level of adrenaline that hits your team when your name comes up on the board and you have this opportunity.
“Having to play an extra game can be looked at a couple of different ways, but the way we’re looking at it is that we’re excited for the opportunity, and I think our guys will embrace that.”