‘I don’t see the streak ending.’ Kentucky can push Vandy over brink of history.
Even if Vanderbilt appears incapable of offering serious resistance, Kentucky followed the coaching credo of always talking up an opponent (in order to guard against complacency?).
Ignoring a mountain of evidence that can reach historic heights Wednesday night in Rupp Arena, Kentucky Coach John Calipari followed this routinely followed script on his weekly radio show.
In his first mention of Vandy, Calipari said in the final minutes of the hourlong show, “We’re going to be in close games. We play Vanderbilt. … They’re good enough to beat us. I don’t care what their record is.”
Vandy’s record includes 24 straight losses in Southeastern Conference regular-season games. That ties Sewanee (1938-40) for the longest such streak in SEC basketball history. That’s longer than the Big 12 record (19 straight by Baylor, 2004-06) and threatens to eclipse the Atlantic Coast Conference record (26 straight by Clemson, 1954-56).
Even more desolate valleys of futility lie ahead in the Pac 12 (30 straight by UCLA, 1937-40) and Big Ten (32 straight by Northwestern, 1999-2001).
“I don’t see this streak ending,” former Vanderbilt guard Barry Booker said. “Looking at this schedule, the next best chance to win is they have a week in February where it’s Georgia and Missouri at home. And that’s late February.” To be exact, Feb. 22 and 26.
Until then, every Vanderbilt opponent is currently in the upper half of the SEC standings. That includes a second game against Kentucky on Feb. 11.
After a 90-64 loss to South Carolina last weekend, first-year coach Jerry Stackhouse said of the streak, “It is what it is. It’s not a record we’re proud of, but we have to own it.”
Injuries have sunk the Commodores in consecutive seasons. Vandy was off to a 4-0 start last season. Then star freshman Darius Garland sustained a season-ending injury. Suddenly, the team’s best player and foundation piece was gone.
“It was really deflating when he went down,” recalled Bryce Drew, who was in his third and final season as Vandy coach in 2018-19. “But, you know, we really competed.”
Vandy had an 0-18 league record last season.
The Commodores lost their top big man, Clevon Brown, nine games into this season. He is out indefinitely because of a torn meniscus. Then their leading scorer, Aaron Nesmith (23.0 ppg), was diagnosed with a stress fracture in a foot after Vandy lost 83-79 at Auburn in its opening SEC game.
After a 69-50 home loss to Texas A&M three days later, Stackhouse said, “Is this building haunted? That’s kind of where (the players’) minds are right now.”
Vandy, 8-11 overall and 0-6 in the SEC, has lost its five league games without Nesmith by an average margin of 19.8 points.
Another painful streak
Calipari evoked a staple of Vanderbilt basketball — three-point shooting — as a reason to anticipate a challenging game.
“I’ve watched four games of theirs,” he said. “The only reason they didn’t (win) is they’re missing threes. If they were making their threes, they’d have two or three wins.”
In his last game, Nesmith made seven of 14 three-point shots at Auburn. In the five games since then, Vandy has made 20 of 131 three-point shots (15.3-percent accuracy). The Commodores’ best three-point shooting in that span was 5-for-20 in a 75-55 loss at Arkansas.
That streak within the streak included missing all 25 three-point shots in a 66-45 home loss to Tennessee, which ended Vandy’s streak of making a three at 1,080 straight games.
Booker considered the ending of the three-point streak more wounding than the 24 straight SEC losses (26 straight counting conference tournaments).
The onus of losing games was on those teams, he said.
“But, when the streak ends, that brings all of us into it,” said Booker, who played for Vandy at the beginning of the three-point streak in the late 1980s. “And it’s painful to see that go down. … It’s a point of pride.”
To hype the idea of a shooting revival for Vandy on Wednesday, Calipari referenced the often-cited belief that playing against Kentucky has an inspiring effect.
“It’s us now,” he said to the radio audience. “They’re walking into Rupp. They got beer muscles. And all of sudden, they’re making shots.”
Vandy’s all-time record against Kentucky in Rupp Arena is 2-39.
Nate Sestina offered a cautionary note: Bucknell lost to an eight-seed in its conference tournament.
“Anything can happen,” he said. “Like, any team can come into Rupp and shock us. You have to be prepared to play for 40 minutes.”
When asked how an opponent having lost 24 straight league games played on his mind, Ashton Hagans’ eyes widened.
“How much?” he asked.
Twenty-four straight, he was told. “Just got to go out there with the same mindset,” Hagans said. “Like we’re playing anybody.”
Wednesday
Vanderbilt at Kentucky
When: 6:30 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Vanderbilt 8-11 (0-6 SEC), Kentucky 15-4 (5-1)
Series: Kentucky leads 147-47
Last meeting: Kentucky won 87-62 on Jan. 29, 2019, at Nashville, Tenn.
