Stallings sticks with his lineup — and Dolla Beal sticks the three

Just got back from Auburn — the loveliest village on the Plains, etc. — where Vanderbilt picked up an 82-75 victory over the Tigers.

It was a big, big win for Vanderbilt because we need all the SEC road wins we can get, our young guys only get more confident and more dangerous when they win on the road, and we were on the verge of a full-blown collapse.

I think Stallings is a very good coach when the hour seems darkest, and he's turned the season around on numerous occasions when things looked bleak. After the South Carolina loss, which gave him a personal worst 1-5 SEC record, he was talking about how bad he felt for his players because they were working hard and doing what he asked and showing great attitude and character.

Anyway, Auburn is an athletic, physical team that before the Vanderbilt game hadn't given up more than 81 points all season. Last week, the Tigers pounded Arkansas 73-51 in Fayetteville. Based on that game alone, I expected us to lose today.

Auburn's also the kind of team that either gets hot and wins big or runs cold and loses. Today they got hot, with senior guard Rasheem Barrett stepping up and hitting five treys — and Lucas Hargrove and Tay Waller combining for another five down the stretch. I really like Korvotney Barber, their 6-7 senior forward who's a tough defender, quick leaper and trash scorer and would be incredible as a power forward for a college team like North Carolina that has a legitimate big man.

Auburn fans didn't seem too torn up about the loss. The loudest moment during the game was when new football coach Gene Chizik strolled out to midcourt during a timeout. The place went nuts. Imagine what they would have done if he'd won more than five games in two years at Iowa State.

Anyway, back to Stallings' lineup. Instead of the crazy fruit-basket turnover substitutions he's used most of this season, Stallings settled on this lineup, with these results:

• BEAL: 37 minutes, 7-8 three-pointers, 21 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
• TINSLEY: 35 minutes, 13 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal
• TAYLOR: 34 minutes, 6-7 field goals, 14 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal
• DRAKE + MCCLELLAN: 40 minutes, 5-7 field goals, 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 9 fouls
• OGILVY + EZELI: 40 minutes, 21 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 fouls

It worked very well. When A.J. got in foul trouble or needed a breather, Festus came in and played his position. When George got in foul trouble or needed a breather, Darshawn came in and played his position.

Beal and Tinsley handled the ball against the break and at least one of them was in the game for its entirety. Taylor played under control and knew when he was expected to go one-on-one and score some points and when he was supposed to set up somebody else — he had five assists.

When Beal, Tinsley or Taylor left the game, they were replaced by either Lance Goulbourne or Steve Tchiengang. Meld them together into one super sub and you've got Leve Goulgang or Stance Tchienbourne.

Both Goulbourne and Tchiengang are good-looking players who can do some things that nobody else on the team can. But what matters now, I think, is that Stallings has chosen his starters and now the guys know which position they'll be playing and what their role will be.

I could see that today: A bunch of guys who knew their roles and played together as a team.

The highlight was obviously Beal's three-point shooting. He was 7-8. Also, Tinsley was 3-6. When those guys hit their threes, it frees up Ogilvy down low and Taylor on the wing and it makes us a tough, tough team. We beat a physical Auburn team that was burning up the nets and getting some highly dubious calls from the refs, including a walking call on Ogilvy when he was pivoting late in the game and some no-calls when he was getting hacked inside by Barber.

Other high points:

• Ogilvy had five assists.
• Taylor had five assists, too, pulled down nine rebounds and showed the quickness and athleticism to shoot 6 for 7 inside and mid-range against a tight defense.

Some low points:
• Ogilvy had five turnovers, but I attribute most of them to no-calls when guys were grabbing his arms or smacking him upside the head. One of them, though, was an awful outlet pass on a rebound that hit an Auburn player on the numbers.
• Horrible free-throw shooting — 16-31 — including 3-8 from McClellan. But Auburn went 7-15 from the charity stripe.

All in all, a great effort. Like I've been saying, these young guys will come together before the season's over — and that may have started today.

By the way, don't expect this sort of analysis after every game. I was there today and thought what the heck.

Have a good Saturday night.

The scariest in-bounds play ever

You knew it was going to happen.

All during the Auburn game, when in-bounding the ball under their own basket, the Commodores would lob the ball to Jeff Taylor out in three-point land and he would catch the ball over his shoulder. They did that with George Drake too. You know, let our athletes go mano-a-mano for the ball because we know we'll win.

Sure, I'll take Taylor over any athlete on the floor, but the play is still awfully dangerous.

And don't you know it, with 9 minutes left in the game and Vanderbilt up by four, we ran that in-bounds play and Auburn senior point guard Quantez Robertson made a beautiful cut inside to strip the ball from Taylor (see photo above) and then take it coast to coast for the layup — and the foul on Taylor. Fortunately, Robertson bricked the charity shot and 30 seconds later Taylor was ramming the ball through the hoop to put the Dores back up by four.

Commodores five days away from signing day

A day ago, the top guy still considering Vanderbilt, at least according to ESPN's ratings, was Justin Jones, a 6-7 tight end from Florida. Jones has since verbally committed to East Carolina.

To me, the rivals.com ratings seem more in line with scouts from the big universities. For example, our signee safety Jay Fullam gets two stars from rivals and chose us over Air Force, but ESPN's got him rated higher than these three-star guys we signed:

• Charlie Goro, Parade All-American, who chose us over Illinois.
• Warren Norman, who chose us over Georgia Tech
• Brady Brown, who chose us over Nebraska
• Thad McHaney, who chose us over Oklahoma and Tennessee
• Blake Southerland, who chose us over Maryland
• Trey Wilson, who chose us over TCU
• Eddie Foster, who chose us over Utah

Here are the 3-star guys (and one 4-star) still considering Vanderbilt:

• QB Barrett Bailey, Louisiana
• RB Wesley Tate, Tennessee
• RB Branden Oliver, Florida
• RB Jerrell Greene, Kentucky
• DE Michael Buchanan, Illinois (4 stars)
• DT Tyrone Dixon, Florida
• CB Jonathan Edwards, Alabama
• ATH LaQuan James, Virginia
• CB D'Andre Wood, Mississippi

Wish there were some receivers and O-linemen on that list.

A Vanderbilt blog should be about winning and losing — especially losing

Sure, outside it's cold and dark and wet and nobody wants to do anything. Especially post blogs about a crappy team.

So it's no huge surprise that most Vanderbilt fan blogs are in silent funks.

Most Vanderbilt fans in cyberspace act genuinely shocked and angry when the Commodores lose. This fall, the Tennessean's comment board featured some hilarious posts from so-called longtime Vanderbilt football fans who were giving up on the team after the Duke loss. Giving up in November while we still have a winning record? What, were you in a coma during the Watson Brown years?

If you're a Vanderbilt fan so you can go online and gloat to Tennessee fans, then you're pulling for the wrong school.

Tennessee should always have a better record than us in football. Kentucky should always have a better record than us in basketball. Yeah, it's great when that doesn't happen and certainly Vanderbilt fans can and should have a little fun. But then those schools are going to fire their coaches and summon a fleet of Brinks trucks and we're not going to be beating them anymore.

We are losers. Spectacular losers. We've made losing an art form, at least in football.

Humorist Roy Blount Jr. has said that attending Vanderbilt cured him of following college football.

I understand completely. In August, I decided to start this blog and follow the football team as something of an intellectual exercise. The blog would be called Moral Victory! and it would chronicle losing, and learning to be a loser, and learning to recognize little victories when you're getting your butt handed to you.

So what happened? The Commodores had a winning season and won their first bowl since 1955. But along the way, they drove their fans to over-confidence, then fear and trembling and impending doom, and then tears of relief.

Now the football team is having its best recruiting year perhaps ever, but is still ranked last in the SEC in recruiting and No. 66 in the nation.

Oh yeah, and right now the basketball team — traditionally scrappy and competitive, at least when playing in its weird and charming old gym — is really, really bad.

Which means that unlike other Vandy blogs, Moral Victory! is not in a silent funk.

Stallings off to worst conference start ever

Just lost to the Gamecocks 86-76. I'm kind of surprised we only lost by 10. Commodores now 1-5 in the SEC, Stallings' worst start ever.

Clearly, A.J. Ogilvy isn't himself. Played 21 minutes without a field goal. Needs to sit out until that heel heals. Taylor went off and scored 23 points. I didn't see the game and I'm glad. But I don't think the end is here or anything like that. This is a rebuilding year and I believe we'll finish strong. We clearly lack shooters.

I'll be at the Auburn game Saturday and expect another beat-down. The Tiger's are a strong, physical team that can run hot and cold. Hopefully they'll run cold.

Vanderbilt gets football recruits coveted by Florida, Oklahoma and Tennessee — and one under the radar

As Feb. 4 signing day rapidly approaches, let's take a look at who else offered scholarships to the guys who eventually chose us — and will hopefully back up their verbal commitment when it's time to put pen to paper. Forget stars and rankings — if Oklahoma or Florida want a guy, that means he's good.

So which of our commitments got the most love from the powerhouse schools?

• TE/DE Thad McHaney: Offers from No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 10 Oregon, No. 14 Ole Miss and four other SEC schools, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky and Auburn

• DT Darius McMullin: Offers from No. 1 Florida, as well as SEC bowl victors No. 14 Ole Miss and Kentucky.

• CB Eddie Foster: Offers from No. 2 Utah, No. 11 Boise State, No. 14 Ole Miss and No. 17 Cincinnati

• OL Wes Johnson: Offers from No. 22 Georgia Tech, plus SEC teams Auburn and Kentucky

• CB Trey Wilson: Offers from No. 7 TCU and traditional powerhouse Nebraska

• WR Brady Brown: Offers from No. 20 Iowa and traditional powerhouse Nebraska

• RB Warren Norman: Offer from No. 22 Georgia Tech

• TE Mason Johnston: Offer from No. 24 Michigan State

One guy who didn't get any other offers? Eric Samuels, a three-star athlete who flew under the radar and committed to Vanderbilt in June before he got his stars. Now he's rated ahead of fellow running back commitments Warren Norman and Zac Stacy.

Samuels (photo above) has told Bobby Johnson he wants to play running back and the coach says he'll give him a look there. He's big and fast, and we certainly need a power running back. Even though some experts project Samuels to play in the secondary, Vanderbilt's always been good about giving coveted athletes a chance to try offense — remember a certain safety prospect from Santa Claus, Ind.? Then again, Johnson also knows when to move guys to defense — three-fourths of the Commodores' stellar secondary last season came to Vanderbilt listed as offensive players (WRs Myron Lewis and D.J. Moore and FB Reshard Langford).

Here are all the schools that made offers to Vanderbilt commitments:

Three players: Ole Miss, Duke, Northwestern, Iowa State, Air Force, Kentucky, UAB

Two players: Nebraska, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Stanford, Maryland, Central Florida, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Florida International, Miami-Ohio

One player: Cincinnati, Utah, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, UCLA, TCU, Virginia, Michigan State, North Carolina State, Rice, Iowa, Kansas, Purdue, Louisville, Western Kentucky, Army, Navy, Louisiana Monroe, SMU, Ball State, Boise State, New Mexico, Central Michigan, Ohio, Eastern Illinois, MTSU, Memphis, Indiana, Eastern Michigan, Arkansas State, South Alabama, Marshall

Vanderbilt's 1-4 SEC record could be shades of 2003

So Vanderbilt has a 1-4 conference record. Kevin Stallings has been here before.

In 2003, Stallings and the Commodores started the SEC season losing at Auburn, beating Bama at home and then dropping their next three games, at home against Kentucky and on the road at Tennessee and Florida.

But a Stallings-coached team has never gone 1-5. In 2003, his next game was at home against Georgia, and the Dores, whose captain was Darius Coulibaly, won 94-91. They won only one regular season conference game the rest of the year, finishing on a nine game skid, at 3-13 in the conference. They did upset Bama in the SEC tourney before getting bounced out by Kentucky to finish with an overall record of 11-18.

Unfortunately, this 1-4 team doesn't host Georgia. It travels to South Carolina, where the ’Cocks beat Florida last week. That would be the same Florida team that, if you have selective memory, beat the black and gold out of Vanderbilt on Sunday on national television.

By the way, whatever happened to Darius Coulibaly? According to the Vanderbilt media guide, he lives in Fredericksburg, Va., where he's a special education teacher at Chandler High School and the founder of Empowering the Poor Inc.

So he's a winner off the court, that's for sure.