By Brett Hait, bhait@nashvillecitypaper.com
TAMPA, Fla. – The Vanderbilt basketball team arrived in this warm and breezy coastal city Wednesday night ostensibly to win a game on Friday.
Look closer, though, and it becomes clear the Commodores are carrying a banner of deeper significance.
History can be written this month, the kind of history that causes record books to be re-printed and teams to forever be etched into the memories and consciousness of its fans.
This is only the second Commodore to make back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. They are situated at the highest seed, No. 4, the school has received in 15 years.
This is also Vanderbilt’s third tournament appearance in five years. Peruse the sometimes-sparse school record book, and it becomes quickly apparent that such a streak is noteworthy.
In nearly every way, the golden age of Commodore basketball might be in full bloom.
“I think this may very well be the best five-year stretch in Vanderbilt history by the time this season is over,” said former Commodore guard Barry Booker, now a college basketball TV analyst.
Kevin Stallings never had a doubt he could win at Vanderbilt when he accepted the school’s head-coaching position in 1999.
In 30 seasons as a player and coach, his teams have made 25 tournament appearances, including 16 NCAA berths and three Final Fours.
He had been a successful head coach at Illinois State and had been involved in plenty of victories as an assistant at Kansas and Purdue. The same formula, he figured, would bear fruit in Nashville.
In Stallings’ first four seasons, the Commodores failed to make a single NCAA Tournament appearance. The nadir came with an 11-18 record during the 2002-03 season.
Suddenly, a puzzled Stallings wondered how he had gone from living a charmed life at Illinois State, Kansas and Purdue to becoming a whipping boy of many Vanderbilt fans.

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It’s just after 1 a.m. CDT as I’m writing this. Sunrise will officially begin day one of a two-day period that I look forward to every year as a sports fan. While every other round in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament can be just as exciting, it’s the first round that always captivates and amazes us.
It is a round that can either bust a lot of our brackets or put us ahead of whatever pool we may be entering (at least until the second round). It is a round that has us flipping channels or surfing through the web to catch final scores of games we didn’t get to see, particularly afternoon games.
Personally, I won’t have to worry about missing daytime scores tomorrow. I’m on spring break, so this will be the first time ever I am able to watch the first games of the tournament from the comforts of my own home—instead of going to CBS Sportsline during some business or English class.
What do we do while we are watching this? We might be pulling our hair out or calling our friends to whine and complain because our brackets are off to a terrible start. Inversely, we could be calling our friends just to rub in their faces that we’ve gotten almost every game right so far.
However, there is one thing that no sports fan can deny happens during this or any other round during the tournament: Drama.
We eagerly await the unthinkable upsets that will occur over these first couple of days.
The first round has seen its share of upsets over the years. It’s already been 10 years since Bryce Drew lifted Valparaiso to a win at the buzzer against Ole Miss. More recently, who can remember 14 seeds Bucknell and Northwestern State upsetting first-round foes Kansas and Iowa, respectively?

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When ESPN analyst Jay Bilas was asked about the importance of matchups in the tournament, he said, "It's the whole thing. Who can explain why one team wins all their games but against one opponent? Some teams match up well with other teams and some don't. It's based on style of play and it's always been that way."
The Badgers found out Sunday they are seeded third in the Midwest Regional and will open with 14th-seeded Cal State-Fullerton (24-8), which tied for first in the Big West, then won its conference title as the third seed by beating UC Irvine in the title game. The Titans are making their first NCAA appearance in 30 years.
If UW wins that game, it could face sixth-seeded Southern California (21-11) and heralded freshman O.J. Mayo in the second round.
It's dangerous to look much further down the road than that — remember UW's upset loss as the second seed to seventh-seeded UNLV last year in the second round? — but second-seeded Georgetown (27-5) could be waiting in the Sweet Sixteen and top-seeded Kansas (31-3) in the Elite Eight.
Kelley, who works as an analyst for ESPN, thinks the Badgers have the makings of a tough out in the tournament, thanks to their consistency and style of play under coach Bo Ryan.

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(03-16) 21:36 PDT — Cal sophomore forward Ryan Anderson had to rush from the Staples Center to catch a flight Thursday after the Bears lost 88-66 to UCLA in the Pac-10 tournament, but he found the time to make one heart-felt statement.
“It will be a huge disappointment if we have to sit at home and see other teams continue to play,” he said. “To play in a postseason tournament would be huge, experience-wise. We can learn what it feels like and come back hard next year.”
Instead of sitting at home during the postseason, Anderson and his teammates will be playing at home after accepting a bid Sunday to play in the National Invitational Tournament. The Bears (16-15) earned a No. 4 regional seed and will play New Mexico (24-8) at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Haas Pavilion.
Tickets will go sale at 8:30 a.m. today via calbears.com and through the Cal ticket office at (800) 462-3277. The winner of the Cal-New Mexico game will play the Ohio State-North Carolina Asheville winner on a date between Thursday and next Monday at a site to be determined.
“College basketball has become extremely competitive, so to be in the postseason is a huge opportunity,” Cal coach Ben Braun said. “I don’t think you should ever look at the NIT as a consolation. We’re looking at it as a great opportunity to extend our season, especially after having been through so many tough games.”

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Isn’t the Big 10 tourney at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indy?
His head is freakish in real life too. I’ll never forget posing for my picture with Coach Keady the first time I attended his camp. He took one look at me and said, “You must be Doc’s grandson!” Then he told the photog to take two pics with me.
Excuse me, it just got a little dusty in here.
I don’t want to talk about it. Stoopid Illini.
The magical combover of Gene Keady. How I have missed the.
Jesus, Nibbles, I’m not in the mood. 3 people shouldn’t kill a bottle of Jose and a 12 pack and then say, “you know what we need? More booze”.
The SEC tourney had a tornado.
Your move, Big 10.
Illinois keeps torturing me. Everyday, I’m sure that this will be the last game they play this season. And then they win.
Fuck shit piss.
There, now can I see the comments?
@BigTenObsession:I assumed the Illini loss. I didn’t even look for a score. I was shocked this morning when I saw it.
@J-No: They still can’t make a free throw to save their life. Fortunately for them Purdue was just bad at basketball in the overtime. Bad defense (three backdoor layups for Illinois) and they didn’t make a single field goal in the OT either, so Illinois’ FT brickfest didn’t hurt them.

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If there is one thing I hate about conference championship week, it is the halftime shows that come with it.
Some people love them. Listening to talking heads from different networks adamantly argue about which bubble teams will be announced as part of the NCAA tournament field during today’s Selection Show, and which squads will be headed to the less-prestigious NIT, or even the dreaded CBI, is what they live for.
Not while every major-conference team that is on ”the bubble” is so mediocre, anyway.
Seriously, is there one halfway-decent bubble team from a big conference out there this year?
”Virginia Tech, because it played No. 1 North Carolina to a close loss, is definitely deserving of a spot in the field.”
Ugh. Where’s the mute button.
Funny how none of these highly paid experts mentions that Arizona finished the season with a losing conference record, Kentucky struggled through a string of embarrassing nonconference losses not much different than Idaho State and Virginia Tech hasn’t beaten a ranked team all season.
None of these teams deserves to go to the NCAA tournament. But all three could find their names on bracket lines today. If they don’t, a coach somewhere in America will follow Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim’s lead and complain that the Big Dance is too small.

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Beverly Poindexter was in her moment as she sat in the bleachers staring at her son, Chris Hicks, in his final home game at Assembly Hall. Nothing could steal her attention from the Illini’s reserve guard - “Christopher” she called him - as her face lit up and a smile, one that runs in the family, broke wide open.
“This has been exciting for all of us, especially him,” she said, fixated as he took a seat on the Illinois bench. The orange shirts in the stands and the action on the court only served as a backdrop to her own personal show: tracking her son and everything he did in his final minutes in the building. “I know all of this is hitting him hard. But it has been so much fun being here, with the game, with the team and everything.”
The crowd started to rumble as halftime in Saturday’s home game against Minnesota came to a close. The Illini led for much of the game, but Chris was in his usual spot at the end of the bench, scoreless and minuteless. The senior walk-on, the fan-favorite, the “funny dude” as senior center Shaun Pruitt called him, would get his chance.

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