Vandy’s Drew welcomes spotlight of Northwestern matchup
Since when did the “V” in Vanderbilt stand for “villain”?
Since early Sunday evening, when Bryce Drew’s Commodores were selected to play Northwestern in Thursday’s first round of the NCAA basketball tournament in Salt Lake City.
Northwestern is the national darling of this year’s 68-team field, having qualified for its first NCAA appearance after 77 failed opportunities, which will make Thursday’s game one of the most hyped matchups between a region’s eighth and ninth seeds in tournament history.
“I think that’s a positive for us, because it is a great story,” Drew said Monday. “It’s the first time they’ve ever gone, which is a great credit to Chris (Collins, the Wildcats’ coach) and what he’s done up there. For our guys, it just brings more attention to the game, which gets the Vanderbilt brand out there more and brings more focus to it.
“We would much rather be in the discussion of being talked about than not.”
The eighth-seeded Wildcats (23-11) and ninth-seeded Commodores (19-15) are scheduled to tip off around 4:30 p.m. EDT. The winner has a likely date with Gonzaga (32-1), the top seed in the West Region.
Vanderbilt has made some unique history of its own entering NCAA play, becoming the first at-large team ever invited with 15 losses. The Commodores were able to counter a lot of those setbacks with three wins over Florida, the fourth seed in the East Region, and a triumph over Iowa State, the fifth seed in the Midwest and champion of last weekend’s Big 12 tournament.
“It’s a weird sense of pride,” Commodores senior guard Nolan Cressler said Sunday in a news conference. “With each of these losses, we’ve learned something along the way. It’s why we are what we are right now.”
The Commodores suffered nonconference losses to Butler, Dayton, Minnesota and Middle Tennessee, each of which also qualified for the NCAA tournament. A 10-8 mark in the Southeastern Conference plus the win over Iowa State in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge got Vanderbilt on the NCAA bubble entering last week’s league tournament in Nashville, where the Commodores punched their ticket with wins over Texas A&M and Florida.
At one point this season, Vanderbilt was 8-10 overall and 2-4 in SEC play, and Drew said his biggest challenge this week is getting the Commodores up for one final emotional surge.
“It’s something that’s truly remarkable,” Vandy senior forward Luke Kornet said Sunday. “We were 8-10, and at that point we were just trying to get back above .500. It’s like a completely different team with the run we’ve been able to make.
“If you had told me a month or two ago that we’d be sitting here, I would have been a little skeptical. The way this team has come together has been a special experience for us.”
Though not as special from a national view compared to what Northwestern has accomplished, which has relegated the recently magical Commodores to a spoiler role.
“We’re not really concerned with that,” Drew said. “We know our Vanderbilt fans will be behind us. I can tell you one thing: “If you went by the two SAT or ACT scores, both of these teams would be in the championship game.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress. com or 423-757-6524.