Jerry Stackhouse doesn’t believe Tennessee loss causes bigger concerns

Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse isn’t hitting the panic button after his team suffered its worst loss of the season Saturday to Tennessee. The Commodores were embarrassed on the road against their in-state rival, falling 88-53 in a game that was never competitive.

It was just another game to add to a loss column that continues to grow larger, as Vanderbilt finds itself 7-18 (2-10 SEC). However, even after such a demoralizing defeat and a season that at this point seems over, Stackhouse chalked up the loss to simply a “bad game” in his postgame press conference.

“They’ve done this to some other teams,” the coach said. “We haven’t had too many nights like this where everybody was off. I think our starters, this was the worst they’ve been collectively. We’ve just got to take it as a bad game. Not our night. That’s why I kind of called them an early night tonight because we just didn’t have it. I thought the ball was sticking a lot there early on. Opportunities where we could have got off of it early and made the next play. We just didn’t do that tonight.”

Vanderbilt shot just 33.3% from the floor and committed 19 turnovers in the loss. No player outside of forward Ven-Allen Lubin, who scored 10, finished the game in double figures.

Tennessee raced out to a 35-8 lead and held a 51-20 advantage by halftime. The Volunteers’ lead ballooned to as many 41 points in the second half as Vanderbilt never came close to any sort of comeback attempt.

The 53 points the Commodores managed to score were their lowest total in any game this season. Then again, Tennessee is a top 10 team and had plenty to play for in a rivalry.

With the way this season has gone for Vanderbilt, Stackhouse finds himself well on the hot seat with just six games remaining in the regular season. He has compiled a 68-87 record since taking over the Commodores in 2019-20 and this could be his worst record yet.

The struggles come just a year after Jerry Stackhouse led Vanderbilt to its best record in his tenure, 22-15. He was named the SEC Coach of the Year for his efforts as the Commodores achieved an NIT berth.

Unfortunately, Stackhouse was unable to carry that momentum over into this season and it’s too late at this point for much of a turnaround. Still, he’ll aim to do what he can with the games he has left, beginning against Georgia at 8:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.