Jerry Stackhouse makes Vanderbilt's case as serious NCAA Tournament contender

Jerry Stackhouse wants the world — or at least the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee — to recognize the Vanderbilt Commodores as a serious contender.

Did Vanderbilt do enough to convince the committee that they should go dancing on Selection Sunday? It remains to be seen. But Stackhouse certainly believes so, as he made the case during an appearance on ESPN College Basketball Live on Sunday afternoon.

“I think our best case is just our schedule,” stated Stackhouse, asked to make the case for the Commodores.. “Our conference. Obviously, there’s so many different factors, when you talk about non-conference games, early teams still trying to find themselves. Going on the road. Officiating. All those different things. All those days. Games. But things are more consistent during the SEC play. I think when you talk about the best teams, and us getting in, we clearly proved that we’re one of the best teams in the SEC.

“I mean, nobody has a better overall record of winning games, including in the regular season tournament than Texas A&M and Alabama. I think that puts us in great company, and hopefully the eye test passes for us. I mean, playing really well down the stretch. Yeah we had some blunders, one early in our non-conference and then losing to LSU in conference play, but I think our body of work coming down the stretch, if you really watched us play and show how we competed as a team, we deserve to be in there.”

Continuing, Stackhouse also mentioned the eye-test as a reason why the 20-14 Commodores should get into the NCAA Tournament, liking their rough losses to his golf game, explaining one bad hole, or night on the court, shouldn’t ruin your entire season.

“I think it should,” Stackhouse stated, asked if the eye-test should count for something. “I kind of equate it to my golf game. U should be even-par and then I have a blowup hole on two, and I come out at ten and I have an awful — but hopefully I have a good golf partner. But for us, I think if you’re just going by the scorecard, it can look bad. Obviously that was that Alabama game. That’s really throwing our numbers off.

“We had a game where we lost by 57 points. That’s going to kill your NET. I think that’s what has happened to us right now. But after that, there’s only two teams in the country that had a better percentage, and I think that was them and Houston. Those teams are No. 1. So I think if we’re playing in that company down the stretch, then we should definitely be a part of the best 64, 68 teams in the country.”

As you can see, Jerry Stackhouse is passionately defending Vanderbilt’s resume, and he makes some salient points. Will it be enough though? We’ll find out on Selection Sunday, later this evening.