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Vanderbilt

Report: Jerry Stackhouse not expected to return as Vanderbilt head men's basketball coach

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•03/14/24
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Photo by Dr. Michael Huang | Kentucky Sports Radio

Vanderbilt is expected to head in a new direction following the 2023-24 hoops season and will reportedly fire head men’s basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse to hire a new leader of the program this offseason.

That news came from college basketball insider Jon Rothstein, who tweeted Thursday afternoon that Stackhouse’s time in Nashville has come to an end:

“Sources: Barring an unforeseen set of circumstances, Jerry Stackhouse is not expected to return as Vanderbilt’s head coach next season.”

Stackhouse finished with a 70-92 record over his five years as head coach of the Commodores. He opened with an 11-21 season in 2019-2020, which was actually a big improvement from the year before when Vandy finished winless in the SEC.

In Year Two, Stackhouse didn’t see much better success finishing 9-16, but that was the COVID-shortened year. He did start building some momentum in the 2021-22 season, where Vanderbilt finished their first season over .500 since 2017 at 19-17 and even won seven SEC games, also their most since ’17.

2022-23 began with some promise and wound up being Stackhouse’s best season with the Commodores. Vandy dropped some puzzling non-conference games that year but rallied for an 11-7 finish and 4th place in the SEC with Stackhouse earning Co-Coach of the Year honors in the SEC. However, the early losses sunk their ship in terms of NCAA Tournament.

But with the starting backcourt returning off that promising ’23 group, plus a few nice transfer portal additions, Stackhouse entered 2023-24 with the program in its best shape yet. Then, Vanderbilt got out of the gates with a terrible November and never really found momentum, ultimately sliding down to finish 13th in the SEC, making it four out of five years with a double-digit SEC Tournament seed while posting the worst record of the Jerry Stackhouse era at 9-23.

Stackhouse really needed to come through in Year Five after a promising Year Four, and Vanderbilt never made good on that mission. Now, the Commodores will conduct a search for their next men’s head basketball coach.