Mississippi St.-Vanderbilt Preview

3/4/2008 1:41 PM

By DAN PIERINGER
STATS Writer

The last time it played at home, Vanderbilt broke the single-season record for wins at Memorial Gym with a victory over the nation's No. 1 team. After losing to an unranked opponent on the road, the Commodores hope to bounce back as they return to Nashville.

The 16th-ranked Commodores look to cap their first undefeated season at home in 15 years and match the school record for most regular-season wins on Wednesday when they meet SEC West champion Mississippi State.

Vanderbilt (24-5, 9-5) has won 31 of its last 32 games at home, including all 18 this season to set a single-season record for wins at Memorial Gym, which opened in 1952.

The Commodores managed to remain undefeated at home by topping then-No. 1 Tennessee 72-69 last Tuesday, leaving them one win shy of their school record of 25 regular-season victories - set in 1992-93.

To finish undefeated at home for the first time since they went 14-0 in that 1992-93 season, however, they'll need to bounce back from a 78-73 upset loss at Arkansas on Saturday. Senior forward Ross Neltner called a timeout that Vanderbilt didn't have with 7.3 seconds left, helping Arkansas hold on to its lead and end the Commodores' seven-game SEC win streak - their longest under coach Kevin Stallings.

"All I can do is sit there and applaud my team," said Stallings, whose squad couldn't convert late in the game despite having possession for more than a minute from the 1:27 mark to the 0:25 mark. "They kept fighting. Sometimes you can't get the ball in the basket."

The disheartening defeat overshadowed Shan Foster's record-breaking night. The senior guard had 22 points to become Vandy's career scoring leader with 1,895 points.

"I have never put my focus to breaking the record," said Foster, averaging 23.8 points and shooting 60.7 percent from the field in his last six games. "It is more important to me that we play as a team; whether we win or lose we do it as a team."

Foster has been held to 12.7 points in three career games against the Bulldogs (20-8, 11-3), who clinched their fourth SEC West title in six seasons by beating Florida 68-59 on Saturday.

Sophomore guard Ben Hansbrough had 20 points with four 3-pointers as Mississippi State won for the sixth time in seven games. Jarvis Varnado added 11 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocked shots. He has 136 blocks in 28 games - more than the totals for nine teams in the SEC, including Vanderbilt, which has 107 blocks this season.

"Carefully," Stallings said when asked how he'd approach Mississippi State's defense, which leads the SEC in allowing just 63.9 points per game. "We don't want to put anything on a platter for (Varnado), but we'll see through further film study what we think we can do effectively and then try to do it. It's a challenge. They're a very long athletic team."

The Bulldogs have won six of eight against the Commodores, including two of three in Nashville in that stretch.

Vandy closes the regular season at Alabama on Saturday, while Mississippi State finishes by hosting LSU later that day.