Auburn-Vanderbilt Preview

3/12/2008 2:03 PM

By MIKE LIPKA
STATS Writer

For the second straight season, Vanderbilt enters the SEC tournament with the league's player of the year leading the way.

The 18th-ranked Commodores only hope this season's result is a bit different.

Led by Shan Foster, Vanderbilt will look to win an SEC tournament game for just the second time in four seasons on Thursday in Atlanta as it faces Auburn in the first round for the third time in four years.

Foster became the second straight Commodores star to be voted the SEC's player of the year by the league's coaches this week, after Derrick Byars won the award last season.

Byars has since graduated, but even with both players, Vanderbilt couldn't win a game in the 2007 SEC tournament, losing 72-71 to Arkansas in the quarterfinals after earning a first-round bye.

Foster led the league with 20.6 points per game, 125 3-pointers made and 47.2 percent shooting from beyond the arc to help the Commodores (25-6, 10-5) match the school record for regular-season wins. But the senior swingman has gone 1-3 in the SEC tournament despite averaging 16.3 points in those games.

The only victory came in 2006, with Foster hitting five 3-pointers and scoring 20 points in a 76-71 win over Auburn.

The previous season, Auburn beat Vanderbilt 77-73 despite finishing last in the SEC West - the same spot the Tigers (14-15, 4-12) finished this season. Auburn also challenged the Commodores in a 78-71 loss on Feb. 2 in Nashville, where Vanderbilt went 19-0 this season.

"I think we go in with a little bit of confidence," Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said. "We had a chance against them at their place. At least we don't have to play them at their place."

Vanderbilt has gone 6-6 away from home this season, and has lost two of its last three games since beating then-No. 1 Tennessee on Feb. 26 for its seventh straight win.

The Commodores closed the regular season with a 78-73 overtime loss at Alabama on Saturday.

"It's a little bit disappointing. I thought we took a step back in terms of our team attitude," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. "Generally the best thing that we have going for us is our team attitude, and that was not our strength today. We deserved to get beat. Hopefully it will be good for us."

Foster had 21 points against Alabama, but failed to shoot 60 percent or better for the first time in five contests. He's still averaging 29.2 points and shooting 60.7 percent in his last five games - a stretch that included a 42-point effort in an 86-85 overtime win over Mississippi State.

"I think everybody in the league knows what he can do and, for that matter, what he can't do," Stallings said of Foster. "For a guy to be able to do what he can do with what he can't do is amazing."

Auburn has been anything but amazing recently, having lost four straight and 10 of 12, including a 77-64 loss to Arkansas on Saturday. The Tigers did, however, outscore the Razorbacks 38-32 in the second half.

"We've struggled shooting the basketball. We have to be able to make shots to score," Lebo said. "I thought in our second half against Arkansas, we showed some life. Maybe we'll get some momentum going into play against Vanderbilt."

They hung close to the Commodores earlier this season thanks largely to a 32-point game off the bench from Frank Tolbert, but the senior guard has averaged 13.4 points and shot 37.5 percent from the field in the last five games.

The Tigers have lost three straight SEC tournament games since beating Vanderbilt in 2005.

The winner of this game faces Arkansas in the quarterfinals on Friday.