Vanderbilt-Arkansas Preview

3/13/2008 11:20 PM

By DAN PIERINGER
STATS Writer

Vanderbilt suffered a letdown after beating the top-ranked team in the nation, closing the regular season with three unimpressive outings and missing out on a bye in the first round of the SEC tournament.

A convincing win in that first round, however, might be what the Commodores needed to get back on track.

The 18th-ranked Commodores look to build on one of the best shooting performances in SEC tournament history as they meet Arkansas in the quarterfinals on Friday at the Georgia Dome.

Vanderbilt (26-6) beat then-No. 1 Tennessee 72-69 on Feb. 26 for its seventh straight win. The Commodores, however, followed that with two losses to unranked teams in their final three games of the season - including a 78-73 defeat at Arkansas (20-10) in which Vanderbilt wasted an opportunity to pull ahead late in the game by calling a timeout it didn't have.

The Commodores hope to avenge that defeat as they try to build on a dominant performance in their 93-82 win over Auburn in Thursday's first round. They shot 67.3 percent from the field - the highest mark by an SEC team this season, and just shy of the tournament record of 68.3 percent set by Kentucky in 1979 - and never trailed.

Freshman center A.J. Ogilvy had 27 points and went 12-for-13 from the field. His inside presence opened up jump shots for senior forward Shan Foster, who had 26 points while going 9-for-14 from the field, including 6-for-9 from 3-point range.

"We definitely feel like we have an advantage inside with A.J. and the things that he's able to do and bring to our team," said Foster, Vandy's all-time leading scorer with 1,984 points. "Whenever he's playing the way he did today the way he's capable of playing, then it makes it easy for a lot of other guys on this team to jump up and make shots.

"That was just a case of what happened today, and hopefully it'll be the case every time we play."

Ogilvy and Foster also came up big against the Razorbacks, combining for 42 points and 16-for-25 shooting. But the rest of the Commodores went 10-for-35, and Arkansas shot 58.3 percent in the win to help the Razorbacks finish second in the SEC West and earn a bye in the first round of the tournament.

That victory was the Razorbacks' seventh in their last eight meetings with the Commodores - a stretch that includes a 72-71 victory in the quarterfinals of last season's SEC tournament. Though they were unranked in each of those games, the Razorbacks beat three ranked Vandy teams in that stretch.

Arkansas closed the regular season with a 77-64 win over Auburn on Saturday that gave coach John Pelphrey his 100th career victory, 80 of which came during his five-season tenure with South Alabama. Pelphrey's 20 wins this season are the most by a first-year coach at Arkansas.

Sophomore guard Patrick Beverley came off the bench to score 27 points with six 3-pointers against Auburn. After totaling nine points and 1-for-9 shooting from behind the arc in his previous two games, Beverley is averaging 21.0 points and shooting 66.7 percent (14-for-21) from long range in his last three.

"I've just re-dedicated myself to the gym, and it's been paying off for me," Beverley said.

The winner of this game will play the winner of the game between No. 4 Tennessee and South Carolina in the semifinals Saturday.