NASHVILLE, Tenn. - While players from 13 teams are staying in hotels for this week’s SEC Tournament, the Vanderbilt Commodores are sleeping at home and getting up to attend class.
Vanderbilt junior forward Rod Odom and sophomore guard Kedren Johnson, who represented the team at Wednesday’s news conference, said they attended class Wednesday and will do so again today before the Commodores play Arkansas tonight in Bridgestone Arena, which is just a few miles from the Vanderbilt campus.
“We have to go about our regular day and then go to the game as if it’s a home game,” Odom said. “So I think it kind of evens out, with guys (on other teams) having free time before the game, and we’re in class.”
Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said there is no way the Commodores will miss academic commitments this week.
“If we’re in Nashville, they will go to class,” Stallings said when the players were asked about their routine this week. “If you wanted to ask me that, I could have answered that one for you.
“Yes, they will be in class.”Taking charge
Junior guard Kikko Haydar leads Arkansas in charges taken with 14 this season.
“I think it helps that I’m small and they don’t always see me,” said Haydar, who is listed at 5-10 and 162 pounds. “That doesn’t hurt.”
Haydar said his ability to draw charges also is helped by Arkansas’ pressure defense, which often causes opponents to speed up and play out of control.
“I’ve had the ability to read when they’re going to try and go (to the basket), and a lot of times they don’t see me as a threat when I step in front of them,”Haydar said. “So they just try and run me over.”
Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson said Haydar understands how much taking charges can help the team.
“He’s a pest on defense,” Anderson said. “It just seems like he’s where the ball is. Some guys have a knack for that.”
Haydar said, “It’s really not that hard” to sacrifice his body and take a charge from bigger players.
“I did it a lot in high school, so I’m used to it,” he said. “When you’re little, they teach you the right way to fall so you don’t get hurt.”
Who’s the best?
Joe Dean Jr., an SEC television analyst, asked Arkansas players BJ Young and Marshawn Powell to pick the best SEC player they faced this season.
“Marshawn Powell in practice,” Young said, answering first. “On another team? We played a lot of good players. I wouldn’t put my finger on the best player. I guess whoever got the SEC Player of the Year award.”
SEC coaches voted Georgia sophomore guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as SEC Plyer of the Year.
“I don’t really know,”Young said. “I think Marshawn Powell is my top player I played against all year.”
Young’s answer naturally put Powell in an awkward spot. How could he not say Young is the best SEC player he’s faced this season?
“I didn’t expect that,” Powell said of Young’s answer. “I mean, of course BJ is one of the top players in this conference. I enjoy playing against him and playing with him.
“The best player I played against is kind of hard, man.
I played against a lot of good players. It’s real, really hard to be honest.”
Powell eventually named Texas A&M senior guard Elston Turner - who missed the regular-season finaleat Arkansas last Saturday because of a hand injury - as the best opponent. Turner scored 15 points when the Aggies beat Arkansas 69-51 in the SEC opener.
Freebies not easy
Vanderbilt is on pace to have its worst free throwshooting percentage in more than 50 years.
The Commodores rank last in the SEC shooting 63.2 percent (337 of 533) on free throws, which would be their worst since shooting 63.0 percent (444 of 705)during the 1952-1953 season.
The good news for Vanderbilt is that the Commodores have shot 73.7 percent (73 of 99) from the free-throw line their past five games while going 4-1.
“I let one of my assistants be in charge of foul shooting this year,” Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said with a smile. “I started taking it over back a few games ago and we started shooting them better.”
Stallings said the Commodores struggled to make free throws early “and it kind of snowballed on our young team.” He doesn’t anticipate free throws to be a problem for the Commodores during the SEC Tournament.
“That’s one of the things that we’ve kind of fixed and made better,” he said. “We actually expect to make them now, which is really a far cry different than the way we felt earlier in the season.” Very different
The Commodores enjoyed a 41-point turnaround in their two games against Arkansas during the regular season.
After they lost 56-33 at Walton Arena in Fayetteville on Jan. 12, they beat the Razorbacks 67-49 at Memorial Gym on Feb. 9.
“At their place, they did a great job of getting us sped up and we had a whole bunch of turnovers,” Vanderbilt guard Kedren Johnson said. “We came back at our place and we did a better job of taking care of the ball … and over that stretch between games we started talking about competitive character, and we started playing like the team we wanted to be.”
Arkansas outscored Vanderbilt 23-10 in points off turnovers in the teams’ first meeting.
“They hit us in the mouth, they got us pretty good,” Vanderbilt forward Rod Odom said. “We came back and just tried to be more composed and take care of the ball in the half court and things went a little better for us.”
Vanderbilt outscored Arkansas 16-10 in points off turnovers in the teams’ rematch.
Sports, Pages 22 on 03/14/2013