Basketball coach tells Rotarians team concept's strong
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
Prognosticators are saying Vanderbilt’s men basketball team will be among the nation’s best when the season starts Nov. 11 against Oregon. Early Wednesday morning, head coach Kevin Stallings told the Brentwood Morning Rotary Club the exact same thing.

“Most coaches underplay their teams when talking about them,” Stallings told the larger-than-normal crowd gathered at City Café. “Our team’s going to  be really good this year, and it might be even better than that.”

“Our team’s going to  be really good this year, and it might be even better than that.” KEVIN STALLINGS Vanderbilt men's basketball coach

Entering his 12^th season at Vandy, Stalling said that in the absence of drama, absence of injuries, “we can have a great year.” He called the six-game suspension of starter Festus Ezeli the “first blow” but said the strength of this year’s squad is that it can be good without him.

He sent shout outs to his three returning starters – Ezeli, Jeff Taylor and John Jenkins -- who opted to return to the West End campus instead of jumping to the NBA draft last spring.

“They are so glued in to the team and the team concept,” he said.

“John Jenkins may be the most improved player on the team. His shooting skills are the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It’s absolutely phenomenal,” he said of the 6’4” shooting guard.  

 “This team has a better chance of making it to another level than any team I’ve ever coached on,” said Stallings. That statement says something since the former Purdue player’s coaching resume ' resume includes leading the program at Illinois State, where he led his team to two straight NCAA appearances, after assisting Gene Keady at his alma mater, and Roy Williams at Kansas.

 “Of course, there’s this little thing of getting through that first round of the tournament,” he followed in his self-deprecating way.   

The Commodores have made12 post-season appearances, including the last two years. The team’s best finish came in 1965 when it reached the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. Stallings has led the team to the Sweet 16 twice, first in 2004 and again in 2007.

Stallings said the depth and experience on this year’s team is welcome, though he had positive things to say about both his red-shirt and true freshman.

“Our (true) freshmen look like freshmen and that’s usually a good thing,” he said. One of them, 6’8” Shelby Moats “plays so hard that he will embarrass you if you don’t play hard” -- a quality the coach hopes will keep some of the more veteran players on their toes.

“Shelby only knows one thing and it’s a beautiful thing. That’s going fast. And he can shoot too.”

The Commodores have a challenging schedule this year, with games against Xavier, Marquette, North Carolina State and Louisville, in addition to Oregon and their SEC field of opponents.

Stallings said he expects the SEC to be “as good as it’s been in a long time.” While Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina may be “a little down,” he anticipates the competition overall to be fierce.

While the primary topic Wednesday was basketball, baseball made its way into the conversation as well.

Stallings is a lifelong Cardinals fan who grew up 20 miles from the St. Louis. He planned to attend the first game of the World Series Wednesday with his son, Jacob, the starting catcher for the University of North Carolina’s baseball team.

Rotarian Mickey Jacobs, who became a friend of Stallings soon after the coach’s family moved to Brentwood, introduced his friend and shared that the two had spent several years coaching Little League together.

Stalling started his presentation by sharing that he moved his family here from Illinois in time for then-9-year-old Jacob to play baseball in his new hometown.  The only trouble was that in Illinois, Little League starts in June when the ground begins to thaw. Stallings quickly learned that in Tennessee, the season starts in early spring.

“We get here and the league’s not going to let my son play because the season’s already started,” Stallings said. Jacobs, it turns out, was a coach and his son and Jacob became fast friends. Jacobs insisted that Jacob be allowed to play, and the league relented.

The two boys and their teammates went on to win the championship that year.

That core group of Little Leaguers continued to play together through high school. Both were on Brentwood Academy’s state championship team in 2008.

Stallings and his wife, Lisa, are also the parents of daughters Alexa, a high school senior, and Jordyn, a fifth grader.