Scouting Southeastern Louisiana
This is the season opener as well for Southeastern Louisiana. The Lions return six of 10 letterwinners and two of the five starters from last squad that finished 7-20 overall and 6-14 in the Southland Conference.
Junior guard Amir Abdur-Rahim is Southeastern Louisiana’s top returning player after he averaged 15.9 points and 3.5 rebounds per game last season. Abdur-Rahim was deadly from long range as he hit 77 three pointers last year.

Commodores in Home Openers
Vanderbilt has won 12 consecutive home openers. The last time the Commodores lost a home opener was Nov. 29, 1989, when Tennessee Tech beat Vanderbilt, 89-76.

Stallings’ Fourth Year Provides Quality Seasons
In his 20 seasons as an assistant and head coach, there have been three times when Kevin Stallings has coached the same team for a fourth consecutive season. As Stallings enters his fourth season at the helm of the Commodores, history provides hope for a successful 2002-2003 Commodore campaign.

In his fourth season as an assistant coach on Gene Keady’s staff at Purdue, Stallings helped the Boilermakers to a 22-10 overall record, an 11-7 Big Ten mark and an NCAA Tournament berth.

Stallings’ fourth season as an assistant on Roy Williams’ staff at Kansas saw the Jayhawks finish 27-5 overall, 11-3 in the Big Eight and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

In his fourth season as the head coach at Illinois State, Stallings led the Redbirds to a 24-6 overall record, a 14-4 record in the Missouri Valley Conference and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Reaching New Heights
This year’s Commodore team has six players that stand 6-8 or taller, including sophomore David Przybyszewski (6-11), freshman Ted Skuchas (6-11), sophomore Martin Schnedlitz (6-10), junior Matt Freije (6-9), freshman Julian Terrell (6-9) and sophomore Brian Thornton (6-8).

The last VU team to have at least six players who stood 6-8 or taller was the 1997-98 squad that advanced to the third round of the NIT. The six players on the 1997-98 squad included Darius Coulibaly (7-0), Dan Langhi (6-11), Austin Bates (6-10), Billy Di Spaltro (6-9), Greg LaPointe (6-9) and Gianni Cugini (6-8).

Memorial Magic Night
The Vanderbilt athletic department is focused on making the Dec. 1 Vanderbilt-UConn game special. Memorial Magic Night is designed to pack Memorial Gym with the most rabid of Commodore fans as well as to provide them a Vanderbilt basketball experience unlike any other. For more details, please visit vucommodores.com.

Complete Notes