Young Vandy Will Still Be Just Dandy

Last year's SEC Tourney champs lose a lot but should not be overlooked

Nov. 1, 2007

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By Jeff Lippman

CSTV.com


	Jeff Lippman Jeff is CSTV.com's lead women's basketball writer. E-mail here!

In a conference that is led by one school who is the defending the national champion, another who is looking for a fifth consecutive trip to the Final Four and yet another who has always been just a step behind but garners a three-time All-Conference first-team member, it's hard to believe there is room for anything else at the top of the mighty SEC.

But in case you didn't realize, none of the aforementioned teams - Tennessee, LSU or Georgia - accomplished what the Vanderbilt Commodores did last season. Vandy won the 2007 SEC Tournament by beating the Tigers in the final.

Entering the 2007-08 season, however, coach Melanie Balcomb will look to the youngest team she has ever coached to remain firmly planted at the top of a conference where you have to battle every single night.

Gone is 6-foot-3 All-SEC first team center Carla Thomas, the school's No. 6 all-time leading scorer. Gone is prolific three-point shooter and the team's second-leading scorer Caroline Williams. And most importantly, gone is Dee Davis, Vandy's point guard and all-time assist leader.

Even at the best of college programs, you can't just expect to compensate for that kind of production going away.

"This year is going to be a unique year," Balcomb said at SEC Media Day in Birmingham, Ala. "This is the youngest team I've ever had with only three upperclassmen. It is going to be an unpredictable year with new faces on the floor. It will be interesting to see how well we do."

Center Liz Sherwood is a 6-foot-4 senior, guard Jennifer Risper is a junior and guard/forward Christina Wirth, named a preseason All-SEC second team member, is also a junior. That is the extent of the players on the roster who have spent more than one season in Nashville.

But Balcomb won't let her team wilt under low expectations. On the contrary, the expectations are still there for the only program other than Tennessee with multiple SEC Tournament titles - Vandy has four - since 1992.

"We will be doing what we do, but there won't be too much change," the fifth-year coach said. "We expect to win, and if I were to change my coaching the players will see and I don't want them to see me coaching any differently."

Sherwood, the only senior, knows this is her team, and as the team's captain, she is buying into Balcomb's positive philosophy of always believing you have what it takes to win.

"Since I've been around the longest, it is my responsibility as a leader to make sure the newcomers know what goes on in a season," Sherwood said. "Our goals for this year are the same as last year. Just because we had people graduate and move on does not mean we have any lower expectations.

"We expect to repeat as SEC Champions and pick up where we left off from last year."

Sherwood must highly improve upon her 8.8 point and 3.6 rebound averages if she really wants to help the team towards another SEC title, but with Wirth's 11.4 points, more than four boards and her ability to stroke it from long-range, Sherwood will certainly not be without help.

As the only other upperclassmen, Risper's role will be dramatically increased this season, and with Davis departed, she will probably take many repetitions at the point guard spot. One of the best defenders on the team last year, Risper will have to cut down the turnovers and increase her assist numbers to maximize the help she brings to the team.

"We had really good court leaders last year who led by example," Risper said, "so my job this year is to make sure that same communication is there with this team."

More than likely, it will be a freshman who Balcomb will trust with the ball in her hands, with Jence Rhoads, a recruit out of Slippery Rock, Pa., looking like the early favorite. With such youth at the position, Balcomb recognizes it as the team's weak spot.

"Our weaknesses will definitely be the inexperience at the point guard position," she said. "We have a new freshman point guard, but it will be the inexperience factor that really affects us."

Three more freshmen and six more sophomores make up a roster that does have solid size with the 6-foot-4 Sherwood, 6-foot-3 redshirt sophomore Amy Malo and 6-foot-3 freshman Rebecca Silinski, who holds her high school's - Shades Mountain Christian in Birmingham - career scoring record.

The well isn't particularly fruitful at the moment, but it isn't dry either for the Commodores, and starting from scratch is never an option for Balcomb's team, who will learn and adapt on the fly to the strengths and weaknesses of one of the youngest teams in the conference.

But what the nation needs to remember, something you can bet Tennessee, LSU and Georgia never forget, is that Vandy won the SEC Tournament last year and annually boasts one of the toughest teams in the one of the toughest conferences in America.

No matter who does the dribbling, who does the rebounding and who does the scoring, it will be done and Vanderbilt will once again be a team to reckon with in the SEC.