It took a while for the Commodores to play like a Top 25 team. They're now number 18 in the Associated Press poll and number 20 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
Vandy had been in the Top 25 twice before breaking back into the Top 25 a couple of weeks ago. Both times they played as a ranked team they lost. One of those losses was to Cincinnati and the other was on the road to Illinois.
Now the Commodores (17-4, 6-1 SEC) finally seem to be playing like they deserve to be ranked. The Commodores have won 11 of their last 12 with the only loss coming at Kentucky.
It's pretty much locked up that the Commodores will make another trip to the Big Dance, which has been pretty normal over the past ten years.
As of right now ESPN's Joe Lunardi has the Commodores projected as a No.4 seed. I'm not sure if I would go that far but they're definitely a team that can make a Sweet Sixteen run in March.
I've said this all year and I'll say it again. The Commodores are extremely balanced and any coach in the country would kill to have as many weapons as Kevin Stallings has to play with.
The key to this team is that there's really no "go-to" guy outside of Jermaine Beal. They all have had their off nights this season, but there's always been one or two other players to pick up the slack.
That's one of the key ingredients to success. Up next for the Commodores is a trip to Athens to take on SEC cellar dweller Georgia.
Top 3 Commodores
- Jermaine Beal- 14 ppg, 3 apg
- Jeffery Taylor- 13.9 ppg, 5 rpg
- A.J. Ogilvy- 13.8 ppg, 6 rpg
- Steve Tchiengang- 3.4 ppg, 1.8 rpg
- Brad Tinsley- 42% FG, 2.3 turnovers/gm
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