Jerry Stackhouse explains how regular season-ending win showcases his vision for program

Vanderbilt is one of a couple teams that will head into the SEC Tournament without one of its best players due to injury, with Liam Robbins unable to go with a leg injury.

But that won’t stop the Commodores from believing they have plenty to play for… and plenty to prove.

“Everything is crucial at this point. We don’t put any pressure on one guy,” coach Jerry Stackhouse said. “We’re a team. When you look at stats and you say we lost our best player, we lost a player, he’s a big part of what we’ve done up to this point.”

Stackhouse pointed to one simple fact as evidence the Commodores will come ready to play when the SEC Tournament begins: They’ve already beaten a likely NCAA Tournament team without Robbins.

He was injured late during a win at No. 23 Kentucky, and Vanderbilt went on to hold onto the Kentucky win, then dumped Mississippi State 77-72 in the regular-season finale.

“You see we can go beat a team that they already have in the field tonight because we’re a real team and we’ve built it and structured it that way,” Stackhouse said.

Vanderbilt roster rolls deep

Jerry Stackhouse was adamant that his program is capable of withstanding an injury to a guy like Robbins, who was leading the team with 15.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game.

“We’ve got guys reps that maybe wouldn’t have got reps on other teams, but because they got reps early in the season they’re able to step in and provide valuable minutes for us right now,” he pointed out.

And while Joe Lunardi doesn’t have Vanderbilt on the NCAA Tournament bubble at this point, Stackhouse remains convinced that his program is trending in the right direction after putting together an 11-7 record in SEC play.

“The long view, what we’ve envisioned for our program, what we envisioned for this season is starting to pay off and come to fruition for us and it’s coming at the right time,” he said.