Jerry Stackhouse on slowing down Kentucky, Oscar Tshiebwe

Kentucky beat Vanderbilt 78-66 in Nashville three weeks ago. Since then, the Cats have been on a tear, winning four of five games, the only defeat at Auburn, now the No. 1 team in the country. Meanwhile, Vandy has lost three of their last five, only notching wins vs. SEC cellar-dweller Georgia.

Yesterday, Vandy head coach Jerry Stackhouse met with the media to preview tomorrow night’s game at Rupp. How is he preparing his team to face a surging Kentucky squad that ran Kansas off its own floor?

“I saw some of the game,” Stackhouse said of Kentucky’s 80-62 win over Kansas. “I saw that they played a lot of zone, Kansas went to a lot of zone against them, a triangle and two. That just shows how efficient they can be where teams go away from what they normally do to try and stop what they’re doing.

“We know them. We know what they present. They’ve got [Kellan] Grady, who’s a three-point shooter. They’ve got [Oscar] Tshiebwe, who’s a really big threat on the post and then you feel like you want to take those guys away, TyTy Washington, try to focus on the perimeter and the big, and then Keion Brooks comes and gives 27 [points vs. Kansas]. So, they’re a really good team. We’ve got to be prepared to guard them.”

Sahvir Wheeler had to watch Kentucky’s win in Nashville from the sidelines as he recovered from the neck injury he suffered at LSU. TyTy Washington stepped up in Wheeler’s place, scoring 15 points. Oscar Tshiebwe turned in a career-high 30 points along with 13 rebounds.

“Obviously, we want to try to contain him and control him,” Stackhouse said of Oscar. “We don’t want him to have 30 again. He’s unique. He really is unique. I think he shoots it better than I feel like he should from 15 to 18 feet. If you want to give up something for him, you want to give him that but if you don’t have a contested, stick a hand up, he can make those shots. And then he gets you on the block.”

Rodney Chatman returns; Liam Robbins still working his way back

Scotty Pippen Jr. had 32 points vs. Kentucky, his dream school growing up, in last month’s game in Nashville. Since then, Rodney Chatman has returned to Vanderbilt’s lineup, allowing Pippen Jr. to play off the ball more often. Chatman scored 12 points in Vandy’s 85-77 win over Georgia on Saturday, while Pippen turned in 23 points and a season-high 9 assists. Stackhouse said having Chatman back makes a world of difference.

“The beauty of it is having Rodney back. He allows the game to open up for everybody and more so for Scotty. Now instead of a point guard, a quicker point guard on him, now it’s more of a two-guard who may have a little more size but may not have the foot speed to really handle him and his playmaking.”

Seven-foot center Liam Robbins has not played all season due to a foot injury but is close to taking the floor again. Yesterday, Stackhouse said Robbins is back in practice and participating in 3-on-3. His status for tomorrow night’s game remains uncertain, but Stackhouse said even if he can play, his minutes will be limited.

“It’s going to be important for us to mix it up”

Kentucky led by as many as 28 in the second half at Vanderbilt but wilted down the stretch, missing their final seven shots. The Dores finished the game on a 16-0 run. Kentucky seems to have fixed its bad habit of letting go of the rope, but Stackhouse said he’ll try to throw several different looks at the Cats tomorrow in hopes of slowing them down.

“I thought we guarded them a little bit soft intentionally. Our scheme was to try to let the two and the pick and roll try to handle it and TyTy really got going in the midrange last game. We switched it up and adjusted a little bit, contained them a little better in the second half but it’s going to be important for us to mix it up with them. If you give them any steady diet of anything, Cal’s going to switch it up. He’s got the personnel to do that and he does a really good of that.”

“We’ve got to be prepared to make sure we’ve got a lot in our bag and play well ourselves offensively. That’s going to be the key for us, to play well and score ourselves offensively because their misses, they’re really getting out, trying to push it in transition. They’re really fast. Even on their makes, they’re taking it out quickly and getting some easy opportunities. Getting ahead of teams on made baskets as well. We can’t celebrate any scores. Gotta get back and get our defense set and try to defend them in the halfcourt.”