Stackhouse: "Beating the king at his house, it is pretty special."

Jerry Stackhouse was emotional in his postgame press conference, his first after a win in Rupp Arena. Earlier in the week, Stackhouse was confident Vanderbilt would ruin Kentucky’s Senior Night, a message that likely made its way to Kentucky’s locker room before the game. The comment was called “bulletin board” material during UK’s official pregame show.

Turns out, Stackhouse was right.

Vanderbilt did ruin Kentucky’s Senior Night and the Wildcats’ late-season momentum by shocking everyone with a 68-66 victory, the Commodores’ first win in Lexington since 2007. Before tip-off, Kentucky was a 10-point favorite, said goodbye to its seniors, and needed only a win versus Vanderbilt to clinch the third seed in next week’s SEC Tournament…. but Vandy ruined all of it by holding Kentucky to 32-percent shooting from the field and a 3-for-19 effort from beyond the arc.

Sure, Kentucky was without point guard Cason Wallace for the final 18 minutes of the game, but Vanderbilt played the final 36 minutes without its best player, Liam Robbins. One of the best players in the entire conference since his return, Robbins suffered an injury four minutes into his highly-anticipated run-in with Oscar Tshiebwe and still, Vanderbilt won the game.

“We played without Liam before,” Stackhouse said afterward. “I mean, obviously we’re a better team when he’s a part of it, but you know, (Quentin Millora-Brown), I mean, it speaks to our team and other guys stepping up and being ready. I mean, I think we preached that. That’s kind of been our motto, you know, since my time here. Again, stay ready so you don’t have to get ready, and I thought Q kept himself in shape. He hadn’t played as many minutes, you know, since Liam’s kind of been on a tear here lately, but he stepped in and filled in admirably.”

Millora-Brown had 10 points and six rebounds in 19 reserve minutes, and though he couldn’t stop Tshiebwe, Kentucky didn’t exploit Vanderbilt’s weakness enough when the Cats had the ball. Tshiebwe scored 21 on Millora-Brown, Myles Stute, Jordan Wright, and all of the help defense that came with them, but 21 wasn’t enough.

“Miles and Jordan were down there fighting Tshiebwe,” Stackhouse said of the interior battle. “You know, he’s a load down there but our guys just continued to battle him.”

He added, “Man, I think, we still got a lot of basketball ahead of us. But we’re just happy about tonight, coming in and having something to play for at this time of the year. You know, beating the king at his house, it is pretty special.

“I’ve got so much respect for Calipari, and what he’s built and what he’s done. His program, I mean, everybody had him buried at the beginning of the year, and then he got his team playing as well as anybody in the country right now. So this is a big feat for us, not just to come here and beat them, but being a team that’s been probably playing as good of basketball as anybody.”

Stackhouse on Jordan Wright

Vanderbilt senior Jordan Wright sat with Jerry Stackhouse during the postgame line of questioning, and it was Wright who made Stackhouse tear up in front of the cameras. Stackhouse could barely get through his comments about Wright’s effort against Kentucky and how much Wright means to the coach who started at Vandy with him.

“Even though we had a great win, last game, I was a little disappointed, because this knucklehead right here wasn’t a part of it the way he was supposed to be. You know what I’m saying? So I challenged him to get back and be who he needed to be for us, because we started in this thing together. This is my very first recruit, this first guy that I signed at Vanderbilt. So I get a little bit emotional with this one right here. Cause he’s, you know, that’s what it’s about. That’s what it’s about. It’s what, you know, this is a great moment for us, great moment for our program, and I’m glad that he was able to help us do it tonight.”

Wright was Vanderbilt’s MVP with a game-high 23 points, including 4-for-4 three-point shooting and the game-winning two at the end.