The 2008–09 Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team represented Vanderbilt University in the 2008–09 NCAA Division I men's college basketball season. The team competed in the East Division of the Southeastern Conference and finished with an overall record of 19–12 (SEC: 8–8). They were led by Kevin Stallings, in his ninth year as head coach, and played their home games at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee. It was their sixth straight winning season, although they failed to play in a post-season tournament for the first time in five years.
The previous year's 2007–08 team finished 26–8 and ranked 25th in both the AP Poll and the ESPN/USA Today (Coaches) poll.
Entering the season, Vanderbilt was picked by the media attending the SEC's media days in October to finish 4th in the SEC East, behind Tennessee, Florida and Kentucky.
Vanderbilt lost three starters from the previous year's team—2008 SEC-player of the year swingman Shan Foster (20.3 ppg), shooting guard Alex (Red) Gordon (10.8 ppg) and power forward Ross Neltner (8.3 ppg) – and returned two starters—sophomore center A.J. Ogilvy and junior point guard Jermaine Beal. With no seniors and only two juniors (Beal and junior guard George Drake), the Commodores were one of the youngest team's in Division I.
Ogilvy, the Commodores' leading rebounder (6.7 rpg) and second leading scorer (17.0 ppg) the previous season, was selected by the SEC media and SEC coaches to the pre-season all-SEC first team.
Roster # Name Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown High School GP Min Ppg Rpg Apg 0 Jermaine Beal G 6–3 210 Junior DeSoto, TX DeSoto 31 33.1 12.5 3.5 3.2 1 Brad Tinsley G 6–3 180 Freshman Oregon City, OR Oregon City 31 31.0 11.0 2.5 2.8 2 Charles Hinkle G/F 6–6 200 Freshman Los Alamitos, CA Hebron Academy (Maine)/Los Alamitos 25 8.4 2.0 0.9 0.4 3 Festus Ezeli C 6–11 245 Freshman Benin City, Nigeria Igbinedion Education Center 29 12.4 3.8 2.6 0.0 4 Andrew (A.J.) Ogilvy C 6–11 250 Sophomore Sydney, Australia Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra 29 27.6 15.4 7.1 1.3 5 Lance Goulbourne G/F 6–7 215 Freshman Brooklyn, NY The Hun School 23 14.1 5.1 3.3 0.3 12 Jordan Smart2 G/F 6–6 170 Freshman Lexington, KY Lexington Catholic 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 15 Elliott Cole2 G 5–11 175 Sophomore Memphis, TN Memphis University School 10 1.7 0.3 0.1 0.0 21 Darshawn McClellan F 6–7 220 Sophomore Fresno, CA Edison (Fresno) 31 16.9 2.1 3.0 1.1 22 Jamie Graham2 G 5–11 180 Sophomore Nashville, TN Whites Creek 5 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 24 Andre Walker1 F 6–7 214 Sophomore Flossmoor, IL Brewster Academy (N.H.)/Homewood-Flossmoor 3 23.7 4.7 4.7 1.3 33 Steve Tchiengang F 6–8 240 Freshman Douala, Cameroon Montverde Academy/Cypress Community Christian 25 17.3 3.6 3.2 0.5 34 George Drake G 6–4 210 Junior Calera, AL Calera 30 17.4 5.4 2.7 1.2 44 Jeffery Taylor G-F 6–7 200 Freshman Norrköping, Sweden Hobbs High School, Hobbs, NM 31 26.0 12.2 6.2 1.7
1 Missed the season after torn ACL against MTSU. 2 Walk-on.
Source: ESPN.com
2008–09 schedule and results
!colspan=9| Exhibition
!colspan=9| Regular season
!colspan=9| SEC tournament
References