Lukas Kornet showed what a stud and clutch player he is with two phenomenally clutch shots in the last 90 seconds of our game against Chattanooga in an awesome 76-74 VU victory before 9,500 at Memorial.

Memorial Magic struck again in the form of one Luke Kornet. But the entire team had a lot to do with this key victory over a very good Mocs team coached by an outstanding young coach in Matt McCall. I kind of like our guy a lot too. Bryce is clutch and his players responded with their own clutchness as we moved to 6-5 on the season and head into Dayton with a ton of momentum for a 6 PM CT/7 PM ET game Wednesday Night. Chattanooga went to the NCAA Tournament last year and is having another solid season this season and looks like a tournament team, dropped to 8-3. Dayton is 7-3 and just lost a tough game on the road to a resurgent Northwestern team, 67-64. The Dayton Flyers are a usual participant in the tournament, so we’ll have our work cut out for us. But I want to talk about our victory Saturday Night.

Matt Fisher-Davis and Luke led the team with 18 points apiece. Matt pulled down 7 boards. Matt has really become a more complete player this season. Like what I’m seeing out of our junior sharp shooter. Matt was also 9-for-9 from the charity stripe. Wow. We finished 26-for-29 from the line, 90%. What a huge thing that is. We’re a super free throw shooting team this season. We’re shooting 78%. Matt is shooting 87%, Luke is shooting 86% and Riley is shooting 92%. Those are John Stockton, Steve Nash, Steph Curry numbers for Riley. Love the way our team is getting it done at the line. That’s going to win some close games in the SEC for us. Jeff Roberson finished with 11 points and 5 rebounds. Solid performance by J Robe. He sank some clutch shots. Joe Toye came off the bench and gave us a huge lift on both the offensive and defensive ends. Joe had 10 points and his activity on defense really made a difference. He’s just such a super athlete. Riley finished with 10, and was 4-for-4 from the line and sank a huge 3 late. Payton Willis gave us some more good minutes at point guard. Payton is going to be stellar. He’s already showing flashes of that this season. Clevon Brown and Nolan Cressler gave us some quality hustle minutes off the bench. They are both going to help us a lot going forward. Bryce just goes with the hot hand and he’ll stick with them if he sees them giving stellar effort. We have a lot of effort guys. We only have 9 scholarship players, but they’re 9 quality players. 

Luke’s first trifecta came with 1:27 left and put us up by two. The Mocs fought back and took a 74-73 point lead with 10 seconds left and were at the line for a 1 and 1 to make it a possible 3 point game and one which would require a 3 to send the game into overtime. But fortunately, they misfired on the front end of the one and one and Luke grabbed the rebound and hustled up the court as Riley brought it down. Bryce had called timeout before the free throw to get a play worked up. Riley hustled the ball up the court but was under control then handed it off to Luke, who fired from behind the arc with a hand or two in his face and sank a string music shot in the Music City to put us ahead 76-74 with 3 seconds left. Chattanooga took a timeout and had a last look at it, and it was a pretty good look, but missed and we took home  an amazing comeback victory. We had been down 62-53 with nine and a half minutes left. Just really proud for Luke and the team. 

Now we move onto Dayton tomorrow night at 6 PM, though there won’t be any TV. Will keep up closely online and have a report on Thursday. Then we have a week and a day off from games, and will have some good practice time to get ready for a road SEC game at LSU Thursday, December 29th @ 8 PM CT/9 PM ET on ESPNU. So a lot to look forward to for our exciting basketball team. Got to stay healthy, but I like the group of guys we’ve got.

Football

I misspoke about which network will be televising our game against North Carolina State in the Independence Bowl next Monday, Dec. 26th at 4 PM CT/5 PM ET. The Deuce, ESPN2, will broadcast the game. Will have a preview and prediction on this blog Monday around 11 AM. Really psyched up to see the guys compete. Want our seniors to go out as the winners that they are and get the underclassmen some excellent momentum heading into 2017. Recruiting always gets a boost from a bowl victory as well. Can’t wait for Shreveport.

Baseball

 Collegiate Baseball has selected VU right fielder Jeren Kendall and pitcher Kyle Wright as preseason All Americans. Congrats to Jeren and Kyle. Expecting big things out of those two and our super talented roster this season. Of course that’s always the expectation for Vanderbilt baseball. There is some youth on this team, but some really good vets as well with Jeren, Kyle, Will Toffey, Alonzo Jones, Connor Kaiser, Ethan Paul, Julian Infante, Patrick Raby and some other experienced guys, who are still young, but gained some valuable experience in 2016. And Corbs keeps on churning out the recruiting classes. We finished No. 10 in 2016, which is solid, but we’re No.3 in 2017 with time left, and No. 1 in 2018 and 2019. Wow, that’s special. Who wouldn’t want to play for Corbs, one of the finest men you’ll ever meet and the ultimate leader.

We’ve been awesome under Tim Corbin. With the new baseball facility in the works which has amazing locker rooms, both for the present players and our pro guys to come back to, workout facilities for the present players and our pros, who almost all to a man come back to work out in Nashville, our recruiting efforts are enhanced even more. The man who has made it all possible is Tim Corbin. Quite a guy. Will have a preview in mid January with the man. Looking forward to another stellar season for Vanderbilt baseball. 

Also, will talk to Scott Limbaugh in late February. Scott’s men’s golf team finished No.1 in the country during the fall season. Really looking forward to seeing Scott’s team play this spring and compete for a deep run in the NCAA’s. And of course will also talk with Geoff McDonald who will have another stellar team in women’s tennis. Geoff is the best coach in the country. So a lot to look forward to.  

Will hit ya back soon. Write up on bball Thursday and more on football coming up. Any baseball, golf or tennis news will be reported on as well. Will look into our women’s bball team. Coach Stephanie White is doing an outstanding job with the girls. Will investigate and get back to you on that as well. Merry Christmas to you though I will definitely be in touch in the meantime.