Yeah, they had a couple of down years.  BUT, they didn't have a disasterous year in which there was absolutely no hope of a winning season, now or in the forseeable future.  There's down, and then there's rock bottom, where we are now.  In all the discussion of even good programs having to rebuild and reload, nobody seems to have found any programs who have fallen to the ineptness being shown by the Commodores.

PeteFox wrote:  BUT, they didn't have a disasterous year in which there was absolutely no hope of a winning season, now or in the forseeable future.  

Personally, I am not only hoping for, but am expecting and would be surprised if we did not, have a winning season NEXT YEAR.  Just sayin'.

PeteFox wrote: Yeah, they had a couple of down years.  BUT, they didn't have a disasterous year in which there was absolutely no hope of a winning season, now or in the forseeable future.  There's down, and then there's rock bottom, where we are now.  In all the discussion of even good programs having to rebuild and reload, nobody seems to have found any programs who have fallen to the ineptness being shown by the Commodores.

Jesus, are you kidding me with this? Do you even watch college basketball? And did you watch Vanderbilt football at any time between 1984 and 2010? We're 8-10, not 0-18. We didn't return a single player who averaged 15 minutes a game from last year's team. Our only upperclassmen are two juniors who are only this year getting their first real opportunities to play significant minutes. Our roster is three scholarships light because CKS didn't want a repeat of last year's mass exodus in 2016. And yet we've won nearly half our games against a tough schedule. It's not ideal. It's not what I want. But it's neither inept nor an embarrassment. It's not even the most precipitous fall in the conference this year. Look at Mississippi State, who were a perennial contender and they're both terrible and trying to make everyone forget their moral and judgmental lapses of the last two years.

Comments like this one, however? Different story.

It is not wrong to think that Vanderbilt should reload, but it's incredibly naive.  You can count on two hands the number of schools in the entire that reload year after year.  In the SEC, there are maybe two schools that can make that claim (Kentucky and Florida), though Florida misses the NCAA Tournament from time-to-time and Kentucky is far from a shoe-in this year.  Vandy has never in its history been a school that reloads year-after-year - or at least not since integration.  

Personally, I'm not pleased with this season, but I'm not surprised either.  I'm a lot more disappointed that last year's team could not be Wisconsin than in anything I've seen on the court this year.  I see the potential in this team, and I like the pieces coming in next year (albeit only one of whom has proven anything at the college level).  My expectation is that we should have a winning SEC record next season.  After that, I expect we should be back in the Tournament by the following year.  Once we're in the Tournament, I expect to win at least one game, but recognize it's a crapshoot. 

As for the long-term, I think Vanderbilt will compete for and retain the best coaching talent based on loyalty.  There is a reason guys like Shaka Smart and Brad Stevens are increasingly staying at mid-major schools.  Just ask Jeff Capel and Dan Monson.  It's also the reason I think we've been able to retain Corbin and stand a chance of retaining Franklin.  When it becomes clear that Stallings is leaving - ideally on his own terms - then I would love to see Vanderbilt put a succession plan in place before his final season (both for recruiting and continuity for the guys already in the program).  Stallings should leave Vanderbilt as the winningest coach in school history after at least 15 seasons in Nashville.  Ideally, the prospect of that kind of support and longevity while competing in the SEC will help us lure a top young coach to Vanderbilt to succeed Stallings.  The last thing I want to see is for us to become a revolving door for head coaches like some of the other schools in the conference.  With the exception of Kentucky, that's largely been a recipe for disaster for the league's other schools.

Dore 2004, what you said, especially the line about being more disappointed with losing to Wisconsin last year than anything that's happened this year.

Dore2004 wrote:  With the exception of Kentucky, that's largely been a recipe for disaster for the league's other schools.

Even for UK it is a mixed bag, and coaching changes are a stressful time.  The Eddie Sutton era was clearly a mixed bag.  While I think they are crazy, UK fans were never happy with Tubby Smith, and Billy Gillespie was (by UK standards) an unmitigated disaster both on and off the court.

The only thing that saves UK is that success breeds success -- because they are UK and because they have won National Titles in the past, they are a destination that other high-profile coaches want to get to.  UK can potentially poach a coach from a sweet 16 BCS conference team.  Heck, UK has on at least 3 occasions convinced a coach to leave a school he has taken to the Final Four to come coach in Lexington.  Vandy simply can't do that.  Not unless we dust off some of our endowment at any rate.