Unless Vanderbilt makes an incredible, against-all-odds run and wins the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament championship next Sunday, the Commodores’ season will unceremoniously end next week at Bridgestone Arena.

It also could mark the end of Jerry Stackhouse’s tenure after five seasons as coach of the Commodores.

Following a 75-61 home loss to LSU March 2 that dropped Vandy to 8-21 overall and 3-13 in the SEC with two regular-season games remaining before the March 13-17 SEC tourney, Stackhouse spoke candidly about his aspirations, expectations, frustrations and questions about his future.

This season’s struggles are in stark contrast to the 2022-23 highlight-reel campaign that saw the Commodores go 22-15 overall and 11-7 in the SEC, beat LSU and Kentucky in the SEC tourney and then win two NIT games before losing in the quarterfinals. Those efforts earned him SEC co-coach of the year honors and other plaudits.

Lately, there have been jeers instead of cheers. A smattering of boos echoed through half-filled Memorial Gym when Stackhouse was introduced before the LSU game.

The former North Carolina and NBA star understands fan reactions and admits he is “disappointed because I think we should be better.”

“Obviously (losing is) tough on our fans,” Stackhouse says. “They want (success) and I want it. I want it for our alumni, I want it for our fans, I want it for our kids. I want it to happen for us but we’ve just got to be patient, got to exercise a little bit of patience.

“I’m a fan, too. Like, I’m a big (NFL Washington) Commanders fan and I want it now, so I get it. So it’s nothing personal against anybody but, you know, we’ve just got to deal with that. That’s part of this business.”

The Commodores will likely enter the tournament as the No. 13 seed and face either Arkansas or Georgia in Wednesday’s 7 p.m. opening game. Vandy stunned host Arkansas 85-82 Feb. 27 – a game the Commodores led by as many as 16 points. Georgia beat Vanderbilt 76-64 Feb. 21 in Nashville.

Vandy’s final two regular-season games were Wednesday at Kentucky and at home Saturday against Florida.

Another SEC run?

Noting the Commodores’ late win streak a year ago – which included victories over Tennessee, Florida and Kentucky and carried over to the postseason – Stackhouse and fifth-year guard Ezra Manjon say momentum can carry a team a long way.

“(The LSU game) wasn’t indicative of how we’ve been playing over the last couple of weeks,” Stackhouse says. “Hopefully, we can tweak some things and get back into a good rhythm going into the tournament. Obviously, we made some noise last year once we were in there, and hopefully (we can) have some momentum going into the SEC tournament.

“(Bridgestone Arena is) a great place, a great venue, to host the tournament with all the teams that are in it. They want to come into Nashville. They know it’s the best city in the SEC by far.

Stackhouse had a 69-90 record in five seasons at Vanderbilt going into this week’s play.

-- Photo By Tom Wood | The Ledger

“We don’t know what our draw is but we’re continuing to fight and hopefully we’ll be able to have some good rhythm and good momentum going into the tournament.”

Manjon, who was averaging a team-high 13.4 points per game going into the final week of the season, says his team’s confidence level hasn’t wavered despite the season-long struggles.

“We’re pretty confident going in there (to the SEC tournament),” he says. “We know how quickly things can change from last season. We think we can make a run in the tournament (and) feel like we can beat anybody. We just have to put our pieces together and try to make that run through the tournament.”

He notes this season has “been tough but we just try to stay together and stay confident in our abilities. We saw it come together against Arkansas, Texas A&M – two good teams – and Missouri, so we just try to keep that momentum going.”

Stackhouse, who took over the Vandy program in 2019 and received a contract extension in October 2022 between the team’s two NIT runs, offers several reasons for this season’s struggles.

For one, it’s a younger, inexperienced team with injuries and off-court issues. But the hardest hits may have come from the transfer portal and Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) issues.

Ven-Allen Lubin, a sophomore forward and the team’s No. 3 scorer, is one of 12 players on the Vanderbilt squad who are either freshmen or sophomores.

-- Photo By David Yeazell | Ap

“But still, with how things have gone, it’s just about us continuing to build, man, and build a program and do the things that we need to do. Sometimes it’s those tough seasons … that make you really appreciate when you have those good seasons,” Stackhouse says.

“We’ve had them the last couple of years and were trending in the right direction and were ready to take that next step. So it’s been a little disappointing. … Even though it doesn’t feel good, I think ultimately it’s going to help us in the long run.”

Outside forces a factor

Regarding NIL and the transfer portal issues, Stackhouse says his bosses – Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and athletic director Candice Lee – know how they’ve already impacted college athletics across the country and will continue to do so.

“The stakeholders here, I think they have an understanding that things have changed right under our noses (the last few years),” Stackhouse notes. “I think probably when we first started here, we were thinking more about facilities and a new locker room and felt like those were the things that were going to help us compete in recruiting and things like that.

“And all of a sudden, the transfer portal and NIL becomes at the forefront of things a little bit more. … You talk to stakeholders in the SEC (and) stakeholders at Vanderbilt – they don’t want college basketball to become transactional. I think nobody really wants that.

“But inevitably, with some of the rulings that’s coming down, we’re going to have to play ball. I think we understand that’s the new landscape and we’ve got to get on board.”

Stackhouse turns philosophical and speaks about his religious faith giving him strength when the conversation switches to his future at Vandy.

“I know there’s a lot of noise out there,” says Stackhouse, shown here greeting Kentucky coach John Calipari before an early February matchup at Memorial Gym.

“I know there’s a lot of noise out there, a lot of things, but one thing I can say – no weapons formed against me shall prosper,” he said in his Feb. 21 Georgia postgame remarks. “I’ve got faith with the man upstairs that he put me in this position for a reason and everything that I’m going through right now are with this team and off the court, it’s ordained. And it’s stuff that’s going to make me better.”

Offered an opportunity after the LSU game to expound on how faith sustains him during trying times, Stackhouse doesn’t hesitate.

“When things don’t go right, I’m the guy that they point at. I’ve got the faith and the wherewithal to keep battling. And that’s what I plan to do,” he says.

“Sometimes, we’ve got to get in the pit a little bit, right? And I think that happens and it’ll work itself out in the end.”