Vanderbilt visits the House of Horrors at the exact worst time

Vanderbilt’s two-game losing streak after opening the season 16-0 doesn’t concern me. The Commodores had an uncharacteristic poor shooting night last Wednesday night in Austin, which doesn’t concern me for the simple reason that “sometimes, the shots don’t fall.” They then got jobbed by the refs in a four-point loss to Florida over the weekend. No, Gator fans, I do not care to “hold this L” or whatever trite bullshit you insist on tweeting at the Anchor of Gold account on Elon Musk’s hellsite.

When you’re on a two-game losing streak, Bud Walton Arena is definitely where you want to go to try to stop it. Vanderbilt is 6-15 all-time at Arkansas, and 5-14 specifically at Bud Walton Arena (which opened for the 1993-94 season), and frankly I am having a difficult time accepting that the record is that good. It is true that Vanderbilt has won its last two visits to Fayetteville, with Jerry Stackhouse’s final team trying its damnedest to blow a 16-point second half lead against an admittedly mediocre Arkansas team, and the 2022 team sneaking out of Fayetteville with a one-point win. Neither of these makes me question the entire vibe of Vanderbilt’s visits to Bud Walton Arena, which includes a 33-point showing in 2013 in which Vanderbilt’s leading scorer (Dai-Jon Parker) had eight points and the only Vanderbilt player who posted an above-average offensive performance was Shelby Moats, who made a three-pointer (his only field goal attempt) and had an offensive rebound and two steals in 24 minutes of action.

Advertisement

Yes, that is a thing that happened. It remains the worst Vanderbilt basketball game I have ever watched.

(The streak, however, survived that showing. Yes, Shelby Moats kept the streak alive. Okay, okay, Rod Odom also made a three. The point is that Jerry Stackhouse killed it.)

Anyway, Arkansas has yet to lose at home this season. Vanderbilt needs to get back into form but tonight that’s going to require exorcising a lot of history. Or showing that winning in Bud Walton Arena is the new normal.