Newsflash, Stackhouse can Coach the Game of Basketball, the Question is can he Recruit

The 2019-20 basketball season has been a struggle for the Vanderbilt Commodores men's squad. After a promising 8-4 start in the non-conference portion of the schedule, things took an unexpected turn for the worse.

A 92-81 overtime loss at home to SMU ended the first half of the season and sent toe Commodores and first-year head coach Jerry Stackhouse of to Auburn, Alabama to open conference play against the Tigers.

Auburn is coming off their first-ever Final Four appearance and was undefeated when Vanderbilt arrived. The Commodores played a solid game, but in the end, they fell in a close 83-79 contest.

Things looked to be improving for a program that had gone winless in SEC play just one season earlier, but fate didn't smile on the Commodores as having already lost Clevon Brown to injury, Vanderbilt returned to Nashville with an injured Aaron Nesmith.

Nesmith's injury as we know was seasons ending. Now Stackhouse and his staff were without his absolute best player and another solid starter.

With only two days to prepare for a visit from Texas A&M and life without Nesmith, the Commodores were blown out and embarrassed that night, at home.

Then came six consecutive conference losses, including an unenviable record that shall forevermore go unmentioned after today.

During that streak, however, the Commodores managed to stay together as a team and continue to battle.

At the same time, Stackhouse and his staff were working to totally redo their team in the absence of Nesmith as they needed to find scoring and lots of it to replace the 23.4 ppg lost when their best player went down.

As the losses mounted the Commodores kept battling and managed to scare the life out of twenty thousand blue-clad Cats in the Commonwealth just one week ago.

Florida came to town on Saturday, and while these are not Billy Donovan's Gators, they still have one of the best players in the conference and enough talented players to be a solid team. They have even blasted Auburn a few days before.

Vanderbilt gave them a game but fell in the end as fans and media members prepared for another loss to come with LSU headed to Memorial.

As I walked into the gym on Wednesday night and began speaking with other members of the media, it seemed everyone was poised to witness another Commodores loss, but much to everyone's surprise, it would be the end of the streak and a night to remember as the Commodores knocked off the league-leading Tigers 99-90.

The rebuild of the team midseason was now complete, at least from the standpoint of finding players, defining new roles and working those players to get better.

The jury is still out on how this season will end, but if there is one thing we can say, and it shouldn't be tough to see, Stackhouse can coach the game of basketball.

I sat in the media room in Lexington last week and listened to John Calipari talk about the sets and what Vanderbilt had done and how there were things he had not seen on tape and was not expecting. Last night Will Wade sat at the table inside Memorial and said the same things Calipari had mentioned.

Other coaches see it, media people- and some of us aren't so smart- see it and the players on his team see it. Stackhouse is working and his players have bought in and he is developing them into better basketball players.

Let's be honest here for a minute too. This roster that Stackhouse is working with is not full of future NBA talent, in fact, it's safe to say that only one or two have a future at the next level. That's not a knock on anyone, but an honest evaluation of them at this moment.

So then how has this team of limited talent, and certainly low on depth managed to scare Kentucky in Lexington and knock off the only unbeaten team in conference play in one week's time?

Coaching.

Yes, the players played their hearts out last night, and the shots they took fell. It's obviously easier to win games when you make shots, but things aligned as Saben Lee (33 points) and Maxwell Evan (31 points) made shot after shot and when they needed someone else to step up, Scottie Pippen Jr. and Jordan Wright did.

No, the problem with Vanderbilt basketball this season is not coaching, Stackhouse is proving he can do that. The problem is injuries, lack of depth and to an extent a lack of talent playing in a league where there is a lot of it.

There are things you can question about Stackhouse as it pertains to his job as Commodores head coach, but coaching isn't it.

If you want to ask a real question and the question that will define Stackhouse long term, then ask the question that matters most.

Can he recruit?

The jury's still out on that one, but it too will be answered soon enough.