Vanderbilt maintains healthy attitude despite physical ailments, losses

The hearts and minds of Vanderbilt’s basketball players have not been battered by four straight losses and five defeats in six games to start the conference season, according to coach Kevin Stallings.

The same is not true of some their bodies.

“We’re like a M*A*S*H unit,” Stallings said Thursday afternoon prior to practice.

The good news for the Commodores (12-8, 1-5) is that the bruised heel of sophomore center A.J. Ogilvy is close to 100 percent, Stallings said.

However, Ogilvy has not overcome an illness, which has slowed him for more than a week. He was held out of the starting lineup and had just three points (all on free throws) in an 86-76 loss Wednesday at South Carolina.

Additionally, Stallings said, freshman Lance Goulbourne has been diagnosed with a stress fracture to his pelvic bone and redshirt-freshman Charles Hinkle has a hyper-extended knee.

Goulbourne played just 10 minutes at South Carolina and was held scoreless for the first time in 10 games. Hinkle was unavailable to play against the Gamecocks.

Despite all of those problems, the Commodores produced a 14-0 second-half run and took the lead after having trailed for nearly 21 minutes. On several occasions the deficit was as many as 13 points.

“I thought they showed great resiliency in getting down by double digits on multiple occasions and coming back,” Stallings said. “That doesn’t comfort the loss and losing, but it’s also a good sign to me that we have nobody who’s giving in and accepting what’s going on right now.”

Vanderbilt has two days to heal and prepare for its next contest, Saturday at Auburn ( 7 p.m., Beard-Eaves Coliseum).

The Tigers (13-7, 2-3) opened the conference season with back-to-back losses but since have won two out of three. They have beatedn Vanderbilt just once in five meetings over the last three seasons, though.

Vanderbilt is 1-5 in the SEC for the first time since 1992.

“It’s so important that they continue to practice hard,” Stallings said. “As long as they’re willing to come out here and work to get better in practice, you know they’re not going to give in in games. … You see absolutely no signs of anybody backing up, anybody’s attitude lessening, of anybody’s desire going down.

“These guys have really been A-plus in all those regards.”