Jerry Stackhouse may or may not have coached his final regular season college basketball game at Vanderbilt on Saturday. A large number of fans hope that he will be fired sooner than later.
We don’t know what will happen behind-the-scenes in the coming days, and the SEC Tournament could change everything. As things currently stand, it feels like his ouster is imminent after five seasons.
Either way, the 49-year-old was not on the court with his team during Senior Day ceremonies. It was bizarre.
- Fifth-year senior transferred to Vanderbilt in 2022.
- Graduate transfers Evan Taylor and Tasos Kamateros joined the program this past offseason.
- Senior Tyrin Lawrence played all four years for the Commodores.
All four players, and one student manager, were recognized on the court at Memorial Gymnasium prior to tipoff. Some of the coaches were on the floor, others were on the bench. Athletic director Candice Storey Lee watched from where the team enters and exits from/to the locker room and later moved slightly closer to the court.
Stackhouse was not there at all.
As the fans showed their respect to a group of guys who gave everything they had during a disappointing season (or in Lawrence’s case, career), their teammates cheer them on from the floor. Meanwhile, Stackhouse apparently looked down upon his players from an office window in the rafters.
The entire ceremony took place without him.
No explanation was provided. Nobody offered a direct acknowledgement of his absence.
There are a few different scenarios that might have played out:
- Stackhouse chose not to participate because he knew that being on the court when fans want him fired would cause a distraction and take away from the players.
- Storey Lee told Stackhouse to stay away because she is going to fire him or has already done so quietly.
- Players asked Stackhouse to stay away from the floor because they didn’t want his negative energy near them during one of the most important moments of their careers.
- Stackhouse got locked in his office.
That’s pretty much it… and we know that it was not the third scenario because we would have heard that Jerry Stackhouse got locked in his office or they would have delayed the college basketball game.
We also know that Stackhouse holds a graduate celebration with players separate to the on-court events.
Based on the negative reception he received upon arrival, it seems like he or his players believed that it was best for him not to be around. Maybe both— we don’t know.
Ironically, Vanderbilt ended up beating a very good Florida team to close out the year.