Vanderbilt University

2601 Jess Neely Dr - Nashville, TN - 37212
Team Office: Tel: (615) 343-8482 Fax: (615) 343-8339
Team website: www.vucommodores.com/

Founded in 1873 by millioniare Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the university today offers over 50 Bachelor degrees, nearly 70 Master's, and over 60 PhDs. As a research institution, Vanderbilt is known for its medical center and public policy institute. Its Pharmacology and Religion programs are also nationally recognized. Other majors offered include Urban Studies, Organizational Behavior Studies, Latin American Studies, East Asian Studies, Computer and Information Sciences, Black Studies, and Audiology. US News 2008 report on America's Best Colleges ranked Vanderbilt #19 among national institutions.

The campus is located in Nashville (pop.569k) which is the state's capital. USA Today ranks Nashville among the top 10 sports cities in the US and NBC's Dateline found it to be the friendliest. Nashville is home of Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry.

School website
www.vanderbilt.edu

College Profile

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Most Popular Majors

Social Sciences- Engineering - Psychology

Misc. Information

Head coach Melanie Balcomb enters her 6th season at Vanderbilt in 2007-08 following two successful seasons and a seven-year run at Xavier (D1) where she went 135-78, captured two conference and tourney titles, and made three NCAA apperances. Inheriting a program from former coach Jim Foster who went to Ohio State, the Commodores won 20 or more games 11 times and produced a sparkling .721 winning percentage. Balcomb has brought her rapid style of play to Nashville after being named the Commodores’ fourth head basketball coach in school history on May 28, 2002. Prior to Xavier, Balcomb spent two years as head coach at Ashland (Ohio) University (D2) and three years as an assistant at Providence (D1). As a player, Balcomb set records at both Trenton State and Highstown HS in scoring, assists, and steals. Balcomb has proven to be the 'real deal', averagin 24 wins through her brief tenure. In 2006-07, the Commodores finished at 28-6 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tourney before falling to Bowling Green.

Recent Record (Last 8 Years)

Coaches

Head Coach	Melanie Balcomb
	Birthday: 0000-00-00
Started at Vanderbilt	2002-03
Contract Expires	tbp
Record as Head Coach	262-137 (.656)
Record at Vanderbilt	121-43 (.737)
Coaching Awards	A-10 COTY (01)
Asst. Coaches	Lisa Cermignano, Vicky Picott, Kim Rosamond

Recruiting Coordinator

Lisa Cermignano, (615) 322-3513, lisa.m.cermignano@vanderbilt.edu

Conference and Schedule

Vanderbilt plays in the Southeastern Conference (www.secsports.com), one of the premier conferences for women's basketball. The conference is made up of 12 teams from nine states and is split into two divisions, east and west. Vanderbilt plays in the East. Currently, Florida plays a 14 game league schedule. League play commences after January 1 with games usually played on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Vanderbilt will play several teams twice and others just once; alternating conference opponents from year-to-year. The farthest conference game is at Florida, some 600 miles from Nashville. The season concludes with the SEC tourney with the winner of the 11-game tournament receiving the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The tournament seeds and conference champion are determined by the 14-game regular-season SEC schedule. The top four seeds earn a first-round bye.

Conference Opponents

East: Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Florida. West: Mississippi St., Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, and Missisippi.

Facilities

Memorial Gym
Capacity 14,300, Average attendance: 4,000

Style/Stats

Balcomb prefers a fast pace, which is apparent in her coaching style which features an up-tempo approach and lots of scoring. In 2006-07, Vanderbilt was ranked 10th in offense at 76.3 ppg.