Jerry Stackhouse’s up and down coaching tenure at Vanderbilt University is over, according to sources.
According to ESPN, the school relieved Stackhouse of his duties and showed him his walking papers on Thursday after his team was eliminated from the SEC tournament Wednesday night. Vanderbilt failed to hang on and lost a 14-point halftime lead in a 90-85 overtime loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks. The defeat dropped Vanderbilt to an underwhelming 9-23 record overall.
Embed from Getty ImagesStackhouse will not go home empty handed and will reportedly have a buyout of approximately $15 million, thanks to a contract extension he signed after the 2022-23 season.
The former North Carolina Tar Heel star’s time at Vanderbilt did not meet expectations. The Commodores finished above .500 in just two of his five seasons at the helm. The program’s best season came a year ago, and how Stackhouse secured that contract extension, when Vanderbilt went 22-15. The Commodores defeated John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats twice in March but did not get into the NCAA tournament, the ‘Big Dance’.
There was no improvement to speak of this season. Instead, Vanderbilt got off to a rocky start and was 4-8 before Christmas thanks to losses to teams like Presbyterian, San Francisco and Western Carolina, not exactly juggernauts. The Commodores went just 4-14 in SEC play and finished 13th in the 14-team conference.
Vanderbilt was Stackhouse’s first college coaching job. He came to the ‘Music City’, Nashville, after a stint as an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies. Prior to his season with the Grizzlies, Stackhouse was an assistant with the Toronto Raptors and coached the franchise’s G League affiliate for two seasons.
Stackhouse, 49 years-of-age, got the coaching bug soon after his playing career finished in 2013. The No. 3 pick in the 1995 NBA Draft made the rounds, playing for eight teams during an 18-season career and finished with over 16,000 points.
Whoever takes over for Stackhouse will be tasked with returning the program to the success it had under Kevin Stallings over a decade ago. From 2007-2012, Vanderbilt made the tournament five times and was no lower than a No. 6 seed in any of those appearances. Since the 2012 tournament, Vanderbilt has played in the NCAA tournament just twice and has not been better than a No. 9 seed.
