On Feb. 18, two days after Vanderbilt suffered a meltdown in a 75-74 loss to Mississippi State -- the latest, biggest disappointment in a season already chock-full of them -- Commodores coach Kevin Stallings had something like a Howard Beale moment.
Except Stallings didn't seem mad. He sounded tired.
"One of the mistakes I make is that I think it's my responsibility to control everything -- how they feel, how they think -- and I'm not really in control of it," Stallings told the Tennesseean. "The longer the season has gone on, the more painfully obvious that's been to me.