'Vulgar' encouragement from Vanderbilt basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse lit a fire vs. Belmont in NIT

Vanderbilt basketball and Belmont hadn't played since 2017, long before Jordan Wright was a part of the Commodores team, but familiarity between the two schools was a big part of the National Invitation Tournament first-round game played Tuesday night at Memorial Gym.

A crowd of 7,773 watched Wright help the Commodores come back and beat Belmont 82-71 but might not have known how close the players on both teams have become.

The two schools are located 1.5 miles apart, and the players, when they're not under their coaches' watch, often get together in the offseason and play.

"We play Belmont a ton in the summer; We scrimmage them maybe once a week if not more," said Wright, who scored a game-high 24 points and had seven rebounds.

"We knew who they have and how they were going to play. Obviously, as the season wears on everyone kind of changes and adjusts, but it was great to play the guys we've been in the gym with during the summers."

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It was great for Vanderbilt (18-16), which advanced to the second round to face the winner of Wednesday's Dayton-Toledo game on Saturday at Memorial Gym, that Wright stepped up when Belmont (25-8) stymied Commodores' leading scorer Scotty Pippen Jr.

Early in the second half, Pippen, who had trouble shaking Belmont defender Ben Sheppard, had just two points, one rebound and two turnovers. Pippen finished with 10 points. 

Wright, meanwhile, made 10 of his first 13 field goals. His 3-pointer with 7:48 remaining was a dagger that put Vandy up 64-56.

It made Belmont's players harken back to trying to keep Wright in check in those summer games. Wright outperforming Pippen might have surprised some, but it didn't catch the Bruins off guard.

"We could not keep Wright in front of us in the first half," Belmont coach Casey Alexander said. "He broke us down off the dribble a ton. That's where a lot of their offensive rebounds came from, was us being out of position and having to scramble."

Vanderbilt outrebounded Belmont, 42-28.

Perhaps it was Belmont knowing what to expect early that gave Vanderbilt trouble. The Bruins jumped to a 32-21 lead and controlled the game until Liam Robbins provided a spark for the Commodores offense, which finished the first half on an 18-6 run and led 39-38 at the intermission.

Wright said the Commodores, at that point, finally started responding to coach Jerry Stackhouse's command that they start playing with more purpose offensively.

"Several times (Stackhouse) said, 'Pick it up,'" Wright said. "There were a lot of vulgar words in there; some obscenities. He just told us he didn't want our season to end like this, especially on our homecourt. We worked this hard to get to this point, and for us to come out and lay an egg was unacceptable."

Stackhouse said he knew it would be an unusual game with the players from each team knowing each other so well.

"These guys get together in the summers so I knew there was some bragging rights that would be involved whenever they play each other," Stackhouse said. "What I knew about them was that those guys are some of the best cutters in the country. With those elite cutters, I knew there was going to be a lot of backdoor plays. I knew we were going to give up some, but for the most part we did a pretty good job keeping those guys in front us."

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.