Kevin Stallings (USATSI)
Vanderbilt's last NCAA tourney appearance under coach Kevin Stallings was in 2012. (USATSI)

Kevin Stallings has Vanderbilt back on an upward trajectory. The veteran head coach led the Commodores to 21 wins and a berth in the Postseason NIT last season after a two-year span where Vanderbilt's combined record was 31-31. CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein sat down with Stallings in Nashville, Tenn. to discuss the Commodores' lack of success from 2012-14, Damian Jones, and who on Vanderbilt's roster could emerge during the upcoming year.

Jon Rothstein, CBS Sports: It's been three and a half years since that epic victory over Kentucky in the finals of the SEC Tournament and you're team hasn't been back to the field of 68 since. As you've had some time to reflect, what do you think is the biggest reason why your program went through some struggles prior to last season?

Kevin Stallings: I did job a poor job of recruiting. My evaluating in terms of talent was good enough, but my evaluating in terms of guys that could buy into our culture and succeed in our culture was off. It took us a minute to get out from underneath that, but once we got out from underneath it then things have been looking up since.

CBS Sports: You return six of your top seven scorers from last year's team that won 21 games and advanced to the Postseason NIT. How does the chemical makeup of this team compare to one had a few years with John Jenkins, Jeffery Taylor, and Festus Ezeli?

Stallings: I think they're entirely different teams. That team was older. Even though we return six of our top seven and whatever percentage of scoring and whatever percentage of minutes -- which is a lot -- we're looking at starting three sophomores and two juniors or maybe two sophomores and three juniors. Last year we started three freshman the whole year and sometimes two sophomores as well. Even though we have experience we're still very, very young. We have one scholarship senior. We're not an old team by any stretch of the imagination and that team that won the SEC Tournament and beat Kentucky was an old team. We had a fifth-year senior in Festus (Ezeli). We had four-year seniors in Steve Tchiengang, Brad Tinsley, Lance Goulgourne, and Jeffery Taylor. We had a junior in John Jenkins. That team was old -- really old. So there's a lot of differences between that team and this team, but don't get wrong -- I love this team. I love its ability and I love its potential.

CBS Sports: On Jan. 31 your team was 11-10 overall and 1-7 in the SEC. What changed during the month of February and into March that allowed your team to finish 8-2 in conference play?

Stallings: Nothing. That's the best answer I can give you. We lost a series of really close games in January and I knew -- and I even told my staff this when we lost seven games in a row and I was at the point where coaches want to jump off tall buildings -- that these guys never stopped playing hard, they never stopped practicing hard, and they never stopped having good attitudes. They never stopped being positive. I knew we were going to be fine. I didn't know when fine would come. And when we turned the page to February, we had a meeting on the first of the month. I said at that meeting that I could care less about what's happened up to right now. Let's grade our season on what happens from this day forward and they all bought into that. We finished 8-2 in the league and had a nice run in the NIT. It was their attitudes towards continuing to work and being coachable that allowed us to do all that.

CBS Sports: You were able to kind of figure things out last season as a team that was somewhat off-the-radar. What type of dialogue have you had with your team about dealing with heightened expectations as one of the better teams in the SEC?

Stallings: All we're worried about is being able to sacrifice for each other and being committed to our process. That's all we talk about -- be willing to sacrifice for each other, sacrifice for the team, and being committed to our process. It's probably the most unselfish team that I've ever coached. You can see in practice -- the ball never sticks in a hand. It goes. It moves. These guys are very, very unselfish. I think that's a staple of their personalities and their games. Since we have some reasonably good shooters that attribute can make us awfully good at times.

CBS Sports: You've repeatedly said that Damian Jones may go down as the best low-post player that you've ever had at Vanderbilt. What are realistic expectations for him as a junior this season after a productive year as a sophomore?

Stallings: You know what -- Damian has gotten significantly better since last year. I anticipate that Damian is going to get a lot more rebounds this year. He's going to score more points and yet he's going to be on a team that's capable of scoring more points. He's really learned to pass well out of the post which I think is really going to help our offense because now if people come and double-team him there's a risk. His entire game has grown. His work ethic towards getting individually better has grown. He's always practiced hard, but the time he's spent in the gym by himself has gone up immensely. He's kind of sensing what's out there for him and when that light goes on for guys it signals a change. That's what's happening for him.

CBS Sports: Every other key rotation player you return from last season shot better than 38.0 prcent from 3-point range and you also add a transfer from Cornell in Nolan Cressler who made 68 3-point shots two seasons ago. Where could this team potentially rank among the best shooting teams you've ever coached?

Stallings: Let's talk about that after the season -- I don't want to jinx it (laughs). From a shooting and skill standpoint, it's by far the most skilled shooting team I've ever coached and that's as an assistant or a head coach. This is the best shooting team from a skill perspective that I've ever been a part of and it hasn't taken me long to figure that out. You mentioned that we had guys that are coming back from last year that shot it in the goal and we added Nolan Cressler who's an excellent shooter. There are some thoughts that Camron Justice may be the second best shooter that we've ever recruited here only to John Jenkins. We've got some other guys here now in addition to those guys who came back. I think that people will find that Wade Baldwin's game has skyrocketed. He's just gotten so much better. He may have improved in one year as much as any player that I've ever coached and he's a guy that can find all those guys we talked about who can make shots.

CBS Sports: Riley LaChance logged 33.3 minutes on average last season as a freshman and often times looked like a seasoned veteran. What changes for him as he's going to be a guy in bold print on every opponent's scouting report?

Stallings: He's probably going to play less and he's already been told that. I don't want him to play 33 minutes a game first of all. We have more guys and more depth. Now the difference is he's going to have to play point guard some and that may keep his minutes up a little higher than what I'd like them to be.

I've told them all that they may not play as much as last year and again it all goes back to what we talked about in terms of sacrificing for the team. The last guy that's going to worry about if his minutes go down is going to be Riley LaChance. If there's one guy out here that's all about the team, it's Riley. Now we've got a bunch of guys that are all about the team, but no one is better than Riley in that regard. By the end of last year, people were trying to make it hard on him and he was still having success. I'm not worried about if he's the guy that's marked on the scouting report or anything like that because he's just got a knack.

CBS Sports: Four underclassmen -- Luke Kornet, Wade Baldwin, Matthew Fisher-Davis, and Jeff Roberson -- are back after playing half the game or more a year ago. Who out of that quartet are you expecting to take the biggest step forward in 2015-16?

Stallings: Wade would be my first choice. All four of them have gotten better, but again Wade has a chance to make a big jump. It may not happen much statistically, but his impact on a team has a chance to really elevate and jump. So does Luke's too for that matter.

CBS Sports: There's been a passage of sorts in the SEC following Billy Donovan's departure from Florida. How much of a window is open for a program like Vanderbilt as there's no clear cut challenger to Kentucky at the top of the league?

Stallings: Three or four years ago we got ourselves in a position where we could be that team and we would like to get into a position again where we could stay there. That's what we're attempting to do. John (Calipari) needs some competition. He's got to be getting bored at this point. We need to be among those that jump up and try to challenge Kentucky a little bit.