Jerry Stackhouse said he would 'beat the hell out everybody.' Now, Vanderbilt basketball is losing to everybody

At SEC Media Days in October, Jerry Stackhouse said he would go with a merciless approach to the non-conference schedule.

"We try to beat the hell out of everybody in our early non-conference games," the Vanderbilt basketball coach said on Oct. 18.

Whatever the opposite of that is, is what Vanderbilt has done instead.

The Commodores (4-7) have lost six of their last seven games. That has included home losses to Boston College, San Francisco and a 63-62 loss to Western Carolina (9-2) on Tuesday − and that's not even including the one loss of the bunch likely to end up in Quadrant 4, to Presbyterian in the home opener.

"An off the cuff kind of a joke at media day that you guys are gonna continue to run with it," Stackhouse said after Tuesday's game to the media. "Feel free to, I said it and I'll stand by it if you if you want me to. But the fact of the matter is hard to win college basketball games."

Stackhouse mentioned injuries as a factor in the team's regression. Vanderbilt played without Colin Smith and Ven-Allen Lubin, two usual starters, against the Catamounts, and have dealt with a litany of other injuries throughout the season. But last season, the Commodores lost star Liam Robbins just before the SEC Tournament and still made a run to the semifinals of that tournament and the quarterfinals of the NIT.

This season, the defense has completely fallen apart and some returning players, like Tyrin Lawrence, Paul Lewis and Smith before his injury, haven't played to their usual level.

Lawrence had 10 points but shot just 3-of-13 from the field against Western Carolina.

"When you look at the team that we had last year, we had a lot of experience," Stackhouse said. " ... And quite frankly, the guys that we have that came back and we were counting on to take another step just haven't played at a high enough level that we needed."

COLIN SMITH Vanderbilt basketball's Colin Smith out for season with Achilles injury

Last season, Vanderbilt didn't get its seventh loss until early January after SEC play had already commenced. Now, the Commodores already have that many.

Stackhouse made headlines for claiming to change his non-conference approach as the team hoped to push towards the NCAA Tournament. Instead, he's gone backwards.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jerry Stackhouse on why Vanderbilt basketball keeps losing