Ogilvy selected to Australian Oceania Championship team

By A. Boggs - Vanderbilt junior center A.J. Ogilvy has been selected to participate in the 2009 FIBA Oceanic Championships against New Zealand - a two-game series which begins Sunday in Sydney and concludes on Tuesday in New Zealand.

Ogilvy will participate in the tournament with some prominent Australian basketball stars - including Dallas Mavericks' forward Nathan Jawai and Beijing Olympians Brad Newley, Mark Worthington and Joe Ingles.

Get more information on A.J. and the Boomers' team here.

A.J. Ogilvy named to Wooden Award Top 50 preseason watch list

By A. Boggs - Junior A.J. Ogilvy was named as one of 50 members of the John Wooden Award preseason watch list in an announcement made today.

Ogilvy is the first Commodore player to be on the preseason watch list for the prestigious award since Shan Foster in the fall of 2007.

Oklahoma's Blake Griffin claimed the honor in the spring of 2009.

More on Ogilvy

Maurice Patton of the Tennessean has a good article on A.J. Ogilvy's resurgence. Click to Read

Ogilvy Update

During Monday's SEC coaches teleconference, head coach Kevin Stallings told the media that sophomore center A.J. Ogilvy was under the weather leading up to the Florida game.

"A.J. had been in the student hospital a couple days prior to the game and is still sick," Stallings said about Ogilvy, who was already battling a bruised right heal since late December. "He wasn't playing effectively, and there was no sense in leaving him out there because he was only getting worse as time went on. So, I chose not to play him, and I feel badly for him. He tried. He wasn't feeling well."

Ogilvy ended up with a season-low four points in 15 minutes (14 of which were in the first half) against the Gators Sunday. Combine those numbers with the Tennessee loss and he's only shooting 2-for-11 from the field in his last two outings, making it the only times all year he's been held to single digits in scoring. Even Florida head coach Billy Donovan commented that Ogilvy was not himself.

"I know he has been dealing with some things health wise," Donovan said after the Gators' 94-69 victory. "It's hard when your best player is going through some physical ailments."

Heel injury slows Ogilvy

Maurice Patton has an in-depth article in today's Tennesseean about A.J. Ogilvy's battle with a nagging right heel injury. Click Here to read the story.

Ogilvy update

Head Coach Kevin Stallings commented on sophomore center A.J. Ogilvy's status for Wednesday's game with Georgia during last night's call-in show. Ogilvy's missed two of the last three games with a bruised right heel injury.

"Our hope is that A.J. is going to play Wednesday night. However, he did not practice Monday and we hope to have him practice some Tuesday in preparation for that game."

In an interview with the 104.5 Wake Up Zone this morning, Stallings was asked to what extent the Georgia game plan would be with or without Ogilvy in the lineup:

"Well I don't think that there's a whole lot we can do relative to separate (game) plans and things like that. Our play calling would be a little bit different during the game if he's there or not there. We'll have to play the way that we play. There might be a tweak here and there but our guys, especially our younger guys, are not capable of separate game plans and so it's just a thing to where we have to go with what we do and hope that he can play."

Injury keeps Ogilvy out of Kentucky game

Sophomore center A.J. Ogilvy did not play in Saturday's 70-60 loss at Kentucky after aggravating an injury to his right heel during yesterday's practice.

Head Coach Kevin Stallings commented on Ogilvy's status in his postgame press conference:

“We knew A.J. wasn’t going to be able to go this morning. He hurt his foot yesterday in the first 15 minutes of practice. He sat out of the remaining part of practice. We hoped it would get better in time for the game, but obviously it didn’t. As a result, we didn’t score very many points inside today. He is certainly our best low-post player but that is not to say that if he played then the outcome of the game would be any different.”

Ogilvy's foot injury caused him to miss the first game of his career against Saint Francis on December 31. He returned to the lineup in Vanderbilt's following outing at UMass. He leads the Commodores in scoring (16.5) and rebounding (7.2) this season.

SEC-TV feature on Ogilvy

In this week's show, SEC-TV takes a closer look at A.J. Ogilvy’s sophomore season and how he plans to lead the Commodores to success. Catch the feature at the following times:

Thursday, January 8 at 5:30 p.m. CT
on FOX Sports South, FOX Sports Carolinas and FOX Sports Tennessee

Friday, January 9 at 8:30 a.m. CT
on SportSouth

Ogilvy update

Men's Basketball Head Coach Kevin Stallings commented earlier this week on the status of sophomore center A.J. Ogilvy.

Ogilvy missed the first game of his career against Saint Francis on December 31 with a right foot injury. He returned to the lineup in the Commodores’ last outing against UMass on January 3 and contributed 14 points and eight rebounds in 22 minutes.

“A.J. is recovering fine, but we’re still being very protective and careful with him. He probably practiced for half the practice Monday and looked good. His health is obviously critical to our team. We can’t afford to have him go down.”

“I think it’s something that we’re going to have to continue to deal with, but I’m not concerned about his ability to play this weekend.”

Vanderbilt will return to the court Saturday for its SEC opener at Kentucky.

Figuring out football

Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News has a good Q&A with men's basketball sophomore center A.J. Ogilvy. One of the topics that came up was his interest in American football.

Sporting News: Now that you've been living here almost two years, what's your favorite thing about the U.S?

Ogilvy: Definitely the way they get excited about sports, especially college sports. Football, basketball, everything.

SN: How long has it taken you to figure out American football?

Ogilvy: Until this year. I'd watched a bit of it back home, but I didn't really understand all the rules. Gradually people explained it more and more. I understand most of the rules now. It makes more sense to me now.

Click Here to read the entire interview.

Vanderbilt will take on UMass (5-7) Saturday at 4 p.m. CT in Amherst, Mass. The game will be televised by CBS CollegeSports. Ogilvy, who missed the Commodores' game on Wednesday with a foot injury, is scheduled to make the trip.