Nov. 1, 2006
Vanderbilt vs. Northern State
November 1, 2006
Memorial Gymnasium
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
“As I told my wife this evening before I left the house, there will be some good, some bad and a little bit of ugly. I was pleased with some of the things that we did, but obviously we didn’t do some other things very well at all.”
“One of the things that really surprised me tonight was that some of our guys were a little bit tighter than I expected that they might be. Then I realized that we had four guys out there tonight who had never worn a Vanderbilt uniform before so I guess it is really not all that surprising.”
On Vanderbilt’s letting Northern State back into the game twice after establishing solid leads:
“We had them stepped on once in the first half and we allowed them to battle back, and then we had them stepped on again in the second half and we let them back again. So that is disappointing.”
“It is hard for JeJuan [Brown], Jermaine Beal and George Drake to understand the level of intensity you have to play with. The game of college basketball is never over with the 3-point shot.”
“There are a lot of things that we’re pleased with. We got to the free throw line a lot and we shot 60 percent.”
“This was a whole lot better than having a game that you win by 50. It is a whole lot better and that is why we do this.”
“We need to be able to run faster than we did tonight. Hopefully we will play faster than that but at the very least we cannot play any slower.”
“It was good to finally play against someone else. George Drake had a good outing. But the whole thing was good for us.”
“Jermaine [Beal] was the least jittery of the new guys. George Drake is not going to shoot 3-for-6 from the free throw line but I think it just shows some of his jitters.”
On the performance of Jermaine Beal:
“I think Jermaine will be what he was tonight and hopefully more.”
“We have 10 scholarship guys. It is not a lot for practice, but it is plenty for the games. And we are going to have to get production from all 10 of them in order for us to be successful.”
On Jermaine Beal starting at point guard over Alex Gordon:
“We are going to try not to go back and forth. We are going to try and find the best combinations and then go with them.
Vanderbilt Forward Derrick Byars
On the Game’s Tempo:
“Coach [Stallings] emphasized to us that we had to put pressure on them offensively. Our team has the athletes to run and gun and take good shots.”
On losing the large advantage:
“It was typical to what happened toward the end of last year, but we’ll work on it. We have to continue to push the lead, but we made mistakes. That’s why we play these games.”
On His Chemistry with Shan Foster:
“The whole team expects Shan and me to be assertive offensively. We have to continue to put pressure on offense. When we do that, we’re looked to as leaders. We have to rev up the rest of the crew through our leadership.”
Vanderbilt Guard George Drake
“I was excited to be on the court tonight. I sat out my red shirt year, so I wanted to play hard. It felt good tonight. We were all very excited for our first game. I was nervous a little bit, but I was more excited than anything.”
On His Contributions to the Team:
“Coach [Stallings] talked to me about playing tough defensively and getting offensive rebounds. I’ll help the team in any little way I can.”
