Oct. 17, 2008
View the 2008-09 Season Schedule
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kevin Stallings, VU head coach, and his players spoke with VUcommmodores.com and local media outlets Friday afternoon prior to their first official practice of the 2008-09 men’s basketball season.
Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt Head Coach
On replacing Shan Foster and last year’s seniors:
Shan Foster made all of us look like we knew what we were doing, sometimes. One of the things that’s exciting about college basketball is the opportunity to coach new and different teams, and obviously this is a very new and different team. We’re excited about it. We will certainly miss Shan Foster and Red (Alex) Gordon and Ross Neltner and all of those guys in that class, but we’re excited about this group and excited to get going.
On the team appearing taller and bigger than in the past:
I think that’s an accurate assessment. I think we’re bigger. I think we’re more athletic, that does not mean that we’re better. I just means that certainly we will look better going through the airport. I hope that that translates itself on the court into good play. Again, seven of these 14 guys have never been in a college basketball game. We’re going to begin the process today like everybody else is, and we’re excited about that, and we do think that there are great things that will happen for this team. Our jobs as coaches are to just try to make that happen as quickly as possible.
Do you have to change your style of coaching with a younger squad?
I think that this will require patience on my part, which I’m not really good at patience. But, this team will require my patience. Actually, this team probably needs what I think a lot of teams need, but I think this team in particular needs – our coaching staff to be demanding and encouraging at the same time and on a daily basis. I think we will be able to do both of those things. These guys have shown thus far with their own initiative, to come in the gym and work on their games on their own, to be as hard-working a group as we’ve ever had. Now that’s saying a lot because we’ve had some really good workers, but we have more guys on this team that spend time in the gym by themselves over and above what we the requirer ask them to do; and that’s been very encouraging.
On this team flying under the radar so far:
I guess as a coach you probably prefer that. You prefer them to underrate you as opposed to overrate you. But, I’m as much in the dark as anybody is on what this team can be, because we won’t start finding that out for a few minutes here. But, I like our want to; I like the attitudes of the guys, but as I tell them, everyone in college basketball is working hard right now. Everybody’s excited about it right now. But, I really do think that this team is unique in its work ethic and desire to get better, and we do have some talent. We have some very talented players on this team, and at some point that’s going to convert itself into being a really good team. I don’t know when that some point’s going to be, but this team is going to be a very good basketball team.
Is A.J. Ogilvy ready to lead?
I think that A.J. will try to lead. I don’t know that leading is always necessarily the natural thing for A.J. I think A.J. will lead through his work ethic, through his performance, and the fact that he’s a great kid, but I’m not sure where our leadership will come from. I don’t know that we have a natural-born leader in the group to be honest with you, or at least one who’s been around the program for very long. But, I do think this, I think that you take guys like A.J., George Drake and Jermaine Beal, and those guys are all extremely hard workers, and if nothing else they will give the rest of the guys a good example to follow.
Vanderbilt Players
A.J. Ogilvy, center
What’s your anticipation for the upcoming season?
It’s always fun to be out there playing, and to be out practicing just gets us another step closer to getting into actual season mode. So, it’s really exciting to be out here today.
On the team appearing taller and bigger than in the past:
That’s definitely a good thing. We’ve been working hard this offseason, and we have some height as well. So, it should be fun. We have Festus coming in this year, and he’s going to be a great addition down in the post. We have a lot of guys who are athletic as well as taller than we’ve been in the past few years.
Do you set goals/expectations for yourself?
No, I don’t really set goals or have expectations. I just try to focus on the team, and make sure we get it done that way.
How do you feel about being the main man this year?
I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be an exciting year, and hopefully some other guys will help me out and we’ll get some good wins on the board.
Jermaine Beal, guard
This is a young team. What can we expect?
The young guys are really athletic. They listen. They work hard. Our freshmen should help us out this year a lot.
What type of responsibility will you assume this year?
The coaches expect me to be a leader this year, my teammates do to. So, I look forward to the challenge of just leading these guys into victory.
Will there be growing pains early with a young team?
There will be growing pains, but nowadays with the NBA draft, age is just a number now. If you can play you can play. Our young guys work hard so I don’t see any downfalls in them.
How do you feel about this team flying under the radar so far?
That’s understandable. We lost three starters. But, everyone just works hard. I guess it’s a good thing that everyone’s sleeping on us so we can surprise everybody this year. But like I said, it’s a challenge for us.
Lance Goulbourne, guard/forward
Is the learning process easier for the young guys when they can learn together without older players?
I think so, but at the same time it’d be a lot more helpful if there were seniors to learn from. But, this is going to be a learning process for all of us at the same time, and it’s good to have a lot of us here to go through it at the same time together.
What have you learned from A.J. and Jermaine so far?
A.J. is just kind of a quiet leader, but he leads by example, the same thing with Jermaine. Sometimes when they have to they’ll step up and say something, but they just play hard and play together and you learn from that and what they do.
How do you approach the opportunity to play this season?
You know you’re going to get a chance to play, but you know that you can’t mess up at the same time. You just have to work hard, play with a lot of energy and do the best that you can do.