Jan. 17, 2009
Vanderbilt 66 – Mississippi State 73
January 17, 2009 – Humphrey Coliseum – Starkville, Miss.
Attendance: 9,268
Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt Head Coach
(Opening Comments)
“The second half, offensively, they made some tough shots, and I thought there were times when we defended them really well and they still made them. To start the second half I think they scored 15 points in the first four minutes, 15 seconds, and when we give up points at that rate, even though we were scoring, it’s not the kind of situation we can put ourselves in. Defensively we were okay, but not as good as we have been. A lot of that had to do with them. The point guard penetration hurt us, and we did not play intelligently, which is the biggest disappointment for me. We have to be a smarter team than we were this evening, and I have got to coach them to be smarter because we are not going to win on the road in tough environments against good teams playing with the lack of basketball IQ that we played with tonight.”
(On an early run in the second half)
“We talked about the importance of the first five minutes of the second half. We just didn’t play well, but a lot of that had to do with them. We had our chances and we got (Jarvis) Varnado in foul trouble in the first half. Then our two veteran guys kind of lose their poise and composure and get themselves in foul trouble unnecessarily. We put Jarvis in a bad spot there in the first half by going at him with A.J. (Ogilvy). A.J. swings down on a foul, and two blocked shots of guys that weren’t even his guys were the fouls that he got. Jermaine’s second foul was an driving, completely out-of-control foul. That’s just not playing intelligently, and those are our two guys that we count on.”
Vanderbilt Players
Jermaine Beal, guard
(On the overall game)
“It was a hard-fought game, and in the second half, Mississippi State had the lead and fought back. We didn’t play our best tonight and Mississippi State got off some plus shots.”
(On pressuring the offense)
“It was a tough game. Many players like Jarvis (Varnado) made some good shots and blocked a couple of our shots.”
A.J. Ogilvy, center
(On Vanderbilt’s defense)
“We did not play our best, and our defense was not up to where it usually was.”
Rick Stansbury, Mississippi State Head Coach
(Opening Comments)
“Our team found ways to win again tonight. I thought we showed some toughness in other areas tonight, aside from rebounding and defense, and that toughness came on the offensive end. If you look at the stats, Vanderbilt was leading the country in field goal percentage defense, and we shot the ball very well against them. Also, we shots 22 free throws, making 18, and they only made five. That is a huge stat in my eyes. We have to continue to find ways to make up in what we lack in rebounding and again we found that. Our bench stepped up strong with Brian Johnson and Elgin Bailey stepping in for Jarvis (Varnado) when he was in foul trouble in the first half.”
(On Elgin Bailey)
“He just plays hard all the time. As you know he will take some shots and do some things that might upset you, but he does everything with full effort, and I will never get onto a guy for giving me full effort.”
(On the makeup of this year’s team)
“Last year we had two dominant players in Jamont Gordon and Charles Rhodes, and we are not put together that way this year. We have a lot more versatility and are able to shoot better. We have a point guard that is able to do a little bit of everything and he is looking to do that, and that with that, it has opened things up for Jarivs (Varnado). We still need to find a way to get the ball to him more, but we also need him to help uswith that. But, we have different guys every night that are able to step up in different ways for us, and they are continuing to do that. This team has a very small margin for error, but we did what we had to do to take care of home and now we need to focus on the road and LSU and Georgia.”
(On Vanderbilt)
“The crowd played a huge factor for us tonight, like they have been doing. Vanderbilt is a team that can come from behind at any moment, so you can never be comfortable with a lead against them. We were able to step up and hit some three’s in the second half that got us on a roll.”
(On his 90th SEC win)
“I did not think about it, was not worried about it, did not know about it. All I was worried about was p, but with that it means I have been very blessed to coach a lot of good players and have a lot of good assistant coaches. Those are two common threads that any coach who has success has, because it all starts with players and assistant coaches.”