Jan. 22, 2009
Audio: Listen to the entire teleconference at SECsports.com
Vanderbilt basketball head coach Kevin Stallings and Florida head coach Billy Donovan fielded questions about their head-to-head matchup on Sunday with the national media during Thursday’s SEC Teleconference. Find out what each coach had to say about the matchup.
Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt Head Coach
Opening comments on matchup with Florida:
We’re coming off a very dismal performance offensively against Tennessee. Some of that had to do with their defense, and some of it had to do with our inability to make some shots that we normally make – layups and open jumpers and things like that. We’re looking forward to having a little bit of extra practice time this week in hopes that we can use that time to get better and maybe regain a little of confidence and find a little bit of a groove offensively.
I’m very impressed with Billy (Donovan’s) team as always. We have traditionally had very hard fought games with them here. So, we will expect nothing less this weekend. We look forward to it.
Can you talk about Nick Calathes?
What a terrific player, and terrific in every way. Really, really good players make everybody else better, and that’s what, I would say from a distance, is the best quality that Calathes brings to the table… is that everybody around him plays better because of him.
He’s a terrific shooter, probably the best passer in the league, maybe the best passer in college basketball for that matter, and just does a great job of running their offense and they just play through him. He’s just outstanding in every way, a very difficult guy to guard, because of his shooting ability and his driving ability and his passing ability, a very, very smart player, a very tough player. He’s just outstanding.
How do you guard Calathes?
The best we can. We have to try to do a good job on their ball screens and do a good job in the places they try to attack you and the things they try to do with him and the others. He’s one of those guys who’s going to get his. He’s going to get his, and what you hope is he doesn’t everybody else’s for them also. But, he’s awfully good at doing it. So, we’ll have to see whether we can contain some of that or not.
Can you talk about Jermaine Beal and what he brings to the floor?
He led the league in assist/turnover ratio last year. He just doesn’t turn the ball over much. But, I would say that the last couple of games he’s struggled a little bit. But, he’s a guy who we depend on heavily and does what we need him to do. Again, he’s a very stabilizing force for our team and does a great job of not turning the ball over. So, hopefully that’ll be the case against Florida’s pressure this weekend and beyond.
Has Beal had to assume more responsibility to lead the team this year, and how has he responded?
I think that he’s responded well. His scoring numbers are up. His shooting percentages are up. He’s done a great job from the foul line. So, he’s responded well, but yes there’s more responsibility. He doesn’t have Shan Foster and Alex Gordon and Ross Neltner and guys like that out there with him now. He’s got younger guys, and so he has to shoulder more of the burden.
Can you talk about VU’s offensive production lately?
I think at least what happened to us Tuesday night was we just missed some at the beginning, missed some layups and some open jumpers, and then I think we became tentative. I think that can happen with a young team. I have to make sure that these guys are aggressive. They have to have an aggressive mindset. We have a team that really cares about what the coach thinks, what their teammates think. We’ve got to not be so concerned about making mistakes or missing shots, and be willing to be aggressive and to make mistakes being aggressive and not worry about it.
Billy Donovan, Florida Head Coach
Opening comments on matchup with Vanderbilt:
We have to rebound here from a tough night last night. Having a game on Sunday at least gives us an extra day to do that. I think with Vanderbilt playing on Tuesday they have some extra time as well. I have great respect for their team, but as today goes on we’ll get more and more, at least I will, into them after we try to clean up things from last night. But, we have Thursday, Friday and Saturday to try to get prepared as well as we can.
Can you talk about Calathes’ play to this point and what he’s meant to the team?
I think you come across certain guys who really, really really love the game, and he’s a guy who loves the game. He loves getting better. I think he loves to learn. He’s always eager to improve. I think those have been for the most part skill stuff – shooting, handling, passing, watching tape. I think now he’s trying to take the next step in terms of how do I lead now. I think he’s gotten better as the year’s gone on.
He has a really good understanding and a good feel of how to play. He’s very, very competitive. He’s got great, great stamina. One thing that I’ve always respected about him was that for a young guy he’s got a great threshold to be able to play under fatigue and play at a high pace under fatigue. But, he’s got a really good feel of how to play. He’s obviously a very good passer, and he can shoot and he can do a lot of things.
He’s meant a lot to our team. … He’s been a guy you enjoy coaching because you know how important the game is to him. That’s something I admire.
How do you feel about Calathes making his teammates better?
I think there are two ways you can make your teammates better. I think when good players can get two guys on him, whether it’s a really good low post player getting double-teamed or if it’s a good offensive player on the perimeter coming off a screen, that they can make the game easier for everybody else. I think Nick has got the ability to make the game easy for other people on the floor. With that, I think a guy like Dan Werner and Chandler Parsons, Walter Hodge being a senior, we have a pretty good passing team when those guys are in a position to make a play. They can now take advantage of some of their strengths, because those guys can make some plays too with the ball in their hands, not necessarily scoring but finding other people.
I think other way that guys make their teammates better is by taking the strengths and qualities that they have and imposing them on a team. I think that’s the area where Nick is working to get better at. I’ve always believed that if you have a great player, and he’s your hardest working guy, can you create an environment that you force the other guys to really, really work hard. I think that when you have a guy who has a good threshold for work, can you get the other guys to work at that threshold. I think those are some of the things that he’s trying to get better, where he can make our team better in a lot of those areas that maybe you don’t see on the floor, certainly passing the ball and doing different things for us on offense, and on defense he can make our team better.
But there’s still a lot more areas where he can make our team better. There’s a lot on his plate, and the thing I love about him is he tries to take those things. He doesn’t shy away the more things you throw at him. He tries to do what you ask him to do. I do agree that a really good player has the ability to make other people around him, not only on the floor but even off the floor.
With a young team, how worried are you about lingering effects from the loss to South Carolina?
I think that the one thing that we’ll have to learn to deal with is coming off an emotional win or an emotional loss. When you’re dealing with a young team, that’s our next challenge of how we can get ourselves prepared and ready to play on the road Sunday again. We’ll have to do a great job of always putting things in the proper perspective. If we would have won last night it is only one game and it only goes down as a W. We lost, so it’s a loss, and it’s one game. This league is so hard for 16 games. I don’t think that you can sometimes say “No big deal. Let’s move on.” I think it’s even beyond learning. What do you take from it that forces you to change as a player and as a person as you go through those things? Because, I think through the experience of the season, it’s not only the learning part. You can learn and say “I should have done this or I should have done that or We should have done this or We should have done that.” That’s great, but how do you apply that to the next time you play and the next situation you’re in like that. We’re going to have to try to be able to help our guys along that road to be able to do that.