Dec. 19, 2009
Vanderbilt 84, Tennessee State 71
December 19, 2009
Memorial Gym
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
“I thought we did okay for 20 minutes. The second half wasn’t what we were hoping for. Give [John Cooper’s] team a lot of credit. They kept playing after the game was out of hand and I didn’t feel like our guys did.”
On Vanderbilt’s 21 Assists:
“Some of it’s that they were outmanned, so we threw the ball inside to get some baskets. We were also unselfish with the ball and that was a big thing.”
On Vanderbilt’s 84 Points:
“TSU played very hard, had great effort, and great energy. Our guys are just bigger, stronger, and faster than they are. We’re more physically blessed at this point than they are. From an effort standpoint, we out-competed them in the first half. They out-competed us in the second half.”
On Vanderbilt’s Rotation:
“What we told the team is that we’re going to try to get it to nine [players] and get some separation. It’s going to be hard to play more than that. We would like to get some separation and make sure that we’re selecting the right guys.”
On the Week Off Prior to Today’s Game:
“I thought in the first half our defense was a lot better. I challenged the team with 2:35 left in the first half to shut them out for the rest of the half. We made a defensive mistake that caused us to make a foul and those were their only two points in the last 2:30.”
Vanderbilt forward Jeffery Taylor
On scoring tonight:
“I just tried to finish my shots and my teammates helped me get every opportunity. (Beal interjects: All he had to do was catch it and go!)”
On recovering from two straight losses:
“I think we were hurting after Western Kentucky and Coach was questioning some things that should never be questioned. We were disappointed in ourselves. We have a lot of season left and we need to work hard and be successful every day.”
Vanderbilt guard Jermaine Beal
On assists:
“We had a lot of two-on-one and three-on-one opportunities. They pressed a lot, but we had to adjust. We had a lot of turnovers, but we were able to push through.”
On starting again after being benched:
“I’m just trying to do what I can do to help the team. It helped me out, worked me out, and I was ready to go.”
On today’s win:
“Today was a starting point. We can just go from here and go day by day.”
On Coach Stallings’ expectations:
“We have a long way to go from where Coach wants us to be. We just want to get better every day and eventually we’ll be where we need to be to push to the end.”
Vanderbilt guard John Jenkins
On practice this week:
“We worked on offense a lot this week and I was able to get open and hit my shots.”
On his knee:
“The brace was slowing me down. It’s still hurting a bit, but I was able to push through it.”
On personal improvement from beginning of the season:
“I’m much better than I was the first game I played. Practice has helped me out a lot and I’m a lot more comfortable.”
Tennessee State Head Coach John Copper
Opening Statement:
“First of all let me take my hat off to Kevin and his team and their staff. I’ve known those guys forever and ever. They have a very good program and after having two tough losses back to back I thought one of the things they came out and did was they played extremely hard and competed. They were able to knock down some shots. They put us in some situations that frankly their physicality really affected us. They were probably the most physical team we have played against thus far. They have the ability to throw the ball inside and use their body on our guys. But as I told our guys we’re in the business of building a program not a team. Teams come and go programs last and we still have a lot of work to do, but hats off to those guys.”
On not having the size to match up with A.J. Ogilvy and Festus Ezeli:
“We’re not a very big team and we understand that and we’re handicapped in that area. You know size is also overrated, but their size affected us and of one the reasons their size can affect you is because they have the ability to really shoot the basketball from outside. So it makes it tough on you. It’s kind of a double edged sword because if they were just big and really good inside and maybe didn’t shoot the ball as well there some things you can do to overcome that, but we weren’t able to overcome that. John Jenkins got it going early in the first half when he hit some threes and gets fouled and hits three free throws. That just makes it tough on us as a team especially when dealing with the size advantage they had.”
On how the offense did against Vanderbilt’s defense:
“I don’t know how well we really played offensively and part of that goes to Vanderbilt’s defense. I thought their defense was pretty good. Then you take a look at our defense and they had so many layups on us that I was sick of watching it. You look at the percentage they shoot 67 percent, you show me a team who gives up 67 percent from the field and I’ll show you a team who losses and that’s why we lost. In spite of us shooting 36 percent for the game if you defend and able to limit other teams then you have a chance to at least put yourself an opportunity to somehow sneak one out down the stretch of the game and we weren’t able to do that.”
On team’s effort in the second half:
“I was happy with it but that’s to be expected. Effort is something you can always give and one of the things we’ve tried to do is make sure we always give effort and play hard. I shouldn’t have to coach at all that’s an expectation. So I think our guys have bought into that and I think we are very limited in areas, but one of the areas that are becoming quite easy for me to take a look at is our guys are competitors and they have started competing. If we add the ability to think and play smart than we are going to have something. This team will continue to develop and get better. These games are good for us and we need to play against high-quality competition. We got a tough one when we come back when we go down to Alabama, but these are the types of games that will prepare us for conference play. This is the first game we’ve pretty much had everyone back in the first four or five games, and then we get Cox back and he plays about six minutes then he gets a hip pointer. I thought I had everyone, but I guess not.”
On thoughts of Jeff Taylor getting overlooked:
“He may get overlooked by you guys, but he doesn’t get overlooked by coaches trust me. He’s one hell of a player and he’s a pro. What was he 10 for 11 I’ll tell you what I’ll take any kid who gets 20 points and 5 rebounds and gets overlooked on a nightly basis. Jeff’s a very good player and he plays within his strength. At this point I don’t know if he’s a great three point shooter, but he’s one heck of a mid range shooter and that’s what he sticks to and that’s what he does. I would tell you in my own personal opinion I think he is the most valuable player on their team and someone they can’t afford to lose.”
Tennessee State guard/forward Josh Sain
General thoughts on game:
“We played hard throughout the entire contest. Vandy is a tough SEC school and were able to take advantage of their bigger players today.”
On play in the second half:
“We struggled in the first half of the game. In the second half, we were able to execute our press defense better and cause turnovers. That allowed us to outscore Vanderbilt in the second half.”
On non-conference schedule:
“We’ve played a lot of tough teams in our non-conference schedule like Vanderbilt. These games will help us a lot for our conference season and tournament. We’ve learned many things about ourselves as a team during this part of the season.”
On height and size of Vanderbilt roster:
“They held a big size and height advantage over us today. It was a big difference. They have several players who are 6’7” and taller while we have only one player on our roster with that height.”