Jan. 19, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | AP Photos 
| Green’s Photos
Vanderbilt vs Ole Miss
January 19, 2011
Memorial Gymnasium
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
“I’m really proud of how hard [our team] fought and their courage and toughness they showed to win the game. It took a lot of courage for our team to win and I’m proud of them for it.”
On Vanderbilt’s Zone Defense:
“It stopped some of their penetration. In the first half, it felt like all of their possessions were in our goal.”
On Holding onto the Lead:
“We’ve worked on holding leads. We did a situation in practice yesterday where in the last four minutes, we had a six-point lead… We played hard in the second half. We played with supreme effort in the second half.”
On Vanderbilt’s Injuries:
“Andre [Walker] is getting closer. He doesn’t have to use the crutches all the time. Steve [Tchiengang] twisted his ankle in the UT game… I thought we’d get more out of him tonight. Festus [Ezeli] – That joker is a warrior. He was in pain… I loved how he played. I just can’t say enough about all of those kids. They knew we needed it.”
“It’s part of it. You have to find a way to overcome it.”
Vanderbilt player quotes
John Jenkins
On Lance Goulborne’s 16 rebounds:
“I think that’s Kevin Love type stuff to be honest. I didn’t know he had that much. I knew he had a lot, but that’s one thing Lance gives us is great rebounding and he also scored a lot too.”
On playing 39 of 40 minutes in the game:
“One thing I like to do is bring energy to the team and I think I did a good job of that today and I think coach wanted to leave me on the floor to keep the energy going. I usually don’t play 39 minutes a game, but I did it for the team tonight and I wasn’t tired at all. I was just going to keep fighting till the end.”
Lance Goulbourne
On the team’s emphasis on rebounding:
“We’ve been focusing on that (rebounding) in practice, doing a lot of box-out drills and it’s good to see that we held them to only 9 offensive rebounds. You don’t want to give team’s second shots because those are hard to defend.”
On Festus Ezeli’s knee injury:
“At first he had me a little nervous when he went down there, but he’s a warrior and he came through for us. He was big tonight, he was 10 for 12 from the free throw line, 16 points. So, he was huge even if he was hurting, he didn’t show it in my opinion.”
Jeffery Taylor
On the team’s performance:
“We did a really good job today of making our free throws, making the right plays when they pressed us, getting the ball to the open guy, screening, and cutting. I think overall we did a great job of closing the game out. We just have to work on really holding onto leads because we seem to give up leads a lot.”
On the first half:
“We jumped out on them, I think we had a 10 or 12 point lead in the first half, and after a while we just slowed down and became really stagnant. That’s when we started turning the ball over, making bad decisions and when something like that happens, and it seems to happen a lot to us in games, we need to really address that, work on it and fix it.”
Ole Miss Head Coach Andy Kennedy
Opening Comments:
“Vanderbilt is a good basketball team. They attacked us in the second half. We didn’t build off of our momentum in the first half… We were leaving way too many plays on the floor.”
On Vanderbilt having a 41 – 25 Rebounding Advantage:
“We have addressed it and thought we have been rebounding competently. Since that point, we have had some concerns. Not rebounding the ball makes for a long night.”
On Forward Reginald Buckner Playing 12 Minutes and Fouling Out Early in the Second Half:
“It is really incredible. It is two steps forward and seven steps back with our group sometimes. I know all our guys responded and put in good effort, but we have got to get more out of the group as a whole.”
On the Upcoming Game Against LSU:
We will bus home tonight and get in at 3 or 4 am. We will start preparations tomorrow afternoon and fly out Friday afternoon. We just have to move forward. It’s not easy, but it is what we have to do.
On Having Limited Open Looks in the Second Half:
“They zoned us again… I am not sure they came out of it the entire 20 minutes. I thought we were pretty aggressive. You teach you have to get to the center of the zone. We weren’t able to score efficiently enough. When you go from almost 47% shooting in the first half to 34% in the second half, it’s difficult to keep pace.”
On Playing in Memorial Gym
“It’s the best home court in our league and the students help as well. We hung around and hung around… But the one guy we can’t leave open is John Jenkins. We left him open and he made us pay. That’s what good players do.”