Feb. 22, 2011
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Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee
Memorial Gym
February 22, 2011
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
“I thought we got out-toughed and out-physicalled. I thought we had guys who were trying to be individual players and not team players… [Tennessee] played well defensively, but we somewhat made it easy for them by getting away from what we wanted to do. We had nine fouls on our five-man in the second half – that’s ridiculous.”
On the Pace of the Game:
“[Tennessee] doesn’t want to get into a shootout with us. They did a good job at the end of the game. We took some bad shots and had turnovers.”
“[Tennessee] likes to play slowly and we don’t. It worked for them tonight.”
On John Jenkins’ Involvement:
“John had five turnovers – he had the ball a bunch of times. He had 13 shots and five turnovers , so it wasn’t a lack of him having the ball.”
On Vanderbilt’s Turnovers in Transition:
“We had some crazy turnovers in transition.”
Vanderbilt Player Quotes
On his trouble scoring throughout the game…
“I think it was more me not getting open myself and not moving as often and using my screens to my ability.”
On the team’s offensive performance…
“We just weren’t moving like we usually do, we weren’t passing the ball, and we were kind of holding the ball waiting for somebody else to do something. That’s something that can easily get fixed and we’ll be alright.”
On Tennessee’s defense…
“They pack it in a little bit, they’re pretty athletic and try to make it harder to get to the basket and get easy shots, so I mean they put forth a pretty good defensive effort today.”
On turnovers in the second half…
“We gave the ball up and bad errors, which led to a lot of fast break points for them. They got a lot of lay ups and easy baskets off of our turnovers and those are very deadly.”
Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl
Opening Statement:
“Wearing this jacket and playing in this building are special. Our guys recognized that they had the opportunity to do something difficult, sweep Vanderbilt especially in a year that Vanderbilt has such an outstanding team. We got a great contribution from Melvin [Goins], who continues to play great defensively. He is terrific and a tough player. Also, Tobias [Harris] continues to play tough. Having a double-double is becoming routine for him… We had winning plays on both ends of the floor. The fact that in the second half we held them to 30% [shooting] shows great defense.”
On Defending Vanderbilt Guard John Jenkins:
“Josh [Bone] did a terrific job. I don’t know how many times John [Jenkins] scored on Josh, but it was not many. He’s a local kid that was overlooked coming out of high school. He came out of Eastern Illinois willing to pay his way at Tennessee. He earned his scholarship last year. He’s a great kid that did a great job.”
On Coming Back From an 11-Point Deficit:
“I was disappointed with the start of the second half. I tried several line-up changes. We didn’t guard well early. I had my doubts. I thought that Melvin [Goins] did a terrific job defensively. He gives Brad [Tinsley] a hard time because he’s quick and strong. Melvin’s toughness helped us to stay in the game… I want to focus on how we got down.”
On Having More Free Throw Attempts than Vanderbilt:
“I thought we did a good job at getting to the basket. We were determined to get to the rim. That’s how Vanderbilt usually does it. “
On Taking Time to Acknowledge Fans after the Game:
“As I walked to the corner, there were a lot of fans there. I was looking for my wife, and the Governor. I looked up and all our fans stuck around. I wanted to recognize our fans for being here. That’s what makes this a great rivalry. At Thompson Bowling Arena, there are enough Vanderbilt fans there to hear as well.”
Tennessee Player Quotes
Melvin Goins
On the win…
“It`s a great win. Being a senior and being able to come into this environment and stealing a win on their home court, it’s a big time game for us. I didn’t have as many assists as I would have liked to, but I took what the defense gave me today and I tried to come up big for my team. “
On the start of the game…
“I think we had it in our head that it was important for us to come out and try to start well. We didn’t start as well as we would have liked but we didn’t let them away from us. We kept their lead down close; we went into halftime with a four-point deficit. We just came out in the second half and tried to play good basketball and that’s what we did.”
On being down nine and coming back…
“I think it was very important today that we never gave up, we always believed. I came into the timeout telling my guys to believe, to believe that we could win this ball game. We fought to the end. It showed that e had big time players who came in and made big plays. Scotty [Hopson] made big free throws for us. Tobias [Harris] had big rebounds. Brian [Williams] also. And Jeronne [Maymon] came in off the bench and disrupted their big guys. It was an all-put team effort.”
On holding Vanderbilt to 51 points…
“We’re confident in our defense. Coach preached to us that when they score over 80 points, they win the ball game. We wanted to try to bother them and disrupt their offense and not let them get good looks. Our guys came up big on the defensive end, we held them to mostly one shot.”
Tobias Harris
On Tennessee’s free throw shooing down the stretch…
“Knowing to close out the game. We’ve been in tough situations like that all season long. Coming in here, it’s must win for us as a team. Really just closing out and doing whatever we have to do to win the game.”
On the last five minutes of the game…
“Coach really stressed for me to pressure the ball and protect our post and to know where [John] Jenkins is on the court. That’s what I tried to do, and I tried to help out my teammates. I tried to do everything out there to help our team.”
On losing a lot of close games this season…
“I thought it was a little frustrating but at the same time, we were just so close in a lot of our games and today really proved us as a team, coming through down the stretch and closing out. I thought we did a great job. “