Dec. 4, 2014
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Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
“I’m disappointed for our guys. They played well and they played with courage. Our front line played exceptionally well. They beat us at the three-point line, which is an unusual place for us to get beat… They’re a tough team to play. We have nothing to hang our heads about. We have nothing to be ashamed of.”
On Baylor’s Success from the Three-Point Line:
“It was mostly dribble penetration and them kicking it out. We have lessons to learn about what it takes to beat a person defensively. It’s tough to guard people in college… Our defense has to get better, and it will in time.”
“It’s about finding the ball and standing in front of the ball… I bet they made five baskets in the last five seconds of the shot clock. We play good defense for 30 seconds and then they beat us in the last five. I sure am proud of our big guys, though. They defended, competed, and rebounded.”
On Baylor’s Shooting:
“Their shots weren’t that difficult, but you have to give them credit for making them… Everyone made shots for them. Nobody made shots for us. Part of that was their defense. They’re a tough team to make three-point shots against. We needed a three at the end of the game… We had two or three options on that play, but it got off to a poor start with the ball getting thrown over someone’s head.”
On Vanderbilt’s Youth:
“They try hard. They listen. They’re coachable. We got beat in places where we were at a disadvantage from an experience and athletic standpoint.”
On Baylor’s Two Bigs Going 1-10:
“Our length got to them… For us to look down and see [Baylor Forward Rico] Gathers with two offensive rebounds when he’s averaging five, that’s a good thing.”
Junior Center Damian Jones
On losing the lead in the last 2-3 minutes:
“They started getting the ball to their guards down low, and it was really effective for them. They were able to get to the line and they knocked down some shots. We just didn’t convert on our end.”
On what changed during half time (going from 5 points in the 1st half and finishing with 21 points):
“I knew I had to produce more; five in the first half wasn’t good enough. I just had to play with the mentality that I can improve myself.”
On the last play:
“See, the pass wasn’t a great pass. It went too far for me to reach, and it just went up in the air.”
Senior Forward James Siakam
On the energy in the game:
“I was definitely feeding off the energy of crowd. Every time I got in there I tried to feed off their energy. I tried to encourage my teammates, making sure I did the right things to boost their energy.”
On closing the gap and taking the lead:
“I think the bench was incredible. I think talking with our teammates and just slapping each others’ hands and all that kind of stuff were all very important as far as getting back that energy. Definitely feeding off the crowd and my teammates was helpful.”
On Baylor’s three pointers:
“I think that was really hard, especially when you make a run and letting them hit those three’s. I think we as a group have to do a better job of guarding the ball. Once they got through our lanes and the defense was sinking, they started shooting horse shots. I think they shot very well; I’m not sure what kind of numbers they put up there, but tonight was an exceptional night for them. I was very surprised at how well they shot the ball.”
On the last play:
“I thought they just knew we didn’t want to shoot the three. They did their best to keep the ball out of the three point line.”
Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew
On the win:
Coming into tonight we knew Coach Stallings does a tremendous job preparing his guys and, offensively, they’re always off the charts. They were number eight in field goal percentage coming in and we knew we had to be cognizant of the three point line and do a good job of that. That opened up the interior a little bit and [Damian] Jones really hurt us with 21 points and nine rebounds and four offensive rebounds. I really liked the composure of our upperclassmen Royce [O’Neale], [Taurean Prince], and Rico [Gathers]. I thought Lester [Medford] did a good job filling in without Kenny Chery tonight. When you don’t have a senior point guard on the road, first time you’re playing in a hostile environment without him, your closer, it’s always interesting to see what occurs and you’re just hoping it’s more positive than bad. We knew Vanderbilt wouldn’t go away but we were really pleased that, when we lost the lead, we were able to have a maturity to come back and finish it.
On getting open along the perimeter to hit three point baskets:
I think our guys really did a great job of sharing the ball, making the extra pass, and at the end of the day, shooting open shots is better than shooting contested ones. We made the extra pass tonight, and if we wouldn’t have then we wouldn’t have shot 10-for-18 [from three]. I really like the patience, poise, and shot-taking from our guys.
On the difference between the two halves:
I think they did a good job with a couple of their adjustments, how they attacked our zone. I probably didn’t sub enough and, when you get tired, it shows up in the defensive end. Really credit the guys to buckle down down the stretch. I thought they did some good things and our guys got a little fatigued, and that’s on me.
On Vanderbilt’s second half adjustments:
I think it was two things they did. They put in four shooters at one point and that stretched us a little bit. I think when you get a little fatigued you’re not covering areas as quick and I thought, in the first half, we were just a little quicker to the ball with better ball pressure.
On falling behind late in the game and coming back:
That’s why I was so pleased with our guys, especially the upperclassmen. They got the right shots, they made the right plays down the stretch, didn’t get rattled. Normally, Kenny [Chery’s] out there setting stuff up and did a great job helping Lester [Medford] out with that.
On stopping Vanderbilt from tying the game on the last possession:
First of all, you never know what [Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings] is going to do because he’s got so many good plays offensively. Two bigs up top, that was probably the horns play that they hurt us with earlier. I think Royce [O’Neale] did a really good job and our guys did a really good job communicating and talking. It started with Lester [Medford] putting good pressure on the inbounds. Credit our guys, they wanted to get that stop. We asked them [in the huddle] if they wanted to foul and put Vandy on the line, but they wanted to get the stop.
On a tough night for forwards Rico Gathers and Jonathan Motley:
What I was pleased with was that Rico [Gathers] had two big free throws and got the rebound at the end of the game. Both of those guys will learn from this and get better at it. One thing that is tough is normally, in practice, we’ve got a lot of length. We’ve always had a seven-footer. Now we don’t have that so, when you face seven-footers, it’s a little bit different. We definitely have to get [Jonathan] Motley going. He’s capable of being a lot better than he’s played. I know he’s frustrated, but that’s typical freshman. We’ve got to get him going.
Junior Forward Taurean Prince
On keeping composure:
“We’ve played at Kansas, which was a great place to play and probably the loudest school we’ve played at. As far as Vanderbilt, they were pretty loud but it’s nothing we haven’t experienced. It was about keeping the guys poised, and I think we did a good job towards the end of the game.”
On playing in an Open Gym:
“It was a better gym to shoot in to be honest. The background wasn’t full of people. We just did a good job of focusing on the rim and knocking down shots, especially Royce O’Neale, who had four out of five from three.”
On winning on the road against the SEC, twice:
“It would bring any team confidence, but it was the SEC/Big 12 Challenge so we knew we had to step up for the Big 12. As far as the guys who played tonight, I think we did a great job staying poised towards the end. They made some good plays, and we had to stay wide on the shooters that they put out there. Number 30 from Vanderbilt did a good job keeping our big guys on their feet, so credit to Rico Gathers for doing a good job on him all game.”