Jan. 6, 2015
Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Photos 
| Green’s Photos
Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings
On the game:
“Just another night in the SEC. I thought two teams that got after each other really got after each other. They played hard and physical, and we played hard and physical. At least that’s the way I saw it; Bruce might feel differently. I thought they guarded the fire out of us, especially in the half court. I thought our guys competed hard. I thought that’s what won the game for us: competing hard. It was not a thing of beauty; they disrupted us and they took off passes and made us look ugly and all of that, but we still did enough things well. We made our free throws the heck out of it, and we guarded the heck out of it. So those three things will sometimes get you a win. We like it when it’s fun on offense, and it wasn’t that much fun on offense tonight, but the final score was fun. So I congratulate my guys; I thought the key to the game for us, and this was what I told the TV people before the game, I told the TV people that somebody on our team needed to play like a dude. So they decided that Riley was the dude. The dude for us was Jeff Roberson and the defense that he played on Harrell because KT is a terrific player. He’s one of the leading scorers in this league and I thought Jeff was just outstanding defensively against him. So, obviously James Siakam’s rebounding and activity level, again, was huge for us. Bruce has done a great job with him. I saw him play earlier in the year, and I told him this before the game or I wouldn’t say it, but it wasn’t pretty. And that’s the way it is; that’s no knock on them. That’s what happens when you take over a team and a program, and trying to get your stuff put in and all that. They’re so much better right now than they were early in the season, which obviously is a testament to his and his staff’s coaching ability, and what they’ve done.”
On the number of turnovers:
“Yeah, they bothered me, but I don’t know if it concerned me going forward. I don’t know that we ever turned the ball over against their press. I’m not sure if we had one turnover against their press. You look down and we have nineteen turnovers, and some of those we probably had six in the first five or six minutes, and they hadn’t even jumped in us yet. We were kinda doing what we wanted for the first five or six minutes of the game. But anyway, that’s too many. You look down now finally, and our guards had some. It’s been our big guys that have been turning the ball over and tonight we all took turns.”
On out rebounding the other team by twenty:
“Well I attribute that to Luke getting ten and James getting ten, Damian getting eight. That’s a new positive for us, and that’s a good positive. That becomes part of who we are, and that’s certainly going to build a better margin of error for our young team. We overcame nineteen turnovers because we rebounded and shot free throws well.”
On Jeff Roberson’s playing style:
“I would say that Jeff is our best perimeter defender. I don’t know if we have any stoppers. Sometimes I look at our defensive numbers in amazement because it doesn’t feel like to me we’re as good as our numbers suggest that we are. But Jeff Roberson is a tough kid, he’s a very tough kid, and he’s not afraid of a match up. He’s not afraid of a situation. He’s going to try to do exactly what you’ve asked him to do. He was so on point tonight; I can’t tell you how good his defense was tonight. Like any good coach, they run a lot of stuff for KT to get shots. Jeff was just there constantly. That’s pretty good for a freshman.”
Fr, F, Jeff Roberson
On Coach Stalings calling him the MVP of the game:
“I knew coming in that they had one of the leading scorers in the SEC, and I knew it was critical to limit him because a lot of offense comes through him. I went in trying to focus on defense and trying to limit him as much as possible, and I did in this game. It was nice to come out with the win.”
On his defensive game:
“I can see myself as a pretty good defender. It is something I take pride in, and something I can bring to the game. Defensively you should always be locked in and ready to play.”
On proving themselves physically:
“A lot of teams think we are the weak link, having a lot of freshmen, and the SEC is tough physically.We knew we had to come out and establish ourselves, and the big guys, especially James, Damian, and Luke took care of the boards, and we knew that was a big part of the game.”
On Riley’s [LaChance] facemask:
“He’s a warrior, he could play through anything.”
On the atmosphere for the first SEC game:
“The atmosphere is great. Last year we could sit at home and watch and think ‘wow, that looks nice,’ but now to be a part of it and to get a win in the first SEC game is huge. We’re just looking to build on that.”
Sr, F, James Siakam
On their rebounds throughout the game:
“That was our game plan, to be honest. We knew there were a lot of rebounds to be had and thats what we did. We just had to crash the boards really hard. It helped us win the game.”
On being heavily defended in the second half:
“Like any team in the SEC, Auburn understands whats at stake here. They are not going to go down without a fight, and they are going to do what they have to do to stop us from running our offense pretty smoothly, and thats what they did. It was frustrating, but we have to keep our cool and composure and make sure we make the right play.”
On the young guys keeping their composure:
“I dont see them as young guys. They have played sophomore, junior minutes by now. They are pretty mature, they work hard, and it comes with that. Nobody really lost their composure.”
Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl
On his impression of Vandy’s five freshman guards:
“They are good, really good. I thought they guarded well in the first half. I thought they used their size and their length and they did a good job on KT Harrell. they top blocked him and they did not let him get free. they made him put the ball on the floor. Which is what you should do against one of the league’s best 3 point shooter. I thought they did a good job. they made it tough and I didn’t do a very good job of getting him open. I think they did really good. This team just reminds me a lot of Jeffrey Taylor when he was a freshman. I remember all those guys that were young. Tinsley, Ezeli, it looks like the same group.”
On coming up short on rebounding:
“Well we are bigger than we are. We took 13 more shots than they did so we give them 35 defensive rebounds. So you can do the math. It’s about the fact that we took more shots and missed more shots. We had 10 offensive rebounds but they had 35 defensive rebounds and that was the difference.”
On physicality of the game:
“No I don’t think physicality bothered us. I thought that kids played hard it didn’t appear more physical than any other game.”
On half time adjustment:
“I just thought we increased the intensity. We got some offense from our defense. We started to do a good job on ball screen. We made better decisions in the first half; we drove into no where and got a beat-down. and second half we had more open driving lanes, kicking it better, and sharing the ball better. We passed it off better. it had a nice little flow to it. And first half we really struggled.”
Auburn G Antoine Mason
On the team’s struggles in the first half:
“We can’t have a first half like we had, especially if we’re on the road. The second half I was proud of us, we worked hard, we played hard. But the first half we missed too many shots and we didn’t get into them on defense.”
On what changed in the second half:
“We just don’t like to lose. Big players make plays, and the team started rallying. But like I said about the first half, we can’t start off slow.”
On being out-rebounded by Vanderbilt:
“They have 7 footers, 6’10” players, but I mean pretty sure most of it was the in the first half. We have to box out and play with intensity.”
On playing the effect of playing their first SEC game this season:
“I mean we’re in the middle of the season. Especially after Xavier, we’re oat the point where crowds turn up. We just didn’t compete in the first half like we’re supposed to.”