Feb. 18, 2015
Recap | Box Score | USATSI Photos 
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
On his thoughts of the game:
“We get back-cut behind our head for a dunk for their go-ahead basket. We just didn’t make the plays. It’s very frustrating. Kids played hard. It felt like we were swimming upstream most of the night. I’m not really sure we had one guy on our team play to what I would consider their capabilities. You don’t win at Florida if you don’t play to your capabilities.”
On the last eight minutes of the first half and the end of the game:
“We strung together some good defensive possessions, but they’re like us. At times they can struggle to score. It’s a disappointing loss. It’s a game that we felt like we could have won. We were in a position where we probably should have won. We make free throws we should win, but we can’t get a stop in seven seconds, very reminiscent of the Tennessee game. Seven seconds, ball out of bounds, we give up some penetration and we start staring at the ball and a guy cuts behind our head and dunks. Last thing I said was don’t stare at the ball. That’s what guys do at the end of games, they stare at the ball. That’s why guys get tip-ins and how games are won. We’re not there yet I guess. Had a chance, just didn’t get it done.”
On Florida and Vanderbilt’s play:
“We weren’t getting good guard play. Our guards weren’t getting us into offense. Our bigs weren’t posting. Like I said, we didn’t have anybody that played. [Florida] had something to do with that of course, just like hopefully we had something to do with them not scoring. You don’t go on the road in this league and win and you don’t win at Florida without guys playing well.”
Vanderbilt Freshman Guard Riley LaChance
On Vanderbilt’s missed opportunities:
“We didn’t get stops when we had to, we didn’t make buckets when we had to and we missed a really good opportunity. Against a good team like Florida, you can’t have droughts where you don’t score and at that time, that’s when they made their run so that wasn’t a good stretch for us.”
On Florida’s points off turnovers:
“Florida had 28 points off turnovers and second-chance points. That’s way too many for us to give up. We talk about not allowing teams to succeed in transition and get easy buckets, but we didn’t do that tonight.”
On Florida being the more desperate team
“They always play really hard and they played together. They had a lot of guys step up and they played really well.”
Florida Head Coach Billy Donovan
On the game overall:
“I was proud. I could see Kasey [Hill] fighting. I could see his body language was not good after the two [missed] free throws. I watched him try to gather and regroup himself. I’m glad he did that; he kept himself in the game. I don’t think it’s any different than at Texas A&M or the Ole Miss game. I thought our guys competed and battled, but offensively it is an absolute struggle. We made a couple plays coming down the stretch. I don’t agree when I get asked about us being unlucky or snake-bitten. I think you create your own luck, and you create your own opportunity. I thought tonight we made a couple more plays than Vanderbilt did.”
On the play of Vanderbilt tonight:
“I never thought (sophomore center) Damian Jones got into any kind of rhythm going in the game. [Coach] Kevin [Stallings] had to take him off the floor because of foul trouble. Even though he got 22 minutes, I wouldn’t say it was a good flow of 22 minutes. I thought we were very fortunate with [Luke] Kornet and [Matthew] Fisher-Davis. They had some pretty good looks from behind the three-point line that didn’t go in. We had our share too. But it was a tough shooting night for both teams, and I’m not so sure the shooting nights by both teams are a reflection of both teams’ defenses. I thought both teams struggled to score.”On the suspension of Dorian Finney-Smith:
“He is suspended and not playing against LSU. I’ll revisit it again on Monday. It’s hard because I think when these things happen, it’s very easy to pass judgment on a kid who is really a good kid. He’s a great kid to coach, and I’m not just saying that because he’s here on this team and because I’m supposed to say that. He’s a good kid. I think it’s been a microcosm of this season with our team in what I would say is a lack of commitment and a lack of consistency of what really goes into winning.”
Redshirt Junior Forward Alex Murphy
On getting a win after four straight losses:
“It felt great. We played desperate, especially in the second half. We came out a little bit flat; offensively we were a little bit stagnant in the first half. The energy was much better in the second half. We created some turnovers [and] scored out of the press a little bit.”
On getting any thoughts about this game ending in a close loss:
“Of course that comes into your mind but you have to get rid of that quick because the game wasn’t over. The last few minutes went back and forth but we fought and we battled. We worked on end-of-game situations yesterday in practice, which I think paid off.”
Freshman Forward Devin Robinson
On the assist from Kasey Hill for the end-of-the-game dunk:
“It was a good feed. He penetrated and got the big men in the air, and I was just in the right spot at the right time.”
On responding in the second half after speaking with Coach Donovan:
“It was hard at first. [Coach Donovan] was tough on me, he said a couple of words that probably hurt my feelings, but I didn’t put my head down. I just went out there and took it as a challenge.”