March 14, 2016
Press Conference | NCAA Tournament Central | Dayton Day 1 Recap
» Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by coach Kevin Stallings. Coach, an opening statement.
Kevin Stallings: We’re really excited to be in Dayton, excited to be a part of our sport’s national championship. And we look forward to taking the floor tomorrow night and putting forth our best effort. And we certainly understand the privilege that it is to play in the NCAA Tournament and couldn’t be more grateful and humble and appreciative of the opportunity.
We obviously drew a team that has extensive NCAA Tournament experience and successful experience. So we know that we have our work cut out for us. But, again, we’re ecstatic about the opportunity to play and hopeful that we can play as we played for the majority of the last half or two-thirds of our conference season this season.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach?
Q. Kevin, how much does that experience — where could that make a difference — five straight tournaments and the first for these guys?
Kevin Stallings: I think it makes a huge difference, because the guys on their team that are non-freshmen have experienced this before. And, you know, what they say about experience, you can’t teach it. And so I think that’s certainly an advantage for them. And, again, it’s successful experience. It’s not just they’ve played four or five years in a row and got beat; they’ve won a bunch of games in those times that they’ve played. But our team is just going to have to settle into the game and stick to our plan and do what we do. And if we can stay focused on us and stay focused on what we do and what we do well and execute it, then that’s all I can ask from my team.
Q. You’ve got the seven-footers. They’ve got the 6’6″ to 6’8″ bigs. Some coaches — some teams have issues with those tweener-type guys, those athletic 6’8″ guys. Why is that an issue? It seems simple — seven-footer, 6’6″, why is it a problem for a lot of teams?
Kevin Stallings: Because, first of all, this is not the NBA. We don’t have rules that legislate how you can bring help to a post player or what quadrant of the court that you have to be in according to where your man is and so on and so forth. And sometimes those 6’8″ guys are a lot more mobile or they might be wider and stronger and more physical. And so there’s not much that’s more overrated than height in a basketball game. You would much rather have strength and physicality and quickness and speed and skill. So, yeah, the height thing can be very, very overrated. Now, at times, defensively, our length at the goal certainly is an asset. And it’s been an asset all season long, and hopefully it will be tomorrow night. But at the same time the team with the best players will win the game. The teams with — the players that play the best, I should say, will win the game. And it doesn’t matter if they’re six foot or 6’9″. The team that plays the best will win.
Q. Is playing this extra game kind of a bonus for you guys, get your feet under you and kind of get in the tournament mindset before a lot of other teams get to?
Kevin Stallings: If we win. If we can be successful in the game, then, yeah, I would look at it as a bonus because you kind of get whatever nerves you have or whatever newness and inexperience that you have coming into a situation like this, you get that kind of chipped off, if you will, and have an opportunity then to sort of settle in. But, again, we’re just grateful for the opportunity to play. We don’t care if we have to play an extra game. We’re excited about this game and excited about this opportunity and embrace it fully. Yes, we’re very hopeful of being in Providence on Thursday, but we’re very excited to be in Dayton.
Q. You talk about the inexperience. But Josh has been the only play with the NCAA experience. Are you going to have to lean on him at all or have him be a factor?
Kevin Stallings: You know, I think that the guys that are going to be leaned on are the guys that have played for us the most, you know. We’re going to lean on — we’re going to lean on anybody that plays, really. And Josh didn’t play that much when we were in the tournament the last time anyway. And so we had this guy named Ezeli that sort of was a pretty good player for us that didn’t allow for other guys to get to play too much. But we’re — I hope Josh has an impact on the game. And I hope Josh has an impact on his teammates in the locker room by what he says about his experiences of playing in the NCAA Tournament.
» Vanderbilt Forward Luke Kornet and Guard Wade Baldwin IV
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by student-athletes Wade Baldwin IV and Luke Kornet. Questions?
Q. Luke, Wichita State talked a lot a minute ago about the size difference and every team you guys have played have talked about that. Have you guys used the size difference, or how do you use it? Do you think you’ve used it effectively?
Luke Kornet: I think it helps us in certain ways more. I think in terms of contesting shots around the goal it helps us a lot and defensively in general, being able to cover more area. And I think offensively, I mean, Damian especially, just get the ball inside to them. I think it comes into play more defensively than anything, though.
Q. Wade, a minute ago Wichita State’s coach compared you to Russell Westbrook. You’re getting a lot of NBA hype over this year. How do you balance that of your draft stock or the attention you’ve gotten with being the point guard and the leader of this team? How do you balance those two, and have you done better over time with that?
Wade Baldwin IV: Ever since I was a kid, it’s been a dream to be a part of the NCAA Tournament. And that’s the first goal, to get there. And I’m here right now. And I’m just trying to seize the opportunity all season. We’ve been working hard to get to this point, and we earned the spot. And I’m just living the dream right now and we’re on a mission.
Q. Wade, it looks like Matthew Fisher-Davis has really been scoring really well over the last eight or 10 games. Can you just talk me through, maybe what’s changed or why he’s playing so well recently?
Wade Baldwin IV: Matthew’s been putting a lot more time in the gym. He’s a terrific shooter, just by nature. And he’s been in gym for the past two, three months, and it’s definitely starting to click for him now. I think he has over 150 3s on the season that he’s attempted. I mean, the kid’s a hell of a shooter, has size and is starting to get a better feel for everything on the court.
Q. Wade, you’re facing two, I think, All-American guards for Wichita State. How familiar are you with them? Do they remind you of anybody that you’ve seen?
Wade Baldwin IV: I didn’t know who they were until yesterday when they told us about their team. So I’m not really familiar with them at all. But I will be — I was last night. I will be a lot today.
Q. If both of you could address this. I’ve talked to a couple of people who have seen Vanderbilt play a lot this season. They said Vanderbilt kind of up and down, disappointing regular season. But they were the kind of team getting into the tournament could really give them new life. And he said he could see them going really far in this tournament because of the talent. Do you feel the same way?
Wade Baldwin IV: I definitely feel that way. We’re on full display now. It’s win or go home, season over. We have seniors on our team. We don’t want them to go out unhappy. We’re trying to play and get to Providence right now. That’s our main goal. We’re going to take one game at a time.
Luke Kornet: I would say it has been a long season. And there’s been, as is with any team some positives and negatives. But I’d say that if just developing some sort of momentum we can be a very dangerous team. And I think we have all the pieces to make a run in this tournament and we definitely plan on it. And everything starts with this first game. And I mean we’re really just trying to take it a day at a time, and if we could come out tomorrow and play very well and potentially to develop some momentum. But I think the first game is — it’s really the most important. And it’s just all about bringing our intensity and focus tomorrow.