Jan. 24, 2007
Vanderbilt at LSU
January 24, 2007
VANDERBILT HEAD COACH Kevin Stallings
Opening Statement
“I am really happy for our guys. I thought their intensity to start the game was really good. Our defensive awareness was really good. We got to where we needed to get on Glen Davis. That bothered him. I thought we kind of bothered him at the beginning of the game. He started hurting us as the game went on, but I thought at the beginning we set the tone. We did a great job of rebounding. They got some, but we got some. I was very pleased with our rebounding effort. We got a little tentative from about the five and a half minute mark. We told them in the under four (minute) timeout that it is 2:56 to play, and we have to play to win. We didn’t come down here to play not to lose. We’ve got to attack. Shan (Foster) hit that big three in the corner. Our guys are just playing good basketball right now. They are a confident team, and they play well together. I am really proud of them.”
On defending Glen Davis …
“We had a plan. It would be a little bit confusing for a player that hasn’t seen what we were doing. We were coming from a variety of places, and there were different things that predicated and determined and dictated when we went and when we didn’t and who went and who didn’t. Our goal was not to let him get into any kind of a rhythm because when he does, you can’t guard him.”
On center Ted Skuchas …
“Ted’s impact of the game was vital. I told him after the game that his play in the first half uplifted his team. It put their team on a little bit of a defensive. He was blocking every shot that came into the lane. He hit a huge jump hook. Ted was just terrific. I told our team after the game, when you have great years, seniors play great. Our seniors have been playing great. It’s not me. It’s not our staff. It’s those three kids, and they’re taking this team. Their play has just been awesome.”
G/F DERRICK BYARS
“I have to commend Ross Neltner a whole bunch. Everybody was out there at the beginning. Even the guys that came off the bench, they did a great job. We were just flying everywhere on defense. We were just preaching let’s get a stop on this end and try to get a score on the other end. We are difficult to guard. We knew we had some advantages offensively, and we just took advantage of them. We have shooters out there. We have drivers, just guys that can make plays and smart veterans out there. Everybody just took advantage of what they were given.”
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY QUOTES
Opening Statement …
“My first thought is I thought we played for about 26 or 28 minutes, and then we got the game in a situation where I think everybody on our team had an opportunity to make a play and made them (Vanderbilt) miss got the rebound and we weren’t able to come up with it in a timely way. We had a couple missed lay-ups, and at those particular moments of the game when the game is like it is, you’ve got to make some plays and we weren’t able to make the necessary plays to win the game. When you don’t score it as easily as the Vanderbilt team can score it, when you can’t just step up and hit a 22-foot shot with a hand in your face, we seem to struggle to do that. We’ve got to be extremely detailed offensively and only a few moments in the game were we, regardless of the defense.”
“I think when we did run good offense and we executed, we got good shots. We were able to score it, but then we had opportunities. Every man on our team had an opportunity, and we weren’t able to make the play that was necessary. Defensively, Vanderbilt is the best shooting team in the league, and we guarded them pretty good. They shoot 41 percent from the field for the game and 40 (percent) from the three (point line). I was hoping we could hold them to single digits from the three. We held them to 10.They got 15 offensive rebounds, but we got 16 so it’s not like the effort of trying wasn’t there. We’re just not very calm offensively. We rush; we’re in too big a hurry, and we’ve got to have some guys just make some plays at the right moments of the game and I think we weren’t able to do that tonight when we needed to.”
LSU PLAYER TASMIN MITCHELL
On the game…
“They came out with intensity and punched us in the mouth. They were shooting well and had some great transition baskets. They hit us with something we weren’t ready for us, obviously.”
On losing so many offensive rebounds…
“It is real frustrating. You block the guy out and you are waiting for the ball, and he just reaches over your back and pops the ball out. They were back there waiting so I guess it is something that the team talked about. They did that a couple of times and it worked and cost us offensive rebounds.”
On the beginning of the game…
“We didn’t take good shots. The first five minutes of the game I didn’t take a shot at all. We had specific tasks that we had to work out. There were things that we were told to do, like get the ball inside and work inside out. I knew the inside game wasn’t going to be real effective because Glen Davis attracts a big crowd. They were going to double team him and he had to do what he had to do. Getting the ball inside was our biggest pet peeve. After the fact we realized that wasn’t working and tried to shoot from the outside.”
