Dec. 31, 2007
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings:
On Vanderbilt’s defensive effort:
“I liked our look in the second half. Our total emphasis for this game was defensively. In the first half we had tremendous effort, but no discipline – one without the other is not worthless, but it’s not the same. In the second half, our discipline was better and I thought our defense was better.”
On Vanderbilt’s big run to open the second half:
“I thought we were sharp coming out of the locker room. We came out and blew it open in the start of the second half. Our second group went out there and played very well. They played as well as the starters. That’s a very good thing for us to have.”
On the renewed emphasis on defense:
“We’ve started repairing it. If our effort is where it was today, we’ll get better – hopefully sooner than later. If you aren’t guarding it’s a good thing to be able to score a lot. We’re not going to score 97 maybe ever [in SEC games]. We better be able to guard, and we will. These guys have are effort-givers and we just need to help them.”
On Andrew Ogilvy’s 20 points on only six field goal attempts:
“I asked him how he did that and he said it’s all those five-point shots he took. He’s a special player. He just takes a beating down there every game – I mean he takes a beating. Thank goodness he can shoot free throws. I’d hate to have somebody go to the line that often that wasn’t a good free-throw shooter.”
Vanderbilt Players:
Forward Shan Foster:
On what was said in the locker room at halftime:
“Just that we were playing extremely hard and we weren’t playing disciplined. Priority No. 1 for us is to out-compete our opponent and the formula for that is to play harder and smarter for longer. We were definitely playing hard enough, but we weren’t playing long enough, so we weren’t playing smart enough. We had to go out in the second half and try to correct that problem and we did.”
On adjustments that the team focused on making in the second half:
“We knew exactly what we had to do (in the second half). It was just the case of not being smart on a couple of possessions and we realize that we still have work to do defensively, but we had the effort. I think it was a little bit discouraging in the first half being that we played so hard and were only up five. We realized that if we kept that same intensity and came out and played a little bit smarter that things would fall in to our favor.”
On Vanderbilt getting off to its best start in school history:
“It is definitely a great honor just to be in the same sentence with a lot of great teams that have played here. This is a special team and we are able to do a lot of special things and it is just great to be a part of.”
Center Alan Metcalfe:
On Vanderbilt’s 26-5 run to start the second half:
“We’ve been working on getting pressure on the ball and then getting stops and rebounds. When you play hard on defense, it helps carry over to offense. As a post player, you swivel harder, you try to get better position and once we got pressure on the ball and got stops, we got confidence going down and the guys just got me the ball in the right place.”
On his health:
“I’ve been in the training room a lot trying to get my knee right. It is hard to come and play as hard as you can when you know you have a little nagging injury that might get a little worse. I’ve got trust in our trainer and he is telling me that I can go out and go as hard as I can, and as long as nothing is going to go wrong, then I will be fine.”
On the team’s defense leading to scoring runs:
“Obviously, you’ve still got to make shots and you’ve still got to put the ball in the hole to get runs. You can’t just get stops and go down and miss easy layups or open jump shots. The guys are knocking down jump shots and getting the ball inside and getting the ball to the line to make our free throws.”
Iona Head Coach Kevin Willard:
On his impressions of the No. 15-ranked Commodores:
“This team (Vanderbilt) is an excellent offensive basketball team. I thought we could score on them, but I didn’t think we would turn it over so many times. Vanderbilt is one of the better offensive teams that we’ve seen because they shoot the ball so well. On the defensive end, they are very solid and make you that work (for shots).”
On Vanderbilt’s early second half run to widen a five-point halftime margin:
“It’s the second (straight) time we’ve come out of halftime a little deflated. We kind of lost our intensity as we get away from our bench, especially here. But give Vanderbilt a lot of credit for that.”
On Andrew Ogilvy:
“Ogilivy’s size really surprised me. Up close and personal, he’s a real presence. I was really impressed with how well he moved. He’s a really fast guy, gets up and down the court quickly, and has good lateral quickness. He posts well and really moves his feet. He’s just fun to watch.”
On if he was surprised Vanderbilt shot 38 free throws in the game:
“This is our 10th road game, so I’ve seen it a lot actually. We actually hit our average on the road, giving up 38 of them. At home, we’re only given up 14 a game. So yes, I’ve seen it quite often.”
On the value of Iona playing on the road against ranked teams:
“This trip for us was great. It got us ready for league play and gave us a chance to play two excellent basketball teams (Louisville and Vanderbilt). It gave us a new locker room and a new video system, so we’re excited. I also want our guys to experience great college basketball atmospheres. And playing in this venue, on this court against an SEC team is great for our program.”
