Nov. 24, 2008
Vanderbilt 65 – MTSU 57
November 24, 2008 – Memorial Gym
Attendance: 12,502
Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt Head Coach
Opening Comments:
“I’m really proud of our team. I thought they played really hard with a lot more purpose and effort than we had on Thursday night. We knew they were a good team. We knew it would be a 40 minute game, even when we went into halftime with a lead. MTSU has an NCAA Tournament future this year. We’ve played other teams in their conference in front of people and not in front of people and they’re as good as those teams are. I thought we played solid defensively, even though they only turned the ball over seven times. I thought out defensive and rebounding efforts were stellar.”
On Vanderbilt’s rebounding effort:
“There were a lot of embarrassing chips for some of our players from the last game in terms of lack of pursuit and lack of hitting people when shots went up. It was atrocious.”
On Vanderbilt’s defense:
“I think our length bothered them. We’re not a defensive that’s going to turn people over a lot. Our job is to make them miss and then corral the rebound. I look down and see that they shot 37% and look at the rebounding numbers and I’m thrilled. I thought we did a great job with [Desmond] Yates. Our guys were alert, Andre Walker especially. We got a great defensive performance out of our front court and we had to. Yates is a stud player.”
On Andre Walker:
“I was told he has a hyper extended knee. Hopefully that remains the case if they try to take x-rays. He’s been our most valuable defender. He has good alertness, good anticipation, and is a very smart kid. He anticipates what’s going to happen.”
On the 54 fouls in the game:
“It was physical. I didn’t think that too many of them were bad calls. I thought those guys did a good job. We’re probably a team that is going to get fouled a lot because of our emphasis on throwing it inside to A.J. [Ogilvy]. Hopefully we can keep pushing the ball inside and getting fouled.”
Vanderbilt Players
A.J. Ogilvy, center
On rebounding:
“Yeah, those were coach’s orders. It’s something we focused on all week in practice and watching film from our last game and we came out with the mentality that we were going to own that tonight. I think we did a really good job on the boards.”
On Andre Walker:
“He’s one of our best players. I hope he’ll be back soon; we’re hearing (he’ll be back) in just a few days. He makes us stronger on offense and defense and he really contributes to both offense and defense. He enabled us to really shut down their offense.”
On home court advantage:
“The Illinois game kind of woke us up (after losing home winning streak). We know this is our house and we have to defend it. We have to come out every game, wanting to win and do better every night.”
Jeffery Taylor, guard/forward
On offense:
“He (Coach Stallings) wants us to play hard every possession. Our offense isn’t really where we want it to be and there’s a lot of things we could do a lot better. So if we could take some of the energy from our defense and put it towards our offense, I think we’ll do a lot better.
On first career double-double:
“I’m a bit more comfortable. The nervousness before the game is almost gone now. We’re a lot more comfortable out there now. I think we’re showing that right now; we had a great game tonight.”
On turnovers:
“Yeah, I had too many tonight. I just kind of rushed myself. I had a couple in the beginning that were stupid, but I’ll watch film and correct those. At the end, we were just rushing and I just need to work on that.
Kermit Davis, Middle Tennessee State Head Coach
On guard Nigel Johnson’s injury:
“He played his heart out. He got banged around out there. We will get an MRI and see if there is any fluid on the knee. I was hoping it was just a cramp, but it was not. We will just keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.”
On forcing Vanderbilt into 17 turnovers:
“We guarded better tonight, but it was hard for us to match up and rebound with (Vanderbilt’s) size. Our guards have done an unbelievable job of taking care of the ball and we are forcing some turnovers. I think Vanderbilt played extremely well. I know Kevin Stallings is one of the best coaches out there. They were coming off a tough loss. There were not a lot of easy baskets out there, both ways.”
On MTSU’s slow start:
“With their size, they played over us a little bit. We were really intimidated around the goal in the first half. We were uncharacteristic out of the gates, couldn’t get out of the blocks and lost some confidence. It was a very hard-fought college game. I give a lot of credit to Vanderbilt. They are very well coached. I’m just so disappointed we lost, but I’m really proud of our team in the second half. I just thought we came back well, but we could never go more then a couple of trips without fouling.”
On what he will do if Nigel Johnson is out for a period of time:
“We’ve got to get Antwaun Boyd to play. We’re going to have to have Eric Allen (step up). I thought he showed a flash of more toughness tonight and I thought that was encouraging. You just don’t replace Nigel Johnson. Right now, I think he is the best point guard in our league. He just makes so many plays.”
Middle Tennessee State Players
Demetrius Green, guard
On loss in comparison to Tennessee game:
“The games were about the same. We just fouled Vanderbilt too much and put them on the free throw line, which was a mistake.”
On MTSU missed free throws:
“It’s a big part of the game. We were in the game and missed some. We just have to get better at making free throws.”
On feeling overmatched against Vanderbilt:
“We played with them the whole game. We just fouled them too much.”
On tempo of the game:
“We knew that Vandy is a power team and was going to run their offense. The game was grinding and it was frustrating for us to not be able to run more.”
On guarding A.J. Ogilvy:
“We knew that we had to front the post and get some help from other players to defend him.”
