Dec. 22, 2007
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings:
Opening statement:
“We wish we’d have played better, but we didn’t. We’re happy to be on the long end of the score tonight. Tennessee State played very well. I wasn’t surprised at how we played. It’s how we practiced all week. That’s what tends to happen around finals week here. They’re exhausted from their efforts in the classroom. Thank goodness for Shan Foster. I thought he played outstandingly. I thought Alex Gordon made a big difference for us. You have to give TSU credit. They held the ball and tried to slow the pace down. Then they got on a roll and started making shots. Not all of our wins are going to be masterpieces.”
On Vanderbilt’s senior leadership:
“We have four good seniors. They provide us leadership and show us how we’re supposed to compete. They have good leadership and toughness, which gives us an opportunity to win even when we’re not playing our best.”
On Tennessee State’s Gerald Robinson:
“He’s phenomenal. He made some great shots. We didn’t pick him up a couple of times. Towards the end of the game, he missed some shots that the entire building thought were going to go down. We recruited him some, so we knew he’s a great player.”
On heading into the Christmas Break:
“It’s nice to go into a break with a win. When we get back, we’ll have a lot of work to do. I’ll give them a pass, though, tonight. It’s what you get with (finals week) here.”
Vanderbilt Players:
Forward Shan Foster:
Opening statement:
“We feel that down the stretch when the game is close that we’re the best team in the country. We’ve proven that throughout the season. We were able to get it done tonight.”
On defending Tennessee State’s Gerald Robinson:
“Alex did a good job of keeping their guards under control and helping us get the win.”
On hitting important outside shots in the second half:
“They played a match-up zone throughout most of the game and that took us out of our rhythm a little but. It was important for us to stretch out the defense and make some outside shots. Beal hit a big shot that helped us a lot. We were able to get some defensive stops that were key for the victory.”
On staying undefeated:
“We try to take it one game at a time. We don’t look forward at all. We’re just focused on our next game. Once you start looking forward, you forget some important things like improving our defense. That’s our number one priority when we return to practice. Once you start looking forward to games instead of improving, you have problems.”
Guard Alex Gordon:
On defending Tennessee State’s Gerald Robinson:
“We did nothing special against him; we just tried to keep him in front of us. There were moments he made some shots, but we just continued to try to follow his footsteps.”
On playing a fellow Nashville school:
“We know those guys pretty well. We play against them often in the summer. We knew that they would come here and play hard. They came here focused and hit some shots in the first half. They were out competing us in the first half, but we came out in the second half and wanted to compete against them hard.”
On staying undefeated:
“Our mentality coming into the season has helped us keep this streak going. We try to get better every day and every game. We struggled at time tonight, but we’ll practice and get better.”
Tennessee State Head Coach Cy Alexander:
Opening statement:
“First, congratulations to Vanderbilt and Coach Stallings. They have an excellent ball club and I’ll be pulling for them for the rest of the year to do well in the SEC. I thought our young men executed well tonight and executed our game plans as well as we could. I told our team that we lost the game when we had them down and didn’t bury them. Against a great team like Vanderbilt, you have to take advantage of opportunities. You can’t win a game shooting 55% from the free-throw line. Vanderbilt also stepped it up on the offensive boards in the second half. I thought that was the best game we’ve played all year and this is against a top-20 team. I’m trying to get our team to see the big picture. We’re still 1-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference, which is the most important thing.”
On Vanderbilt’s comeback in the second half:
“Vanderbilt made big shots. That’s why they’re undefeated right now. They needed to make the big shots in the end and we didn’t.”
On this being Tennessee State’s best game of the season:
“We feel we let one slip away from us tonight. We had a great week of practice in preparation for tonight’s game. We’re trying to keep these kids mentally focused and continue to remind them that we’re 1-1 in our conference and playing these types of games will make us better.”
