Jan. 3, 2009
Vanderbilt 78 – UMass 48
January 3, 2008 – Mullins Center – Amherst, Mass.
Attendance: 5,698
Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt Head Coach
General comments:
We pride ourselves on being pretty good defensively. We have been okaydefensively so far this season and when we rebound along with our rebounding,we usually have some success. I do not know if our defense is frustratingpeople or not, I really couldn’t tell you. Hopefully, we do a good job ofchallenging shots and keeping the ball out of the lane. That is the way ourdefense is designed.
On the game plan:
We were not surprised. We were a little disappointed in the way that we fouledtoo much. We thought we fouled a couple of times necessarily on theirpenetration and we didn’t get our support on defense where it needed to be. Iwas not surprised at all. I hope we had something to do with taking away fromthose threes. We certainly didn’t want Harris, Bonner, or Gurley to get openthrees against us. Hopefully, the lack of threes had something to do with ourdefense. I thought the zone was effective in the second half and I thought ourman was good in the first half. We were pleased with how we played defensively.
On A.J. Ogilvy:
He is a great kid. He will get frustrated every once and a while, but when ourteam is having success, he is not worried about his stats. Throughout hiscareer, he has been a second half player. If I was a better coach, I could gethim to play in the first half, as he does in the second half.
Derek Kellogg, Massachusetts Head Coach
General comments:
We came out in the second half and executed early, and did a few good things.Then, it all unraveled pretty quickly, and I burned a couple of our timeouts ina timely fashion. We took terrible, quick shots early in the possession. Wedidn’t sprint back on defense. We really didn’t execute the game plan at all inthe second half. They did a nice job of going to a 3-2 zone. Teams that havepreviously done that, we got great shots and knocked down threes. The last twogames, I don’t think our threes have dropped in there at a good rate. Some ofthat is we are playing better teams, but some of that is that you have to betough and make a shot. If you are giving up a couple inches at each position,and a little bit of size, how do you overcome that? With toughness, with grit,with passion, with speed and quickness. While we did that in the first half,and a little in the second half, I thought that got away from us.
On the game plan:
Our game plan was to run the dribble-drive and get some plays in the paint. Ifnot, look for the open three. I’m not a big fan of passing the ball around theperimeter and then shoot a three. I like to get the ball into the paint, andthen kick out for threes or look into the post, which is something we need towork on. At some point, we just passed the ball around and guys shot threes,which I am confident will not happen again.
On the seniors:
I like the fact that their good kids and they are trying to keep their headsup. I want them to do even more and take over even more. Chris Lowe playedgreat at times this evening, and not as good as he’s capable at some points. Ithink as he continues to improve, our team will follow him. Tony Gaffney wasnot totally on his game tonight, but he said his knees were bothering him alittle bit. Luke Bonner is trying to be a leader on this team. He is trying toget all the guys to follow him and continue to play better.
