Feb. 5, 2008
Audio: Listen to the entire teleconference at SECsports.com
Vanderbilt basketball head coach Kevin Stallings and Georgia head coach Dennis Felton discussed Wednesday’s matchup with the national media during Monday’s SEC Teleconference. Find out what each coach had to say about the upcoming game.
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings:
Opening statement:
“We had a good win over Auburn on Saturday. I thought Auburn played very well. It was an extremely hard fought game.
“Anytime you go in and play Dennis’ (Felton) team they’re going to guard you hard and play with a lot of purpose on offense. I thought Georgia’s game against Kentucky was a great college game, another hard fought game, but we know it will be a big game for us. We’re going to have to play extremely well if we want to have a chance to win. We will have to take care of the ball and have good execution on offense in order to have a chance to win.”
What do you teach your players to do when an opponent has a break away lay-up opportunity?
“I think if you can prevent a lay-up, then you try to prevent the lay-up. I don’t think you, in any circumstance, want to undercut or do anything in any way that’s going to put a guy’s safety in danger. I don’t think it’s right to ever cross the line and try to hurt someone. Now guys get hurt without other guys trying to do so, but I think if you can prevent a lay-up, then you prevent the lay-up, but you don’t do so in a way that endangers the guy who has the breakaway.”
What did you see Saturday from your team that you can take on the road?
“I think that in the last two games, our effort has been better. I thought Saturday our leadership was better. I thought we played with more purpose and of an idea of what we were trying to do that we had in some other games. Our execution still needs some work. Our ball care still needs some work, but I thought overall we played with better purpose, and I thought we were given really good leadership in Saturday’s game by our seniors.”
Other than atmosphere, what else changes from playing at home to playing on the road?
“Oh I don’t know, just the obvious things. Generally teams are more comfortable at home than they are on the road.”
Georgia Head Coach Dennis Felton:
Opening statement:
“Vanderbilt obviously is a really, really good team. Starting with last season, they’ve really become a team that’s very, very attack-oriented in the open court. They want to run all the time, so your transition defense has to be really tough. They make really good use of the 3s, starting with one of the premier shooters in the country in (Shan) Foster. The addition of (Andrew) Ogilvy inside has really, really been a big bonus for them. He’s a tremendous inside player. He’s very, very strong and extremely mature for a freshman. He’s very skilled which makes him not only a very good player but also a very good fit for what Vanderbilt usually tries to do offensively. It will be a tough game.”
What are the factors that make playing on the road difficult in the SEC?
“The number one factor is that all the teams are so good. It’s the best league in the country, especially when you consider top to bottom. It’s also a very well coached league. Teams are extremely prepared, talented, and athletic. They compete really hard. On top of that, when you travel on the road, we enjoy some of the best fans in the country. We have great atmospheres around the SEC. Basketball is a game where fans probably impact the game more than any other sport because it’s such an intimate setting with so many people packed into a relatively small area. There is a lot of emotion and a lot of help for the home teams. Obviously, there are other things when you go on the road such as being off your routine, not sleeping in your bed, off your schedule, and all of the things out on the peripheral like that, but again, I think it has probably the most to do with how good the teams are and how emotion packed the venues are and how the home team can feed off of the home crowd and visa versa.”
Do you feel a home venue is more significant in basketball than any other sport?
“Yeah I do. Without a doubt, the fans have a big, big impact on the way the game plays out in basketball. It’s just the way it is. I also think as our college basketball game has gotten younger, that probably compounds the affect because less experienced players are more likely to be affected than older, experienced players who have been through more wars.”
What are your thoughts on the RPI?
“I can say commonly over the years I have failed to be able to make any sense of the RPI rankings from the standpoint of just how they can play out. What I mean by that is even towards the latter stages of the year when you would expect and hope that the RPI numbers make more sense when you have more games in the book, even towards the end of the season, I routinely see rankings that, in my mind, aren’t consistent with reality in terms of who’s better than who. Knowing as a coach what I actually see happening on the court, watching the results of scores and watching teams actually compete on the floor, I routinely see rankings that in my mind aren’t consistent with the reality of who’s the better team and who the best teams are.”
Do you think the RPI should be done-away with as a tool for creating the NCAA tournament?
“I don’t know if I’m prepared to answer that question with confirmation right now. I’d want to put a lot more time and thought into an answer for that question. To be responsible, if I were to say `do away with it,’ I’d want to have a better solution than just a complaint to do away with it. There may or may not be better answers, but I’m certainly not prepared at this moment to give a well thought-out answer as to what might be a better solution or alternative to the RPI.”
