Feb. 8, 2008
Audio: Listen to the entire teleconference at SECsports.com
Vanderbilt basketball head coach Kevin Stallings and South Carolina head coach Dave Odom discussed Saturday’s matchup with the national media during Thursday’s SEC Teleconference. Find out what each coach had to say about the upcoming game.
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings:
Opening statement:
“We got a much needed road win (at Georgia). That was very important for us because we had yet to win on the road in the league. Hopefully, our guys feel good about themselves. In light of that, we had a very close game with South Carolina the first time. They’ve changed a lot since then in terms of how they’re playing, who they’re playing, and they’ve gone smaller. They look like they’re playing their best basketball of the season right now. We always manage to have really good, close games with them. I would anticipate the same thing will happen on Saturday.”
After playing so many league road games early on, how did your feelings about the schedule change?
“I can only imagine that scheduling is a complex thing. We have to leave that in the hands of the people in the conference office. Certainly, I had some concerns about our schedule with six of our first nine being on the road. I don’t pay a lot of attention to divisional games and when they come, but I certainly saw that six of our first nine were on the road, so we finish that up on Saturday. Sufficient to say, we’ll probably be glad to have that part over with.”
Given the current circumstances, are you satisfied to have the opportunity to finish above .500 in SEC play?
“I thought about that (Thursday morning.) In a perfect world, we would have like to have been sitting in a better position than we are right now, but that wasn’t to be. We didn’t play well enough during that difficult stretch in order to make it better. We have what we have, but obviously, if we could win on Saturday that would give us a lot of momentum going into a nice four game home stretch.”
How has Jermaine Beal progressed over the first two years of his college career?
“Jermaine has been a very important part of our success this year. I believe he leads the league in assist-to-turnover ratio. He really has been a steadying influence and a guy that has taken care of the ball for us very well. He has shot it well at times, but he’s particularly solid for us in terms of running our team and getting us into the offense. The biggest thing is he takes care of the ball as a point guard. That’s a very valuable asset for a point guard to have.”
How did you get Beal from Texas and away from Big 12 teams?
“One of my assistants had seen Jermaine in the spring time of his junior year, and we started the process. Jermaine and I happened to hit it off well. Jermaine’s parents and I hit it off very well. They hit it off with our staff. We recruited him very hard, and they liked us. He visited and had a great time. I think it came down to us and Oklahoma. Those were the two official visits he took, and we were able to get him. Obviously, it was time well spent for us because he started a little bit last year. He’s been a full-time starter this year. He’s been a real key guy for us.”
Some teams in the SEC have struggled this season with an entire week off. When you don’t play a game for seven days, does that take you out of rhythm?
“I don’t know. Ours was actually eight days. I’m one that thinks that gives you a chance to get better, but we obviously didn’t play well coming out of it, but that had a lot to do with Florida. I know some other people have struggled, but nonetheless, I’m always of the mindset that week gives you a chance to get better, get healthy and rested. Maybe it affects you a little bit at the beginning of the first game. I would like to think after the first three or four minutes of that first game, you should be all right.”
South Carolina Head Coach Dave Odom:
Opening statement:
“In playing Vanderbilt, we’re playing I think one of the best teams in the SEC. I think they’ve proven that. The truth of the matter is they’ve played the hardest first leg of the SEC season of anybody in the conference. None of the places they’ve been have been easy to go to, and yet Kevin (Stallings) has his team I think sitting right where he wants. If he can get by this next game, he’s looking at six of the next eight being at home. I think the Vanderbilt team is in great shape. I think they quietly know that. As I look at them, they obviously beat us at Vanderbilt in the opening game of the conference season, a game I thought our team played very well. We had to because they played very well as well. We lost in a hard fought battle in Memorial Gymnasium. Both teams are different and better now. The game here is going to be a difficult game for us. Sure we had a week off. We took advantage of that.”
How odd is it to see Vanderbilt play so many SEC road games early in the season?
“You’re probably asking the wrong person here. I’ve been a pain in the side of schedule makers in the SEC since I’ve been here. I would really like to see the SEC schedule re-thought and re-talked about. We have some scheduling criteria, and I am at a loss to explain why Vanderbilt would be faced with that kind of schedule. We were faced with it I think two years ago. I’m certainly not blaming anybody, and Vanderbilt has overcome this by the way, but scheduling makes a big, big difference in how you play and who you play. Your crowd staying involved and cheering for you: if you bomb out early on some of those games, your crowd sometimes leaves you, and that can have an effect on a team. I really would urge the SEC to be diligent and attentive to that kind of thing. (For Vanderbilt) I just can’t see six out of nine games on the road, the divisional schedule is over this early, I don’t understand it. What Vanderbilt will find is their schedule might get a little easier over the second half, but the crowd appeal at Memorial Gymnasium might not be as intense because you’re looking at Western Divisional teams coming in there. You don’t have the familiarity you have with the East.”
