Dec. 21, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | AP Photos 
Vanderbilt vs Lafayette
December 21, 2011
Memorial Gymnasium
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
“I was pleased with the way we played… The key to the game was us defending the three-point line. [Lafayette is] a great three-point shooting team. They’re terrific at doing what they do. I’m proud of our defense.”
“All in all, it was a good performance. We were a bit shorthanded in the second half, hence the high number of threes we took.”
On the Injury to Vanderbilt’s Steve Tchiengang:
“Steve got hit in the head right before halftime. A guy on their team accidentally head-butted him with the back of his head on Steve’s face. Our doctors thought that he should [sit out] because of the recurring concussion symptoms he’s had.”
On Vanderbilt’s Shelby Moats and Rod Odom:
“As long as they’re fresh, they’ll be fine, but they got a bit fatigued. Shelby is not used to playing that number of minutes. [But,] he’ll do whatever he can to help the team.”
On Lafayette’s Three-Point Shooting:
“Our whole defensive game plan was to take away the three. We were willing to give up penetration to protect the three-point line… [Lafayette is] fun to watch. They’re fun to scout. They’re not so fun to play against. As a person who can appreciate well coached basketball, I have a lot of appreciation for what they do on offense… They wait for you to break down. As soon as you break down, they get you.”
On the Shooting of Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins:
“John’s a great shooter. What I like is that John had six assists in the last two games. I want John to be a complete player. He’s improved his defensive – all because he wanted to. John wants to be good and had a very good night tonight. We want to be a team that plays together.”
On Vanderbilt’s Festus Ezeli:
“He has tendonitis. It’s his injured knee that’s sore. We expected him to play… When the game started, he wasn’t up to it.”
Lafayette Coach Fran O’Hanlon Quotes
On Lafayette’s Effort in the Game
“I think two things contributed to [the loss]. One is the fact that [Vanderbilt] is a great basketball team. We also showed rust from the start. We got down big but brought it back to within eight at one point. When playing a team like Vanderbilt, you have to keep it close the whole game. It’s not that we didn’t compete, but they had some monster runs.”
On Missed Opportunities to Stay in the Game
“We had good looks. We are a good shooting team, but these shots are not as open as you may think. We did sometimes rush something out of fear they would close us out and take away a shot…If we make one or two of those, I think we feel better about our selves and it may have changed something.”
On Difficulty from the Three after Entering the Game Tied 5th in the Country
“We rushed a lot of shots because of their defense and strength both ways. We didn’t have a big game today…Against a team like [Vanderbilt] we have to be almost perfect.”
On Vanderbilt’s Jeffery Taylor and John Jenkins
“Taylor is terrific. Wit Jenkins movement, you have to be with him and have to be aware of him. We certainly knew they are guys we have to play against. We don’t have any real stoppers so we tried to mix it up on defense. They are such a good and well coached team it’s hard.”
Vanderbilt Player Quotes:
Guards Brad Tinsley and John Jenkins
On tying career high for 3FG:
Jenkins: “I think from the first play when Brad hit me in the corner I was just feeling it and I wanted to keep it going. Brad and everybody found me in great spots on the floor, and we played really unselfish ball tonight. It definitely is (contagious). We had 21 assists tonight, that’s really good, and the guys are passing the ball and we’re scoring like that, it’s hard to beat us.”
On Lafayette’s offense:
Tinsley: “They’re really tough offensively. They’re point guard is really good, getting into the lane and breaking guys down. They’ve got five, six shooters on the perimeter, so they really spread you out, break you down, try to kick you out for three’s. That was kind of our emphasis going forward with our defensive game plan.”
On executing defensive plan:
Tinsley: “There were some spurts where we had some defensive breakdowns, but overall I thought we did a really great job on their leading scorers and on the three pointers overall.”
On the 9 minute scoreless streak in the first half:
Jenkins: “I think we saw a lot of them go in earlier and we thought we could get them wherever we wanted, and I think we had to go back to moving the ball and getting inside and getting fouled.”
On scoring run at end:
Jenkins: “I think we got it inside early, that just got us confidence going forward, we got a couple stops so that helps our offense out of that.”
On unselfish play of team:
Tinsley: “I think what we’ve done the last two games that hopefully will carry on is guys are penetrating to kick which is a big thing, always making the teammates better, especially when you’ve got great players on the perimeter like John, like Jeff (Taylor), our guys on the bench. We’ve got a lot of guys that can shoot the ball, guys who are penetrating, looking to dish out or something like that. Just makes our team a lot better, and I think we did that well last game and very well tonight.”
On heading to break with a good taste in Jenkins’ mouth after low-scoring game:
Jenkins: “Bad games are going to happen, I know that, I can’t get down from any of my bad games, I’m going to have some this year, everybody has bad games. It’s how you bounce back and try to move forward. My teammates did a good job at picking me up these past two games and I give it all to them.”
On winning two games in a row:
Jenkins: “It’s really nice, I can’t explain it.”
