Dec. 17, 2013
Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Photos 
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
“It felt a lot like we just got out of finals, which we just had… [Austin Peay] came to play… Our ball control was brutal and it’s up to me to fix that. We have to keep going back to the drawing board to get that rectified… We did a solid job at the end of the game making free throws for the most part… We shot it poorly. We had some open shots we missed and some contested shots we probably shouldn’t have taken.”
On Vanderbilt Guard Kyle Fuller:
“He is unafraid to fight… He’s a good guy to have out there… Damian [Jones] had more of a presence in the second half.”
On Vanderbilt’s Defense:
“I will say that our defense was good. I told the team that our defense finally won us a game.”
On Vanderbilt Not Passing the Ball Inside Often:
“We want to get it inside to Damian [Jones]. [Luke Kornet’s] strengths are away from the goal. We have a lot of work to do. Unless we have good guard play, the sledding is going to be tough.”
On the Game’s First Half Tempo:
“[Austin Peay] wanted to slow it down. I think that might have caused us to pinch off shots faster than we normally do.”
On Vanderbilt Responding When Austin Peay Cut the Lead to One Point:
“We have had that situation happen in virtually every win we’ve had and also in a lot of our losses… You have to give [Austin Peay] credit.”
On Vanderbilt Forward James Siakam Sitting Out for the First Ten Minutes:
“He was late. He asked to go to a graduation and we gave him permission, but I said that he had to be back in time for practice. He had plane trouble and he was late. It wasn’t his fault, but if you’re late, something has to happen.”
Austin Peay Head Coach Dave Loos
Opening Comments:
“I was pleased with our effort. We played really hard with the exception of the beginning of the second half. Was our effort good enough to win? Well we’ve got to find a way to score. Our front line was 7 for 37. If we can find a way to put that defensive energy towards getting a few baskets, I think we’ll be alright.”
On Zavion Williams’ helping to spark APSU in the second half scoring 6 straight points at one point and finishing with 8 in the second half:
“He did. I’ll tell you I thought one of the real turning points was the score was 43-41 and he shot a 3. It was in and jumped out, and then Vanderbilt came down and hit a three. That was huge right there, but he played well.
On Fred Garmon’s and Serigne Mboup’s performances:
“Garmon guarded well and looked like he was confident and in control out there from the point position. Serigne was really good. He’s a little bigger, so that helped us, and his hustle was really good. He made some good plays, and he’ll get another chance.”
On getting good looks on offense:
“We weren’t getting the looks we wanted, and I think part of that was that they were bigger inside, and I thought they played hard. Because of the defense from both sides, it was a little bit of an ugly game because people couldn’t get the looks they really needed.”
On the last play of the game:
“Not to be critical, but I think it would have been just as good to try to get right to the rim right off the bat without worrying about the zone play.”
On the progress this game shows for the team:
“It shows excellent progress on defense, and I can’t complain much because I have really been on them the past couple of weeks about their energy, and they gave us plenty of that tonight.”
Vanderbilt center Damian Jones
On the last 10-second stop:
“We had to get the stop and not let them get a tip-in because most games are won by that, I knew I needed to get the rebound.”
On explanation of the sloppy play:
“Personally I started off slow and the turnovers really got to us and we played uptight.”
Vanderbilt guard Kyle Fuller
On his points coming in the final six and a half minutes:
“At the beginning I started off really slow and kept missing wide open shots so my confidence went down, but thanks to my teammates who kept telling me to keep shooting so I kept shooting and at the end it worked out for me.”
On pivotal driving layups towards the end of the game:
“We were running a play and I saw they were trying to press on me a little too much so I saw a layup and took it.”
On post-exam lag and turnovers:
“When you keep turning over the ball the offense starts to struggle and your confidence starts to go down. People become tight and were trying making the right passes instead of playing with our instincts.”
On the fact that Coach Stallings says you’re seeing progress in practice, but not into games:
“The problem is we need more games. We just needing to keep learning and keep playing, I love that we are getting wins while we are losing compared to last year when we were learning but losing.”
