Dec. 2, 2015
Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Photos 
| Green’s Photos
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
“I don’t know what to say. I thought we were physical and thought our length bothered them. We came in wanting to take away the three, so when I see they made 11 threes versus us, that’s disappointing. That’s a team that can score and shoot.”
“Our preparation for two days was lacking. That’s atypical for our guys. They are good at preparing, but we didn’t prepare well the last couple of days. We did what we had to do and took advantage of our size versus them.”
“Wade [Baldwin] played very well. He was good offensively and defensively as well. I thought Luke [Kornet] was going to get a double-double despite not making a shot. We are a completely different team defensively when he’s out there.”
On How to Get Across Poor Practice Preparation After a 50-Point Win:
“There are outliers in every season… These will be few and far between. More often than not, our play will reflect our preparation. For example, in Maui, we had practice at 9:30 in the morning because of our game time and they were practicing like they were playing for a world championship… They know the general rule. There are outliers every year. We played solid tonight — not good — solid.”
On Luke Kornet’s Game Improving:
“He’s embraced playing close to the basket… Now, he’s 245 pounds and 7’1″ and he has an advantage and he knows it. It’s kind of fun for him. He’s a really good defender.”
On Detroit Going 5-43 on Two-Point Shots:
“They went 11-27 from three. It’s disappointing to see that 11 of their 16 field goals were threes because the second thing I wrote on the board was `defend threes.’ [Detroit has] shot-makers. We saw it against Pittsburgh. They gave Pittsburgh a game to the very end.”
“I want to see him play better. He played better tonight. He and Nolan [Cressler] have been a little too tentative for my taste… We have been waiting for one of them to jump up and grab the position by the neck… I want Nolan to play like he did in the second half. I want him to be more aggressive. I want Matt to play like he did the whole game. He played aggressively.”
On Camron Justice:
“He suffered what we think is a major groin injury.”
On Vanderbilt’s Game at Baylor on Saturday:
“They’re good and I hope our guys can embrace that… It’s a big game.”
Detroit Head Coach Ray McCallum
On the game:
“I think Vanderbilt sowed why they are one of the best teams in the country. We were excited about the opportunity as a team that has tremendous balance. Their experience really showed against our young basketball team. We couldn’t get anything going in the paint. Their size was a tremendous factor. We knew about some guys that had been shooting well, but they were ready. Obviously they have come back from Maui a much better team and it was on display tonight.”
On Vanderbilt’s run early in the game after their initial lead:
“Well we knew they are a team that can really get out and transition, they have so many weapons. Our focus was trying to attack Jones inside and try to make it difficult for them, try to deny. I think that helped us and got us going a little bit. But then when they made a run, Hogan has been a good scorer for us, but they couldn’t get anything inside that would have opened up our perimeter game. And Anton Wilson, who has been our best shooter, was able to get some shots but we couldn’t sustain anything. When you’re going into the SEC Conference, you’re playing with men down there and our young guys experienced that.”
On missing so many shots in one stretch:
“Early on I thought we were getting some good shots, I thought we had some opportunities and their size, I thought we had some in the lane. I thought we had some open looks. And playing a team like Vandy, you have to capitalize on those. We have the capability of making shots and we didn’t consistently do that tonight and that really hurt us. We needed everyone clicking on all cylinders tonight to win the game, and they just really steamrolled. And then they went deep into their bench and everyone was on tonight and they are all capable with their balance of Kornet and Jones on the inside and then their perimeter play. Their ability to attack really helps them.”
On Kornet’s shot blocking:
“He was active tonight, he got some away from the basket too. Our guys are not used to seeing that type of length. The numbers that they have listed are legit and they play big.”
Junior forward Luke Kornet
On overall improvements:
“I thought we did a lot better job just moving the ball, shooting the ball, and getting back to how we regularly play offense. I feel like everyone contributed with Josh [Henderson], Wade [Baldwin] hitting shots, Ry-Dawg [Riley LaChance] *Henderson barks* hitting shots, and everyone down the list was getting involved offensively, which I think, when everybody can contribute like that and get a really good flow on, that makes us a dangerous team. I think what made tonight so great was our defense, and that’s something that we’re trying to make a lot more emphasis on and I think we’ve done a good job so far this season of making defense what we’re standing by and I feel like that was our most impressive effort tonight, defensively.”
On his 11 rebounds and 5 blocks but just one-shot attempt:“There weren’t any times when I really had to [shoot]. I’ll take shots when they’re there for me, and everyone else was getting good shots, and I’m going to look to get everybody else good shots, too. I’m not going to go and chase shots if they’re not just coming to me. Everything was working offensively, so that was keeping it going.”
On using size on defense:
“That’s just an effect of our length. We’ve really worked on taking away 3’s but, once we get inside, using our length, we had a pretty good size advantage. Me, Damian [Jones], and Josh were able to alter their shots. I think when you can really shut down stuff around the goal, it gains confidence going to offense. It was tough for them to finish over our length and that’s just a good part of our team and something we try to emphasize with our big guys altering shots around the goal.”
On blocking more shots this year:
“A big part of it is I’m a lot more aggressive defensively, but also, being on ball screens on guards like that and just moving my feet, also giving them a little opportunity where they think they have the shot but then, once they get it, you’re waiting for it and ready to jump up.”
On playing the team’s first true road game at Baylor compared to playing on a neutral court in Maui:
“There are similarities and differences. When you’re going into a hostile opponent environment it’s definitely a lot different, but Kansas prepared us for that a little bit, since there were a lot of Kansas fans at the Maui game, but the tournament atmosphere is a little different because it’s just game after game. I think that it prepared us a little bit but there’s truly nothing you can compare a true road game to, so that’ll be our first.”
On the Baylor game:
“We’re going to prepare for it as much as we can, but we have to go out and show that we’re a good team by beating other good teams, especially on the road. We’ve, in the past, been able to beat other good teams at home but, going out and getting a road win, there’s nothing that really truly beats that feeling in college basketball.”
On a big bench celebration after Nolan Cressler’s late dunk:
“We haven’t really worked on orchestrating anything. When Nolan got the dunk, I just kind of lost control and I was running around. I had so much energy and it just kind of went everywhere. Nolan getting that dunk was awesome, that was so great.”
Sixth year Senior Josh Henderson
On winning by 50 despite not preparing as well as for previous games:
“Coach Stallings said sometimes you prepare really well and you don’t do well, sometimes you prepare well and you do well, kind of an anomaly. We need to be more consistent in practice and more consistent in games. I guess tonight was kind of an anom-*stutter* *Kornet: Anomaly* -Yeah, you got it, Luke. Anyways, we did a good job. When the game came, we were ready. The past few days weren’t great, but it’s something to learn from. Now we have a couple of days of great preparation to get ready for Baylor on Sunday.”
On possibly overlooking this game with Baylor ahead:
“I feel like this team, honestly, we haven’t overlooked any opponents. On game night, we’re looking at the team we’re playing. Even going to Maui, people were asking us if we were looking already to Hawaii, and I thought we did a great job of being focused on the game at hand. We just take it game by game and I feel like we’ve been doing a good job of that and we just need to continue doing it.”
On reaching 100-points at the end of the game:
“We just want to play our best every possession. It is nice to hit the century mark but, at the same time, that wasn’t our main focus. Our focus was to just try and keep them in under 50, which we got close to. At the same time, we finished the game well. Those guys that finished it with me, they work hard every day and they deserve those minutes. I’m just glad that we were able to finish the game out.”
On his made three-pointer:
“If they leave me open, I’ll shoot it. I’m just trying to make my son proud, here *embraces Kornet* *Kornet: Thanks Dad*
On if he has the green light to shoot threes:
“Yeah, I can shoot them in practice. If I’m left open, I’m pretty confident in my shot. I’m not going to do a pull-up or a contested, but I feel pretty confident it’s going to go in if I get the chance.”
