Jan. 14, 2015
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Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
“The story of the game was the start of the first half. It’s hard to win when someone comes in and shoots it like that. It’s hard to absorb 10-17 from three. The basket must have looked big to them. Our guys gave a terrific effort to get it to one possession at the end. Give Georgia a lot of credit. They played like the more desperate team. I’m disappointed.”
On Having a Desperate Mentality:
“Our talent is as such that we can’t go out-talent people. Georgia lost two tough games [in conference play]. They have a veteran, experienced, seasoned group. That experience showed in the game. When you weigh 175 pounds and the guy you’re guarding is 225, you’re at a disadvantage. That’s not our guys’ fault, but you have to play through it. We can play better than we played tonight.”
On Vanderbilt’s Defense:
“We had guys not play well and it’s tough to absorb. But, every guy is not going to play his best every game. You see this around the country with young teams. It’s a tough game. It’s a hard point in the season because you’re adjusting to conference play. There are lessons here for our guys.”
On Georgia’s Defense of Center Damian Jones:
“He’s the difference-maker for us. Georgia did a good job taking him away for the first 30 minutes of the game. Down where he shoots and plays, you get banged a lot. You have to credit their defense. They did a good job on him… You have to remember that it’s his sophomore year. Not everyone plays their best every night.”
On Vanderbilt’s Game Plan Against Georgia:
“We wanted to take away the lane… I thought Marcus Thornton was the most impactful player for them… They shoot 31% from three for the season and come in here and go 10-17 against us. We tried to clog up the lane and they took advantage of it.”
On the First Half:
“They were taking things away. They were making it hard for Damian [Jones] and Riley [LaChance]… James [Siakam] has been banged up with a hip injury and that hurts… We don’t have a tremendous margin for error. A lot of things have to go right for us to beat a really good team, and despite their 0-2 conference record coming in, Georgia is a really good team. We have to figure out how to get better… It’s a little frustrating because some things we were doing wrong are basic basketball instinctive movements… We have to work on basic fundamentals to help our guys learn how to be better players.”
On Going Forward:
“I hope we can build on this. We’re not going to take comfort or satisfaction in losing. This is our home court and we expect to win here.”
So F Damian Jones
On how Georgia frustrated him on offense:
“I just couldn’t find my rhythm. I was missing a lot of shots I usually make, just couldn’t find it.”
On physicality in the SEC:
“It has really picked up a lot. The double teams come in harder sometimes. That’s the mentality of the SEC, you’ve just got to play hard all the time. [Georgia’s] a physical team. They always play tough, they have big bodies, and they use them really well. That’s a plus for them.”
On two straight losses:
“We definitely need to pick it up a little bit. We just dropped these past two games, and we can’t be doing that if we’re trying to get to where we’re going. We’ve just got to keep getting better and better.”
On a late run to cut the lead to as little as two points:
“I felt like we definitely could’ve had it. We had the run on our side, had the crowd on our side, had the momentum, but we just fell short in the end.”
On outrebounding UGA, 36-27:
“Coach told us that they’re a tough rebounding team and that we had to win on the boards. It’s good that we did that.”
On UGA’s hot three point shooting:
“Some of them were uncontested, but they were really hitting. 10-for-17 is pretty good.”
On the differences between SEC defenses last year and this year:
“It’s just the double team. It just comes and it sticks there, even if I pass fake it’s still sticking there. There’s nothing I can really do other than pass it out.”
Georgia Head Coach Mark Fox
On early success suggesting a good night:
“I felt it in shoot-around that we are going to play well. I just had a feel for our team. And we need to play well because Vandy team is much better than people projected them to be from media’s standpoint. But beating that team is never easy.”
On frustrating Damian Jones in the first half:
“I don’t know if we did anything special. One thing I think our team has is big bodies. We keep them coming and we have a lot of them. That has something to do with it.”
On Vandy’s attempt at coming back:
“You brought back good memories. What do they call it? memorial magic? We made our free throws tonight. Charles Mann missed a couple the other night. that might have cost us. He knocked them down tonight.”
On playing “Desperately”:
” I would say determination was what our team had a lot of. I wouldn’t compare to Vandy’s. I don’t think that is fair for me to do. I don’t know the team that well. We play determined.”
