Dec. 5, 2013
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
“We’ll take all the two-point wins we can get, especially when we play that poorly. James Siakam had a good second half and Dai-Jon Parker made a shot that probably won the game for us. I’m a little disappointed because we had a chance to put the game away and didn’t. We have a lot of work to do.”
On the Injury to Center Josh Henderson:
“We think he tore his ACL and MCL. We’ll MRI it tonight, but we’re pretty sure. It’s tough because he was playing well. He really improved in the offseason and had three really good games in a row. I’m disappointed for him. He had his injury his freshman year. I’m so sad for him and so sorry for him. Unfortunately, bad things happen to good people. He is a wonderful kid.”
On Vanderbilt’s Second Half:
“It’s the same old story for us. We don’t play to win yet. We just play to play. We play without discipline. We might be the worst coached team in college basketball right now. We have 12 days until the next game. We need to give them some time for finals. I’m going to do my best to make the most of that time. Apparently, I’m not getting through.”
On Vanderbilt Forward James Siakam:
“He played well in the second half. Our front court did a good job for the most part.”
On Vanderbilt’s Point Guard Play:
“They need to act like they’ll make a winning play instead of a fantastic play. [They need to] know when to pass and know when to shoot – pretty elementary stuff.”
On the Final Possession for Marshall:
“We changed and had a small lineup not knowing they also changed and had a small lineup. James [Siakam] came off and defended on a ball screen. He tends to give guards trouble because he has a seven-foot wingspan. Their coach thought he got fouled… James made a good defensive play. I’m proud of him for that nine seconds – anything can happen.”
Vanderbilt forward James Siakam
On the final play of the game:
“The guard dribbled down and I just followed defensive assignments. I switched and tried to keep him in front. He brought the ball down right in front of me so I tried to make him fumble it.”
On Henderson’s injury affecting the depth of the team:
“[We need to] keep on playing smarter and harder, but we don’t really have any other choice if you think about it. It’s a little group, now a shortened one, but we still have a lot to give out there and that’s what we’re going to try to do. We’re definitely not going to back down.“
On how the injury will affect Josh:
“It’s definitely hard, probably the hardest he’s had, during his four years here. Through the first couple we were rooming together and we talked a lot about it. I was redshirting and he was injured and we talked a lot. I think he needs our help, just moral support. He’s been in this situation before and I think he can get through it. I don’t think it’s anything new to him, but at the same time it’s still hard, especially with the expectations he had for himself this year. I think moving forward will be a tough challenge for him but I’m confident he will overcome it.“
Vanderbilt center Damian Jones
On success in the middle:
“We played hard tonight. I just thought about playing with a high motor in practices, so it carries over to the game.”
On Jones’ career high 28 minutes of game time, largely due to the injury to Josh Henderson:
“I guess my minutes will increase. I’ll just have to play hard for 20 minutes, or however long I’m in and give it all for the team.“
On Henderson’s injury affecting the depth of the team:
“We continue to play hard, but you also have to play smart. Coach always talks about playing smart, moving your feet, and not fouling. That’s what we try to do.“
Marshall Head Coach Tom Herrion
Opening Statement:
“Terrific ball game, I give Vanderbilt credit. I think they did a good job, we battled mightily but we don’t believe in moral victories in my program. We didn’t get the job done, I’m disappointed in that. But a lot of good things for our team to build on, you probably don’t know how young we are unless you have been around our program. We got to learn a way, we did a good job, and we did exactly what we wanted to on that last play. We drove it, put pressure on them, played through contact and then game over. Kevin’s (Stallings) got a nice team; they’ll get better and better.”
On the last play of the game:
“You know I can’t answer that but there was a lot of contact in my opinion, three pros in the game, three pro refs in the game. I thought there was enough contact on the play to make a call, they didn’t, that’s their judgment and we live by it. But we did exactly what we wanted to, we got the ball in Canty’s hands and put pressure on their defense I thought.”
On closing the gap in the second half:
“We play so quick at times on offense, that’s what hurt us like when they stretched us. Sometimes we get quick in our shot selection and impatient, we just kind of settled into the game and I thought our press was a little more effective down the stretch. We came up and extended the pressure a little more in the backcourt. I thought we rattled them a little, 18 turnovers is a really good number for us on the road. I thought we were really active, causing a lot of deflections and steals in that stretch where we made a run at them and we just took good shots. We got to the foul line and Smith gave us a good jolt off of the bench. Some good things in that stretch but not enough to get it done.”
On defending the guard position:
“Obviously, no one is more familiar with Eric (McClellan) than we are. He puts so much pressure on you with his drive. The biggest thing for us with McClellan was to try and mix guys up; we couldn’t play Canty on him because I’m afraid of foul trouble a lot. Maybe a little more length and size to bother him, we had to keep him off of the foul line because his foul shots per positions for a guard are astronomical. So I thought we did a pretty good job in that regard with him. He’s is a really good player, sitting out a year he has gotten better and once he starts making some perimeter shots he’ll even get better and better.”
