Jan. 4, 2010
Vanderbilt 73, Middle Tennessee State 53
Memorial Gym,
January 4, 2010
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening comments:
We didn’t play as well as I had hoped, but I think MTSU had a lot to do with that. They played well for a lot of the game. The game didn’t have a lot of flow to it and we didn’t shoot well from the perimeter. We blocked a lot of shots and got to the foul line, but I was disturbed by a lot of our play.
On team’s interior defense:
We did a better job of rebounding in the second half. I wish the game had been cleaner, and by cleaner I don’t mean it was dirty or anything, but I wish it had more flow. We made some bad fouls and had some careless turnovers.
On team’s dunking:
We need to take advantage of our athleticism. We’ve never been a big shot blocking team, but it seems like we have been this year.
On SEC play:
You get exposed in conference play. Your strengths get exposed and your weaknesses get exposed. People know you better and know more about your tendencies. We’ll know a lot more about ourselves going forward with each and every game.
On your 200th win at Vanderbilt:
I’ve had a lot of good players and I’m fortunate to be here. I don’t know how many losses are in there too. If I had an 89 percent winning percentage, it’d be a big deal.
Vanderbilt Player Quotes
Vanderbilt center Festus Ezeli
On team shot blocking:
“Our defensive intensity has picked up a lot since the Western Kentucky game and we realize we have to play defense. We’re a big, long, and strong team and we have to use that to our advantage.”
On teams going inside on them and getting shots blocked:
“I keep doing it, and they keep bringing it back so I don’t know, I just try to block shots and alter shots. Hopefully, they stop coming.”
On getting prepared for conference play:
“We have five more days before we have to get ready for Florida so we still have plenty of things to work on. There was some slippage out there tonight in some of the stuff we were doing and I personally was guilty of my post defense because it wasn’t very good tonight.”
Vanderbilt guard John Jenkins
On dunking tonight:
“Everyone wants to get one, and I don’t have a lot of them like Jeff and Festus do every game, but when I get one I think it’s pretty special.”
On being named the SEC Freshman of the Week:
“Someone told me that I had won the award, it’s good someone else got it. It’s definitely an honor and it’s nothing I really shoot out to do. I just go out there and play my game and it’s something that happened.”
On pace of the game:
“I think the zone kind of slowed them down which is what it was designed to do. It was fast pace in the beginning and they handle that pace very well. It definitely helped us out slowing them down with our intensity tonight.”
Middle Tennessee State Head Coach Kermit Davis
Opening Statement:
“We got beat by a really good team. This is not the same team we saw against Western Kentucky at the Sommet Center. We could never intimidate them around the goal. They kind of dominated us and that was huge today.”
On guarding Vanderbilt:
“(Festus) Ezeli causes a lot of problems. We held him to 36%, which is good, but I really thought we had good shots around the goal and great looks from 3. Vanderbilt will always get 70-75 points a game. What we have to try to do is match that offensively and we just couldn’t keep up.”
On making runs:
“The second half, we were battling our tail off. We were making good moves and kept cutting the lead. We were in this game, no question. But every time we would try to make a move, we’d get caught up and miss the open shot. We can definitely learn from this game and take it to our conference play.”
On next game:
“We like playing Vanderbilt, no question. Our game on Thursday is really important and we have to look towards that. When you play a team like Vanderbilt, you just have to play your best. Boogie and BJ had great looks and there were a lot of positives. We’re going to work like crazy for our next game.”
MTSU guard James Washington
On playing Vanderbilt:
“This game helped us get ready for conference game. We’d like to make it to the NCAA tournament and playing against teams like Vanderbilt will prepare us for that. We have to keep looking forward and not get down. We played hard and learned a lot.”
MTSU forward Desmond Yates
On making a run:
“We made a lot of good runs tonight. We missed a lot of wide-open shots though and that doesn’t help us out. I think tonight, but we need to focus on our next game now.”
