Feb. 9, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Vanderbilt 90, Tennessee 71
Memorial Gym – February 9, 2010
Postgame Quotes
Attendance: 14,316
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening Comments:
That was one of our best performances of the year. I thought we played with great purpose for the better part of 40 minutes. We kept pounding at the rim. It was a good night for us. Jeffrey Taylor was special tonight. I could see that coming and I’m glad it came tonight. He was on the verge and had that look. I thought Jermaine Beal was terrific again.
On Vanderbilt Playing with the Lead:
We kept attacking. We kept getting to the foul line. We did a good job of rebounding. Overall, our defense was outstanding.
On Vanderbilt’s Jeffrey Taylor:
He and I had a little discussion yesterday before practice. I told him that he’s one of the only guys I’ve ever coached who is a better shooter than he thinks he is.
On Sweeping the Season Series with Tennessee:
You always want to win your rivalry games. Obviously, it feels good. It puts us ahead of them in the league standings. Hopefully, we can keep it going and you always want to take care of your home court.
On Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins:
He started vomiting about midnight. Around 4:00am, he was in the emergency room. After five bags of IVs, he wasn’t getting any better. He was admitted and they are keeping him overnight tonight. We missed John tonight and wish he could have been there with us.
On Vanderbilt’s Defensive Philosophy:
Wayne Chism is so good that you have to commit a lot of your defense to him and that’s what we tried to do. We didn’t want to let him go wild and he still played well. Most of the time, we were pretty efficient.
On Vanderbilt’s Fans:
This place is a special place. Our fans were ready to play tonight. They played as well as my team did.
Vanderbilt forward Jeffery Taylor
On early jumpers:
“It got me going a little bit. Everybody was backing off of me, so I decided to shoot instead of passing it. I just caught it and shot it instead.”
On getting early lead:
“We jumped out on them right away. We got a lot of stops and scored on them right away. One of the best starts of the year.”
On balanced attack:
“We put it all together tonight. We got to the line and converted a lot and that means a lot. That’s huge for us because we were able to stop their momentum. When you knock them down, it’s a big thing.
On Coach Stallings encouraging longer shots:
“He wanted me to shoot the way I do in practice. He wanted me to believe in my shot as much as he does. Just getting confidence and shooting, that really worked.”
On Tennessee’s defense:
“It felt like they came at me more once I started hitting jumpers.”
On Vanderbilt’s defense:
“We did a good job of boxing out tonight. Great effort on boards and our big guys really were physical and pushed people around.”
Vanderbilt guard Jermaine Beal
On sweeping Tennessee:
“It feels good… great actually. They’re ranked 12th and I’ve never beat Tennessee twice in one season.”
On Tennessee making runs:
“Well we know Tennessee is a good team, but we just kept pushing every time they made a run.”
On importance of the win:
“We knew this game was important because we were tied for second on our side of the conference. More importantly, we needed to bounce back from the Georgia game.”
On absence of John Jenkins:
“I knew it was going to be a good night when Jeff started hitting jumpers, so I wasn’t worried about pressure of John nothing being there I was fresh and I felt good tonight. The main thing is that John is hopefully okay and we were able to perform well despite his being sick.”
On SEC rivalries:
“Georgia is a good team, but I’m happy to see our team bounce back and get to victory. Vanderbilt-Tennessee is a rivalry game. Tennessee doesn’t like us too much. There was some pushing going on, but it’s part of the game.”
Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl
Opening Statement:
“Well we got outplayed and we did not get off to a very good start on the road. We set a really bad tone. I thought we made a couple of good runs in the first half. We got it down to 11 or 13 and then to start the second half in the first 3 minutes I thought we got off to a great start. Vanderbilt does a great job of getting to the foul line and tonight they made 37 free throws. Jeffery Taylor made one less than our entire team made. They drive it into contact and we drive it into contact too. Obviously we got to play better on the road if we are going to win against a conference contender. This puts us in an uphill battle to defend our SEC East championship.”
On struggling to getting the game to single digits:
“I thought it hurt when we missed a free throw to get it to single digits. Melvin Goins came in there and gave us a really good outing, and really good energy. We don’t make a lot of three balls from our two positions. I think we have to get better production out of our two.”
On Jeffery Taylor’s play:
“J.P. (Prince) did a great job against him at our place. Taylor did a great job, part of it was he (Prince) got switched off a few times and we should of stuck with him. They did an excellent job of game planning and they made it really hard for us to reverse the ball. They have a very good feel for what we like to do.”
On the rebounding differential:
“They are physical; they did a great job on the boards. They particular did great on the offensive end. They were more physical than us, they were tougher than us.”
On Vanderbilt being a tough matchup this year:
“They are much better and much deeper. Beal is playing as well as any point guard in the league. Tinsley is obviously improved, they’ve all improved and they have a lot of young guys that have played a lot of basketball. Vanderbilt is playing with much more confidence than what they were last year at this time. They also have confidence in what they do.”
Tennessee guard J.P. Prince
On start of contest:
“Vandy played well and made their shots. Their play caused us to foul them, which made them comfortable to run their offense. We gave Vandy too many free throw attempts.”
On Tennessee’s offensive struggles:
“Vandy did a good job of shadowing Wayne (Chism) and I when they were on defense. They denied us the ball, but they also shot for a high percentage which makes it tough for us to run our offense.”
On Vandy’s defense:
“They’re schemes are very similar to ours. We’re still adjusting to our new personnel, but they played tough defense on us tonight. Coach (Kevin) Stallings knows our team well and had Vandy playing hard defense.”
On first half deficit:
“We weren’t too far behind to win and even had a comeback to start the second half. We have to execute on offense better and have alternatives when the teams that are defending us don’t allow us to get our first looks. However, you’re not going to win many games if your opponent shoots like Vandy did tonight.”
On current state of team:
“We have to play better on the road. I have to do a better job of getting other players involved on offense.”
Tennessee guard Melvin Goins
On personal impact in 1st half of game:
“We were down by a lot of points early in the game and I tried to provide our team with an offensive spark. However, its tough to rally on the road, especially at a place like Vanderbilt.”
On Tennessee’s struggles this season on the road:
“We have to do a better job of playing our brand of basketball. Vandy just played harder than us tonight.”
