Dec. 29, 2006
Alabama A&M at Vanderbilt
Memorial Gymnasium
December 29, 2006
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
“I like how we rebounded tonight. I like how we defended and I thought we took good care of the ball until the final two minutes of the game. We were pretty inspired and played hard throughout the game. Our effort on the backboards was considerably better.”
On Alan Metcalfe’s Play:
“I think everyone, including the players and coaching staff, was happy to see him back. He hasn’t played for six weeks and only had three partial days of practice. My goal was to give him less than 10 minutes. He made one good move with the ball down low and had a couple of his shots blocked, but so did everyone else. It’s good to have him back. We’ve gotten used to playing without him. We’re not going to change everything because he’s on his way back. We’ll use him as needed and as he’s able to come back.”
On the Upcoming Game against Rice:
“We need another victory. We just want to play well. Tonight’s game was a tough game to stay completely focused on. If we can rebound, defend, and keep our turnovers down, we’ll have a good chance of winning in our league.”
On Ted Skuchas’ Play:
“He had a great run down in Puerto Rico. It probably was one of the deciding factors in the game we lost (against Appalachian State) that he got into foul trouble. He’s come a long way.”
Vanderbilt Forward Alan Metcalfe
“It was amazing to be back tonight after being off for such a long time. I tried to have fun and work my way back in. Coach [Stallings] knows I’m not in game shape yet, but I’m not as far behind as people think.”
Vanderbilt Forward Derrick Byars
“Tonight’s game wasn’t about the opponent; it was about focusing on things that plagued us against Appalachian State. We were able to do what we had been working on in practice. Alabama A&M scored 24 points in the first half and didn’t make a run in the second half. We’ve had problems with that in the past.”
On the Team’s Versatility:
“Versatility is a huge factor for us. Alan [Metcalfe] is a force down low. We can also go small and play as we did during our [seven game] winning streak. It’ll be hard for teams to match up with us.”
Alabama A&M Head Coach L. Vann Pettaway
“This was the best passing team we’ve played all year. They [Vanderbilt] had 23 assists. That shows they were looking for each other and moving the basketball. We couldn’t find our offense. You can’t be a team like Vanderbilt with only one person scoring.”
“We had some injuries, but with the way Vanderbilt played tonight there was no way we would beat them. When I scheduled this team I thought we’d have a more experienced team playing. But with the people that left us, we were playing eight or nine freshmen and didn’t have the leadership experience we needed.”
