Jan. 6, 2007
Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings
On the game…
“Well, we didn’t play well enough to win. They shot the ball great, and we missed too many free throws and turned it over too many times. We didn’t defend the 3-point shot well enough, and we had three pushing off fouls in the second half when we had the ball. That’s not very smart. They played well and we didn’t, and that’s why they deserved to win.”
On Vanderbilt’s comeback from 11 down in the second half…
“We got some stops and rebounds, and we were a little more assertive offensively. I just think that we should have a stretch in any given half where we play pretty well. Maybe that was it, the percentages.”
On Auburn’s Rasheem Barrett struggling from three before this game…
“He didn’t today. We didn’t defend him well enough, I guess. (Josh) Dollard has been hot from out there too, hasn’t he? 3-for-19 going into the game. They made shots, and we didn’t play good enough defense. We had a scouting report. We told them Dollard was 3-of-19. “
On Auburn’s three point shooting…
“They were shooting 31 percent as a team, and one guy went 4-for-5 that was 3-for-19 (all season). So he made more shots in one game than he’s made the entire season. I’m not very smart, but I didn’t expect that.”
Vanderbilt Forward Shan Foster
On the game…
“It’s hard to win games when you’re missing layups. We missed a number of layups; we missed a number of free throws. It’s hard to win on the road when you don’t take advantage of easy opportunities. That’s what happened tonight. Auburn played great, and shot the ball well.”
On Auburn shooting well…
“We knew they were good shooters. Just because they hadn’t been shooting the ball well lately doesn’t mean they’re not a good shooting team. Unfortunately, tonight was their night to get things back going. They have a lot of good shooters on their team, and they knocked down shots tonight.”
On Vanderbilt’s poor free throw shooting…
“You can’t really pinpoint it. Sometimes it’s a lack of focus. The crowd had a lot to do with it, but that’s a part of playing basketball on the road in the SEC. You know it’s going to be loud, and it’s a tough environment.”
Auburn Head Coach Jeff Lebo
“It’s certainly nice to get that win for this young team and to have something positive happen to us. Sometimes it takes a little luck to get you started. Vot (Korvotney Barber) made the only two free throws we had for the game off of the glass. We’ll take them any way we can get them. I think that we did some good things. We practiced two days on how to defend them (Vanderbilt). We worked hard at that. When we came out to start the game, it looked like we hadn’t even been coached on how to defend them. We were switching a lot, trying to pressure them. They had five of their threes in the first couple of minutes in the game. We were trying to take those away and make them put it on the floor and make a play. We didn’t do that very well. I thought that we bothered them a little more once we settled down. They hurt us on the glass because we had a lot of small guys on some big guys. Some of that was because of the way that we played them. I finally had a substitution that worked for us during the game. We got Vot out and got Quan (Prowell) in for the jumper in the corner. It is nice to have that work one time. I thought that we did a lot of nice things overall. We took a nice lead, but we squandered it. We struggled against the zone a little. It was nice to see Rasheem (Barrett) come out and make some shots. Finally he put some in the basket which was nice to see. I think that Josh (Dollard) is a good shooter.”
On Rasheem Barrett…
“I hadn’t seen that in practice. I told him that you have to have confidence. You can’t just worry about your misses. You have to think that the next open look that you get is going in. If you miss it, you have to put that behind you and think that the next one is going in because we need him out there. He was a better shooter last year than what I had anticipated. If he can be consistent out there, he would really help our team. I think that this will help his confidence a lot too.”
On shooting…
“We shot poorly in practice. It is a frustrating thing when that ball doesn’t go in. Today we were lucky because Vot was a foot too long twice in a row to hit those free throws. We have to be able to make shots in game situations. We aren’t a great shooting team, but we are better than what we’ve shot so far. Looking at our shooting percentage, we may look like a team you should zone a little bit. When they did go man, we got some good shots.”
On being a close game…
“It was big for our confidence to win. It was good to win against a good team and big to get our first SEC win. It was good to see something positive happen for our kids, even if it was just for one day. We can be happy tomorrow and get ready for practice against our next road game. This is a game of emotion and a game of confidence. We needed it. You look at this league and you don’t know where you are going to get a win. This was a big one for us.”
Auburn – Josh Dollard, #3
On coming into the game shooting 3-of-19 from three…
“Coach said I needed to shoot better, because I am a forward. One of our managers has been in the gym with me day in and day out helping me get my jump (shot) straight. It paid off. All hard work pays off.”
On winning their first SEC game at home…
“It was very important. We had a couple of good practices, and Coach (Lebo) really got us ready for this game. We worked on a lot of offensive plays. They shoot very well, so we also worked hard on switching.”
“We prepared hard and came in focused. We wanted to get this one, because of our upset against Southern Miss. We owed ourselves this win. All of our hard work payed off.”
Auburn – Rasheem Barrett, #21
On shooting…
“I’ve been working on it for weeks. I knew once we got in the game, all the hard work would pay off. When I got in the game I wasn’t thinking about making shots. I was thinking about helping my team.”
On if he made any mechanical adjustments to his shot…
“I just had to work on my shot. I came in mornings, before and after practice. I just had to find the rim and work on my arc.”
On winning their first SEC game…
“From the stand point of an SEC win, it’s wonderful. It’s good to know we can play in the SEC. Last year we played them in our first game and they beat us by 20 or 30 points. It hurt us. In the SEC tournament, we had them and they came back and beat us. This gives us more confidence going into our SEC games.”
Auburn – Korvotney Barber, #32
On banking two free throws…
“After the first shot I heard someone in the crowd say, “Do it again, do it again,” so I banked it again.”
