Nov. 28, 2006
Furman at Vanderbilt
Memorial Gymnasium
November 28, 2006
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
“Obviously, we’re disappointed, but we got some good shots all night and just couldn’t buy one. We had point blank layups and missed. It snowballed from there. We’ll keep pushing forward. We have a bunch of good kids and we’ll keep pushing hard.”
On Post Play:
“In a game like this, [a dominant post player] would allow us some easier baskets. It’s difficult for us to go inside right now. We don’t have a natural guy in the low post. Our best low post player is out right now and
we have to get him healed up. We had open layups, four footers, eight footers, and threes. The quality of our shots was pretty good. We just didn’t make them.”
On Vanderbilt’s Confidence:
“I was worried about our confidence before tonight’s game. My job is to give it to them. Some of building confidence is when they see themselves doing well. There just weren’t enough good things going for us tonight.”
On the Team:
“We’ve got great shooters. We have guys that can make layups. We have some good players. We didn’t have enough guys playing well to win tonight. My job is to get them playing well. I didn’t have them ready to play tonight, apparently.”
On Whether Vanderbilt Overlooked Furman:
“We get 30 games to play. I don’t think we took them lightly. Our effort tonight was good. We were demoralized with shots that we missed. It’s what happens after you get great shot after great layup and can’t make them. We have to keep working. We have to continue to work hard.”
Junior forward Ross Neltner
“After halftime, I thought we came out a little bit slow. We tried to increase our intensity, lengthen our lead and knock them out but we couldn’t do it.”
On the team’s poor shooting from the floor:
“We were two for 17 from three-point range. You guys know our team. We are better shooters than that.”
On the shooting performance of Shan Foster and Derrick Byars:
“They are two of the best players in the SEC. When they are off a little bit, we keep going to them. And we will continue to do so. They will rebound from this.”
“We have put a lot of work in, so we are not going to start selling out. Oral Roberts beat Kansas earlier this year and they just turned around and knocked off Florida in Las Vegas. It is way too early to lose your swagger. We have got a lot talented guys. We’ll be back.”
Senior guard Dan Cage
“We felt like we had momentum, had rhythm. But then in the second half maybe we took it for granted a little bit. We didn’t get our shots and the ones we did we didn’t connect.”
“I missed two or three that I never miss. Shan and Derrick missed a bunch. Some of those go down and things are different.”
“We’re not going to pack it in. None of these games are must-win, though you’d like to look at every game as a must-win because you want to put your best foot forward.”
“They might be a mid-major school, but they have a high-major coach. Hats off to them. They played very well. But being that we are the bigger school we are expected to win these games so it makes it sting a little
bit more.”
Furman Head Coach Jeff Jackson
On the struggles of Vanderbilt’s Shan Foster and Derrick Byars:
“I think part of it was that Shan and Derrick both had off nights and part of it was that we got them out of their rhythm.”
On being more physical in the second half:
“At halftime we were disappointed and a bit frazzled. Playing in the Southern Conference you do not see that type of physicality from your opponent night-in and night-out. But we are fortunate to have some good senior leadership. We emphasized that they needed to be more physical in the second half.”
On the importance of the victory:
“We talked to our guys (after the game) that this doesn’t need to be the zenith of the season. This is a good road win for our program as we build toward conference play.”
