Jan. 30, 2010
Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
Opening statement …
“Well, the story of this game I thought was two things. One was their rebounding and the other was their shooting. Because of the nature of how they play, they are going to come up with perimeter shots. They made shots today that they haven’t been making, or at as high a rate as they did this afternoon. On the backboards, there were times we really fought and still lost. There were times where we probably didn’t fight like we needed to fight. So, they played very well. Very well. They are very talented, obviously. When they play and they shoot well, they are obviously very difficult to deal with. They certainly made shots today. We are disappointed in a number of things from our side, but we’ll bounce back and get it back where we want it.”
On the play of Kentucky…
“He (DeMarcus Cousins) is really a terrific player. With all of his size, he is so wide. He really had his way with us until he got into foul trouble. He was a big factor in the game. Obviously, I thought (Patrick) Patterson played well, as did a number of their guys. They had a team full of guys that played well. We didn’t. We had a number of guys who didn’t play well, which was in part due to them and in part due to us. Certainly an understatement, but they deserve to win. A lot has been made about John Wall, because he is a terrific player, and deservedly so. But, Cousins, even though at a different position, is just as much a factor right now for their team. He is really quickly becoming a dominant inside player, maybe the best dominant inside player in our league. We were trying to double team him and we told our players what he would do when he was double teamed, and he did it. I certainly had some disappointment in our lack of attention to the things we needed to do to win the game. That was one of them. Their bench played well, ours didn’t as a whole. I thought Steve Tchiengang went in and really fought. But, our bench was not very productive, but theirs was. It was all of their shooting. Patterson made them (perimeter shots) and (Darnell) Dodson made them. They had a bunch of guys making perimeter shots. What, were they 29 percent (three-point shooting) in league play going into the game? You hope that when the crushing comes it’s not against you, but it was. (DeAndre) Liggins’ defense was very good. He is disruptive. They only shot 31 percent in the second half. If you were sitting there watching the game, you wouldn’t guess they were shooting that poorly. I didn’t think they shot that poorly. But, they got another try, another try and another try. Then we would foul them and they would go to the foul line. They were just better than us today. They were quicker to the ball, more physical, played with more purpose, and like I said, they deserved to win. We have no excuses. We got outplayed today. We got some backdoor layups and the chance to cut it to 10, and we missed a dunk. Not that it was the game, but we didn’t do a good job of trying to utilize their pressure against them. We had intentions to, but as we knew, they would come out aggressively and they did.”
On his technical foul…
“I can’t remember what I said to get the “T”. But, I deserved it. Should I have said it? Probably not.”
On Kentucky’s foul situation…
“I thought that going into the game, and I told my team this, somebody’s big guys were going to get into foul trouble. Either theirs or ours. Obviously, we wanted it to be theirs. But, heck by the time (DeMarcus Cousins) got two fouls he already had 13 points. He only played nine or 10 minutes the first half and had 13. But, we’ll get better.”
On playing Kentucky after the loss to South Carolina…
“They got their butts beat Tuesday night. What do you think when you are the opposing coach coming in here? (John Calipari) has been on their rear ends since Tuesday. We knew they would be cranked up. We just didn’t do a good enough job taking advantage of that. Sometimes you can take advantage of that.”
Vanderbilt Players
#00, Jermaine Beal, G
On a loss after being the only undefeated team in the SEC…
“We just did not play the way we needed to today. Kentucky came out ready to play. They beat us badly on the boards, and they made their shots. I give props to Kentucky for a good game. They are a good team.”
On preparing for their next game …
“We will try to put this loss behind us and move on to our next game. We have to have more rebounds to help us win. We were ready for a tough game, and we will be ready for another tough game. This is the SEC so we expect each game to be a challenge.”
On the importance of playing a No. 1 ranked Kentucky team…
“It was important to us, but it wasn’t. We knew if they were ranked No. 1 or No. 80 they were going to play a good game. We knew we had our hands full. Kentucky came out ready to play and they gave it to us today.”
On what the deciding factor was in this loss…
“It was everything. Kentucky had players that were making shots, (DeMarcus) Cousins and (Patrick) Patterson. We didn’t have that. I give all the credit to Kentucky today for playing a good game.”
#4, A.J. Ogilvy, C
On ending the winning streak at Kentucky …
“I think Kentucky is a great team and I don’t think we would have been so disappointed if we didn’t play so poorly, but mainly we were all disappointed in our effort. We weren’t strong inside, we lacked in rebounding. It was just a tough game and that’s how we are all feeling right now”
On struggling going up against DeMarcus Cousins …
“Yes it was a good battle, but he is a big strong guy with a lot of athletic ability and I just didn’t play tough enough. He is the biggest, toughest, strongest guy I have played so far this season.”
On what Vanderbilt has to do has to do to prepare for Mississippi State …
“I think next time we just need to come with more effort. Our team is good, but today we just didn’t play our best basketball unfortunately. We had a rough start and then Kentucky went on a run and we just were not able to close that gap. I think we are a good team, with good values, and I do not think we need to change anything.”
#44, Jeffery Taylor, F
On losing to the No. 1 team in the nation …
“It was a disappointment on our end. We came out flat and did not play to our best ability. Kentucky is a very good team. They play really well at home and have great fans that back them up. We just came out flat and did not play to our full potential like we should have. We just have to turn around and compete again.”
On what do you have to do to get a win at home in your next game …
“We are going to go out and have two to three good practices and hopefully change this loss in our minds and feel better about going home and playing Mississippi State.”
Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari
On DeAndre Liggins play …
“He did great. What he’s doing, he’s having a few breakdowns we’ve got to work on. This stuff at half-time, it’s a five-point swing and he misses two free throws and then because you miss the two free throws going under on a ball screen on the one guy who can make shots. I told them, yeah we we’re up 20 instead, it’s 15 and now they have hope. It’s not just him we’re doing some of that. There was some immature stuff that we did, but we’re a young team. We outrebounded a good rebounding team by 18 rebounds, we hold them to three offensive rebounds which means as a bounce back from giving up 20 at South Carolina is a good sign. I loved the way Darnell shot the ball and Patrick shot the ball, DeMarcus, again, had a double-double, John had nine assists, Eric Bledsoe, I thought wanted that game and did well.”
On the improvement of the team …
“We’ve got a ways to go. We beat a good team. Vanderbilt had won 11 in a row. They remind me of Massachusetts teams, we didn’t have the big, big like they have, but the other guys on that floor were like my UMass guys, their not going to beat themselves. They’re not going to have bad turnovers, you have to grind them out. What we did, I hope you saw today, is we played a little more half court because against South Carolina they held the ball and we shot it quick and what was happening was, we were on defense 75 percent of the time, so now we we’re looking for an easy basket, a layup, a post up, and if it wasn’t there we wanted them to play in the half court, and still their were some errors. But again, we had five almost six guys in double figures scoring, no one shoots it more than 12 times, and a bunch of 10s and 7s, we’re getting balance. You saw that I tried to play Daniel (Orton) and DeMarcus (Cousins) together, which we have to continue to do, I’ve got to spell John like I did, get him time off the court, same with Eric Bledsoe, which is going to get time for Darius (Miller), Darnell (Dodson) or Ramon (Harris), DeAndre (Liggins), whoever wants that time to get in there and play.”
On keeping up with Vanderbilt’s runs …
“The big shot I thought was DeAndre’s three, because we were teetering a little bit on not knowing what we were doing and I think DeMarcus (Cousins) threw and he makes that three just takes the wind out of their sails. They are making their little run and you have to beat them back. We missed some free throws, Eric (Bledsoe) isn’t a guy that goes five for 11 from the line, but he does end up with seven rebounds which is our second leading rebounder. Eric (Bledsoe) and John (Wall) probably played a minute or two more than I wanted them to but those numbers are starting to look how I want them to look.”
On DeMarcus Cousins’ technical …
“With what he said he deserved the technical. He said he did not touch the ball which I believed but they called it, so I said go to the monitor and check it, but it’s not a play that you can go to the monitor. I thought I might fool them, but they knew that you could not go to the monitor and check the monitor on that kind of play, but he walked off and said what he said and he deserved to get a technical. Do you know how far he has come?’ He got punched in the head today and the official came over and said I should have called it. He did not respond to it. DeMarcus (Cousins) is growing up. He is going to do dumb things at times but out here with all of those young guys, it’s all freshmen stuff.”
On Patrick Patterson’s play …
“He is getting closer. I’m going to work with him everyday. He made 3-4 threes and he was 1-1 from the line. We’ve got to get him catching balls and going after balls with two hands, so he’s a little rougher around the goal, but he is fine. He’s not the reason we didn’t beat South Carolina . It was not Patrick Patterson. Now, he didn’t play great, but eight others guy didn’t and I didn’t coach great. I got out-coached and they got out played and everybody wanted to put it on Patrick (Patterson) which is not fair because he is doing fine. We need more from him and we’re going to start getting more. We’ll make calls for him. He has to be a 17 point 10 rebound guy and get rebounds. Let me say this, he’s the least of our worries.”
Kentucky Players
#34, DeAndre Liggins, G
On his defensive effort this season…
“I just try to come in and bring energy off the bench. I just try to help my team in any way that I can.”
On if he is motivated by seeing more playing time …
“I just get in there and play. I think I come in with confidence. If I have plays I will make them. If I have an open shot I’ll shoot.”
On what practice has been like the past couple of days…
“Practice the last couple of days has been intense. We just had to bounce back and I think that is what we did.”
On how his role on the team has evolved…
“The beginning of the season was hard for me. I just had to stay positive and wait for my turn. My turn came and now I’m taking full advantage of it.”
#15, DeMarcus Cousins, F
On the intensity of Vanderbilt …
“I expected the intensity to be high. Coach told us there would be players that would be physical and there were. “
On LeBron James being at the game …
“I saw him there. I got to see him a lot around at camps back in high school. It was fun to be able to play in front of him. “
On going to you early in the game …
“It wasn’t really a plan. We didn’t know they were going to come out double teaming like they did. We said we were going to start the offense by running the swing play and if I was open, give me the ball.”
On how his teammates played…
“(Darnell) Dodson played really well tonight. The way he hit his shots really helped us. Eric (Bledsoe) came out to play. Patrick (Patterson) did his part. It was a good team effort.
#11, John Wall, PG
On how the team responded after the game against South Carolina …
“I think we responded well. We did the key things we should do as far as turnovers and getting rebounds, but I think we did good. We got up on them and didn’t let them come back, but in the second half they started to make a run at us, and we started to get into foul trouble. Coach told us that they were a team that wasn’t going to go away. In SEC league play so far, they have been down a lot at the half. We knew they wouldn’t go away easy and they were going to come back and fight hard, but we came up with a tough win.”
On if it was hard to get in any sort of rhythm because of all the fouls called …
“It was pretty tough. Every time you drive, you try not to touch them because you know they are probably going to call the foul. I think they called a lot of fouls in the first half, and no one really got into a rhythm. We were making free throws and they missed a few, then we started missing them and let them back into the game.”
On the play of DeMarcus Cousins …
“That was big for us. Coach told us last game he was killing for us, he had 27 points last game. This game we knew we were going to go to him and try to get him involved. Their big men were trying to do a good job up front in the post, but he was just getting angles and making tough shots. Like you said, he got a couple and ones back to back.”
On what Demarcus would probably average if he played 30-35 minutes a game…
“Probably like 30 and 20. He is averaging like 16 and 12, so imagine him playing a lot more minutes, it would be pretty tough.”
On what this win said coming off a tough loss …
“It means that we wanted to come out and prove something. We had a tough game against South Carolina, but they played great, and we know every team is going to play good against us. I wanted to come out and show people that we were not going to back away, and one loss would not keep us down. I think we did that, and we came out here and got a tough win against one of the top teams in the SEC.”
On your awareness of playing for the number one spot in the SEC …
“Coaches told us that this is for the number one spot, but coaches really fantasize on us coming out and performing, and being able to bounce back.”
On if you knew LeBron James was in the crowd watching …
“I saw him a few plays in the second half. It was great with him there and Coach Cal knows people like him and that he came out to watch us play. It means a lot for us, but he told us not to try to showboat just because he was there. We just wanted to play basketball.”
On how he feels about how the team is playing now, and what needs to happen down the stretch…
“We are playing good. We bounced back from a tough loss, but there is still a lot of stuff to work on before it gets time for the SEC tournament. We need to get back in the gym tomorrow and start working again.”
#54, Patrick Patterson, F
On how he felt he played today …
“This was a good game to bounce back from. I was satisfied from the three point line, three for four. They felt good as I was shooting them. I was working on it all week with coach, and I think today we all had an overall team game.”
On how the team responded against a tough loss against USC …
“I think we responded very well, especially in the first half playing tremendous defense, running the ball up and down the court, transition was great, finding people on offense, utilizing DeMarcus (Cousins) down low and getting them in foul trouble. I think we did a great job first half. Second half, the first five plays was on miscommunication. My foul on number zero (Jermaine Beal) was just miscommunication between me and Darnell (Dodson) and they got another easy basket. Second half started off a little sluggish on our part but luckily we could bounce back and continue fighting and pull through at the end.”
On the tone Demarcus (Cousins) set for the team early with being able to be physical …
“Definitely, I think so. We wanted to go to him right away. We knew we had an advantage with him down low. (A.J.) Ogilvy is a big guy, No. 3 (Festus Ezeli) is a big guy, but DeMarcus (Cousins) also is a big guy who can move his feet on offense and he has a tremendous range of offensive skill. We wanted to use that to our advantage and we wanted to use a big man early in the game, get him established and get him going and that is exactly what we did.”
