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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: TAMPAMarch 21, 2008Shan FosterAndrew OgilvyKevin StallingsTAMPA, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Coach, opening statements. COACH KEVIN STALLINGS: We congratulate Siena. They were the much better team today. Obviously, we're very disappointed in our play and in the outcome. But when you get to this point in the season, it's really imperative that you play your best. Particularly when you're a team like us that doesn't have a particularly big margin for error. We didn't play our best. I wouldn't say that we've been playing our best. In other years we've been able to kind of get that switched around when the tournament has come, and for whatever reason we weren't able to get that done this particular season. But we're awfully proud of the season that we had. I'm proud of my players, I'm proud of their efforts. Again, we weren't a very good team tonight. And unfortunately for us, that's a lot of what we'll remember and that makes it a bitter pill to swallow. You do the best you can, and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. Again, unfortunately, for us tonight it didn't. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the Vanderbilt student-athletes. Q. Shan, you guys were 4-of-20 from behind the arc tonight. What did Siena do to affect that? SHAN FOSTER: They did a good job of switching out whenever we were trying to come off screens. Myself personally just making sure they stayed close to me. Not allowing me any space and things of that sort. That's pretty much it though. Q. It's been a good ride for you. What do you think you're going to miss the most? SHAN FOSTER: Definitely my teammates. I couldn't ask for a better set of guys that I just enjoy being around them. Great guys on and off the court. They gave everything they had both in practice and on game day. Just the bonds that we shared throughout the year. Q. Did you see anything out there on the court from Siena that you didn't expect that you weren't expecting going into the game? Was this game more the result of what they were doing or your inability to execute overall? SHAN FOSTER: No, we were well prepared for what they were going to do. Our defense just wasn't up to par today. Any time you don't play well defensively in the NCAA Tournament, you get beat. Q. Andrew, if you could talk about how much Shan and the other seniors have meant to you and how much they've taught you this year? ANDREW OGILVY: They've definitely taught everyone a lot this year. Especially just how to lead a team. It's going to be a really tough year next year without them here. And I wish them all the best next year. Q. Did you feel like you all took advantage of your size inside as well as you wanted to and needed to? ANDREW OGILVY: Perhaps in the first half I wasn't playing as well as I should have been, and probably wasn't presenting myself enough. But in the second half I thought we did a really good job of getting the ball inside and getting good looks at the basket. Q. How frustrating was it for you guys every time you guys tried to make a little bit of a run, they had an answer for you guys it seemed like the whole game? SHAN FOSTER: It was very frustrating. But coaches say all the time it's hard to get into an offensive rhythm when you're not making shots, and when you're not getting stops. Our defense has really let us down today. Like I said before, in the tournament you don't play defense well, then you get beat. Q. Questions for both players. Shan, if you could go first: Siena got off to a hot start. Ten minutes into the game you guys are staring at a double-digit deficit. Did that start at all catch you guys by surprise how hot they were at the jump? SHAN FOSTER: I don't know if it caught us by surprise. We knew that they were very capable. We didn't know that we'd go out and have the type of defensive effort that we put out. So, no, I wasn't surprised at all. ANDREW OGILVY: I think more of the surprise was the way we came out and started playing. We thought we were going to come out and play a lot better defensively and get a lot better looks offensively. To come out and play the way we did it just wasn't really good. Q. Do you still consider this to be a successful season even though we're asking you this after a loss? SHAN FOSTER: This team was a special team this year. We got a lot accomplished. Any time you're able to go 26-8, you know, that's obviously doing something great. Unfortunately, we have to end it on a loss, but, you know, I think it was great for the guys coming back next year to be a part of, so now they know exactly how much they have to work to get back here and get further. THE MODERATOR: We'll now take questions for Coach Stallings. Q. As much as you guys talk about defense in the SEC Tournament tonight, what is the disappointment in the fact that they shot 56% and you guys couldn't get a stop when you needed it? COACH KEVIN STALLINGS: Well, the disappointment was really all season long I didn't get this team to play defensively the way it had to play on a consistent enough basis for us to win the way we wanted to win. Now, again, 26-8 is not -- that's not a terrible year, but we just never were consistent defensively. And, again, that's my responsibility. It's completely my responsibility. I was just never able to push the right button with this group because we worked harder defensively all season long than we did offensively. We spent more time trying to play defense, trying to get better on defense. Generally speaking, our teams have played pretty well defensively at the end of the year. Generally, we get better as the season goes along. We hit a stretch where we play decent defensively there in February, but the last two or three weeks it wasn't what it had to be. Tonight was an apparent culmination of that. Q. You said coming into this week that you're remembered by how you play in March. Given that, how do you feel like this team will be remembered at this point? COACH KEVIN STALLINGS: I think that most will certainly think that March was very disappointing. In terms of the season, you know, I really think that we probably overachieved in some respects. I think if you look at the season as a whole, I think that this group got a lot out of itself. But, again, not enough defensively to where we could become great. We were good, but not where we could become great. Again, that's my responsibility, and my failing in this team. Q. This group of seniors leaves as the winningest group in the history of the program. Could you talk about what the group means to you as a coach. COACH KEVIN STALLINGS: They're extremely special. Not only as basketball players but more importantly and more so as human beings. They've been everything that we desire to have at Vanderbilt and in our basketball program, from a character standpoint, from an attitude standpoint. We talk a lot about being great teammates, and these guys have been great teammates the entire time they've been here. So they've really been the whole package. All five of them will have their degree in May, and there really isn't anything you could ask for more than what these guys were able to give. I think their success and their records speak for themselves in terms of being the all-time winningest class in the school's history I'm exceptionally proud of them and very, very appreciative of all that they've done. Q. How big of an upset do you consider this to be tonight? COACH KEVIN STALLINGS: I thought looking on tape that it would be a tough game. I thought going into it I thought we were better than them. But, again, it doesn't matter and I tell our team this all the time, it doesn't matter who the best team is, it's who plays the best. Siena played the best. I'd have to reevaluate my thinking, because watching what I watched out on the floor tonight, they beat us to the ball, they beat us to spots, they were better with the ball than we were, and they were better when we had the ball then we were when they had the ball. So they had a lot more answers tonight than we did. So certainly the team that deserved to win the game won the game tonight. Q. I know it's a long way off, but how do you build on 26 wins? What do you take out of this going into next year? COACH KEVIN STALLINGS: Well, I don't know. I think every season is an effort to get the most out of what you have. It's not really, in my estimation, about building on this success. It's what the objective is every year, and that is taking the process of becoming the best team that you can become and making the most of it. I'm not, again, I sit here even after getting our butts whipped out there, and I think that maybe we got a lot out of this team. I think that this team got a lot out of itself. That's how we gauge success. We don't gauge it by 26 wins. We don't gauge it by NCAA Tournaments. We gauge it by what is this team capable of, and how close did this team come to achieving what it is capable of? We're disappointed the season ended tonight. It will always be disappointing to us. But in some ways we got pretty close, probably. Q. One of the few bright spots defensively tonight was Jamie Graham on a couple of plays. Have you been pleased with the way he's come along this year, and are you expecting bigger things out of him in the future? COACH KEVIN STALLINGS: I'm a big Jamie Graham fan. He has really added a lot to our team and added a lot to the personality of it. I think that Jamie's got a chance again. You just don't know how much progress a guy can make when he plays football and you're only going to have him for part of the year. Jamie was a very welcome addition, and really, really a great guy to have on our team this year, and we loved every minute of having him, and I thought he played very well when he was in there tonight. Q. With three so-called upsets in this building today, just talk about whether you think there is a closing gap between the mid-majors and the majors in college basketball? COACH KEVIN STALLINGS: I just think the nature of the NCAA Tournament is that it's about match-ups. It's not about seeding, it's about match-ups. Do you get a match-up that is good for you? And Siena, obviously, got a match-up that was good for them. Western Kentucky got a match-up that I thought was good for them. Obviously, San Diego made the most of their match-up. So, again, so much of it depends on how you're playing when you hit the tournament and then who you draw. I don't know that -- yeah, you know, the gap probably is closing because there are a lot of good players out there. There are a lot of good players. I think that shows through. There are some guys on that Siena team, obviously, that would be very successful SEC players. So maybe that gap is closing. End of FastScripts |
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