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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2010Rick StansburyBarry StewartJarvis VarnadoNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Mississippi State – 75 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to continue on with Mississippi State. We'll ask Coach Stansbury for some general thoughts on the game. Then we'll take your questions for the two student-athletes. And then we'll finish up with Coach Stansbury. Coach, would you begin. COACH STANSBURY: Number one, Billy's done a great job with Florida. Those guys came in playing awful well. He's got a terrific ball club. But I'm proud of our team. As you know, we probably didn't come into this the way we wanted to come into it. We found a way to do some things that you've got to do to give yourself a chance to win. I thought defensively the first half, I thought we kept the guys at bay that really hurt us the first time we played down in Gainesville. Parsons and Macklin. At halftime, Parsons, Macklin, and Tyus had three points between them. And I thought offensively we were very efficient. First half we shot 62%, and 52% the second half. I think for the game 57%. So when you're finishing offensively and you do some things defensively, it gives yourself a chance to win. These two guys beside me were huge. Both of them stepped up and made big plays when you had to make plays. THE MODERATOR: We'll take your questions for either of the student-athletes. Q. Jarvis, you went more to the hook shot. Was that because how Florida defended you the first time down at Gainesville? JARVIS VARNADO: They never did take it away. The first time they didn't take it away. I just missed shots. And I slowed down today. I took what the defense gave me, and I scored. Q. Guys, talk a little bit about the energy that you started the game with, particularly compared to what you started the Tennessee game with the other day. And how much was that talked about and played up going into the game tonight? JARVIS VARNADO: Well, we knew we had a letdown against Tennessee, so me and Barry challenged the guys to come out and play hard and play together and play as one, and that's what we did tonight. BARRY STEWART: That game was last season as far as I'm concerned. This is a new season, and we're competing for a championship. I know something has been talked about as being together, and I think that energy came from the whole team, not only the ones out there but the ones on the bench, and I think it gave us a lot of emotion out there. Q. Barry, talk about the contributions Romero gave there in the first half. He came out and hit a couple of big shots. BARRY STEWART: Romero is big for us. We getting that play out of Romero, we'll be hard to beat. That's something that we know we need to come into the tournament. Our bench is important. He did a tremendous job tonight for us. Q. Guys, both of you seem very comfortable on the SEC Tournament stage. Is there any particular reason for that? I know last year the similarity that you're somewhat playing for your tournament lives, you're playing with a sense of urgency. What makes you so comfortable playing in the SEC Tournament? JARVIS VARNADO: I feel like we have nothing to lose, you know. We just come out here to play hard and play together. We had success last year in playing together, and we wanted to keep that focus coming in this tournament. We ain't the deepest team, but we're going to fight hard. We're going to play hard, and that's what we did tonight. BARRY STEWART: We know what our team's capable of, and I think that's for anybody on any team. When you think about what's going on around you, you might play tight. And I think, as far as the hold, we're doing a great job of staying in the moment and going game by game. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse the two student-athletes. We'll continue on with questions for Coach Stansbury. Q. Rick, could you just talk about just your start and the fact that you attacked but you made the extra pass. You didn't take quick shots. It just seemed like you were very comfortable with what you were doing. COACH STANSBURY: We were. We shared the basketball. Again, first half I think we shot 62%. I didn't think of all the possessions of the first half -- and there were 24 possessions, scored 15 of those 24. I didn't think there wasn't but maybe two shots, quick shots I wish we shouldn't taken. Lots of nights I can't say that. And, again, Florida's a very good defensive basketball team too, but we made the extra pass. We had some guys jump up and make some shots, which we're very capable of doing at any time. And, again, it's so important for our team to get off to a good start, in particular coming into this tournament the way we were. And I think that really gave us a lot of confidence to keep playing. Q. Coach, so much is made of the NCAA speculation, who's in, who's out. How much of that do you try to keep away from your players? I mean, Barry said you guys are doing a good job staying in the moment. You had success in this tournament last year. Just kind of what are your thoughts on dealing with that with your players? COACH STANSBURY: It's impossible to keep them away unless I lock them in the closet and take away their phones and all that. It's everywhere you go nowadays. You can't watch TV unless you're hearing about it. You can't walk anywhere unless someone is talking to you about it. And all these kids nowadays have these phones that's a walking computer. So they see it all day long. We don't talk about it. You guys do enough talking about it without us having to say it. Our guys understand where we're at. Our guys understand what we have to do. And our biggest thing was, you know, we had a bad game we came off of, but like Stew said, that's 1 of 16, and our goal was early in the season, was to win a championship. And this team's overcome a lot of things. We played without our backup center all year long, our backup point guard all year long. We played without another high school kid we signed, and we played without Sidney. All those guys all year long, and these guys still found a way to win a championship. We had a lot more at stake in the last game, and we didn't close it out. It's a new season. It's a new opportunity. Different than last year, we only have to win three. But to get to two, you've got to win one, and that first one is always the biggest one. And now you've got a chance to play that second one, and I think our kids, no question, after the first one will play with even more of a sense of urgency and confidence. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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