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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2010Dee BostRick StansburyBarry StewartJarvis VarnadoNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Mississippi State – 62 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 three student-athletes, and then we'll finish up with coach. COACH STANSBURY: First off, what makes it a special event for us is we just know we beat a very good basketball team that's always as prepared as any team as you'll go against. They're good offensively in the half-court offense, probably one of the most difficult teams to play against. Defensively, they always have great schemes. Kevin does an unbelievable job with that team. That's what makes the win so special because of the quality team. But I thought our team defensively did some things about as well as you could do it. When you look at that stat sheet, and you see only one guy score double figures, and that was Beal. And you look at their center A.J., and he has two points. And I felt like they never got in a comfort zone out there offensively. Then offensively, we were sharing the ball. We made plays when we had to make plays. Only nine turnovers, rebounded even with a very big physical team. They've got about six guys who are big and physical, but we held our own on the backboards. And another big stat is Vanderbilt gets to that free-throw line about twice as much as everybody else, and today we shot more free throws than they did, and that's a huge stat again. But these guys right here beside me, they're the reason why we were able to win this game. All three of them at their positions -- Dee on at point guard, Stew -- I could tell you this. And it goes unnoticed sometimes. There's not a better defensive two guard in this league than Barry Stewart, and he does it night in and night out. And, Jarv, you know what he does. So these guys here deserve all the credit. THE MODERATOR: We'll take your questions for the three student-athletes. Q. Hey, Barry, just your thoughts on the game last night, watching what John Jenkins did and kind of your plan for staying on him today. BARRY STEWART: My coaches, first off, did a great scouting report. It was a late night, I wasn't able to look at film or anything. They did a great job. They let me know he went off for about 15 in the second half. I've heard about him. I'm from Tennessee. So I've heard he's a great shooter. So I wanted to stay into him and not let him get a good look at the basket and put a lot of pressure on him. Today I was fortunate he didn't scorch. Q. Can all the players talk about what it is that you guys have been able to do the last two years in this tournament to win, I guess, six in a row. JARVIS VARNADO: We just decided to come together, you know. Last year we didn't make it to the tournament. We wanted to get to the tournament so bad, so we come together. Everybody come together and play as one, play hard, play for each other. Nobody cares about scoring, rebounding, just care about the win. DEE BOST: You know, coming into the tournament, we knew what we had up in front of us. So we all just put it together and playing as a team. And then the coaching staff giving us good scouting reports, and we're just taking that intensity into the game and just executing. BARRY STEWART: They both said it. I mean, coming together more. The past two years, you can see a lot of energy out of everybody. I don't know what it is about this team, but when our backs are against the wall, we're at our best. I guess that's a good thing. Q. Especially for Jarvis, Rick mentioned the defensive effort. Can you just describe what went into it today, especially the last five or six minutes. JARVIS VARNADO: A.J. is a load inside. I had to just mix it up. He was trying to get on my body, so when he was driving, I kind of backed off, and he kind of stumbled. He got two or three travel calls. Then on the last play he got into my body, but he didn't bump me as hard as I can fall back. So when he went up, I got the block. Q. This is for Barry. Coach Stallings called you one of the most underrated perimeter defenders certainly in the conference. You're known more for your offense, but talk about playing defense and how much you enjoy guarding a player that has a reputation of a John Jenkins, a kid that scored 44 points a game in high school last year. BARRY STEWART: First I want to thank Coach Stallings for that comment. I didn't know he said that, but thank him first. I'm a competitor, and I believe the name of the game is making baskets, but I believe the most competitive people like to lock their man down and make baskets. A guy that I look to at the next level is Kobe Bryant, and he also plays defense with intensity too. So it's something that's always been in me. I've done it since high school, and coach, he relies on me now. Q. I just want to know if any of you players got a chance to watch the Kentucky-Tennessee game today and what your thoughts are on a rematch with Kentucky. JARVIS VARNADO: We saw a little bit of it. I mean, they're one of the best teams in the country, and when they came to our place, we had them, but it slipped out of our hands. We want this rematch, and we'll be up for it. DEE BOST: You know, they're probably the most talented team in the country. Last game we had them, so now we know what we've got to do to win. Probably seen it more than anybody, I kept sliding out and watching the game. So we're going to be ready. BARRY STEWART: We're excited. We won this game after we said we lost it. I'm excited for two guys who didn't get to play much, that's Ravern and Jarvis. He got in foul trouble in the game, and he didn't get to play much. So I'm excited for him. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse you. We'll continue on with Coach Stansbury. Q. Coach, I know we've asked you this question a lot this year about Phil, but if you could comment on energy he brought off the bench today. COACH STANSBURY: Our bench was good for us again two days in a row. We probably haven't been as consistent all year long with that, but I've seen some emotion and energy. It may be different than it's been consistently. That's what we need from our bench, particularly in tournament play. You can't win it with five guys. We only go eight deep as it is all year long. It's not like we have a lot of opportunities to change a lot of things. For the eight that's playing, we need them to be productive. No question, Phil brought us a lot of emotional energy today, and plus he jumped up and made some shots. Defensively, he's kind of a wild card. He's out there. He guards those other big guys at the forward, and we were able to mix it up enough where he was able to double that post. We found a way to not get him hurt much defensively. They didn't try to post him a lot. He has great instincts defensively out there, and when he plays with energy and emotion, that's what he brings. Osby gave us some good minutes, great minutes again today and Benock. Those are the eight guys we have. Q. Rick, do you think you're worthy of an NCAA Tournament bid right now? COACH STANSBURY: Cal, I'm going to wait and read what you write about tonight, and if you're as smart as I think you are, I know what article I'll read tomorrow. That's all I will say. How's that? Q. That will work. COACH STANSBURY: Perfect. Q. Rick, talk about if you learned anything, and what did you learn from the first game you played at Memorial about getting them out of rhythm, about making them take tough shots? COACH STANSBURY: Joe, I mean, unfortunately I've learned a lot of things at Memorial. If you'll remember two years ago, the Shane Foster deal. That's just a very tough venue. What makes it tough is they have a very tough basketball team. But we knew a couple things we couldn't allow to happen as much as it happened the first time at home. And we didn't think it would on the road. You've got to be able to limit A.J., you're not going to shut him out, didn't think we could. And somehow we played today, and he doesn't score a field goal. He gets two free throws. But we did one thing more this time than we did the last game. We doubled him a bunch in the post. And we knew we had to guard Beal. Beal hurt us the first time. He got 11 today, but he never took that game over as you know he's capable of doing. And then you got to guard Jenkins. We took our chances with Walker and Taylor. We give a lot of help off of them. We give them some shots. The key is keep them out of transition and keep them off the offensive boards. We did that for the most part. Like I said, they only had one guy in double figures, so those other guys didn't kill us as much. If you could limit them some, we felt like we had opportunities offensively then. When they're big, they get out in transition and make them guard us. But you know, Joe, they're as good as a team in this league. That's because of what Kevin does. He's got good scheme and good players, and, again, they're very difficult to defend. Our guys defend them about as well as we're capable of defending them. They were averaging how many points, Joe? How many points they average? Q. High 70s. COACH STANSBURY: High 70s. We hold them to 52. That's a pretty good stat. It gives you a chance to win on the road. Q. This is two years in a row your kids have been in similar position. Is there a benefit, having done that, playing this game tomorrow and not getting caught up, in whether you're in or whether you're out? COACH STANSBURY: I think it's obvious our kids -- we haven't worried about that. They've worried about the things that they've got to worry about. That's what happens between the lines. That's the only thing we're in charge of. It's very obvious, everybody sits around and watches TV. Who's the first in? Who's the first out? You can't turn your energy to that, that's just wasted energy. Let's focus on what we can control. If we win enough games, that's going to take care of itself. And I think they've come in here and proven themselves. Talk about the East again, very good teams. Our first two opponents on the East, we were at Florida, we were at Vanderbilt. Had them both on neutral courts here. And our kids felt like, no question, they were focusing on the right thing, that we had an opportunity to win. And we can't worry about it now. Being in this tournament, there's no question it's a positive thing. Having success, knowing you can win, knowing you can win on a three-day situation -- last year was four games. This year it just has to be three. But before you get to number two, you've got to get number one. That was Florida last night. That was huge. Before you get that championship game, you've got to get number two, and we've done that. So now we can turn all of our focus to Kentucky, which is, no question, one of the better basketball teams in the country. Q. Rick, it will essentially be a road game atmosphere tomorrow, kind of. I don't know if you saw the Tennessee-Kentucky game before your game, but how tough is that going to make it? COACH STANSBURY: We're going to play like they're cheering for us out there. That's the only way you can look at it. Our guys, we understand what we're up against. That crowd, that's not what's going to affect what's between those lines. We've got to control what's between those lines. And that's our toughest challenge. Big blue, as you well know they're going to travel. No question the place will be packed with them. Let's use it to our advantage too. And we've got to find a way to do that somehow. If we can keep the game in the right way, big blue better not get too loud. They're going to have their moments, and we just hope we can keep it close enough maybe to keep the fans out of it. Again, we've got to worry about what we can control, and that's right between those lines. I would hope too all those fans that are still left here, we need all those fans for us. Put it in your paper. We need them cheering for us. Vanderbilt, we need all those fans. Tennessee fans. I'm sure they will be, Tennessee will, if they don't go home. Q. Coach, the last two games you built up pretty good leads early on and kind of had scares at the end. Anything in particular you'd attribute to losing those leads? COACH STANSBURY: It's much better off having bad leads at the start and losing games. So, you know, no, absolutely not. Playing against very good teams. Florida is a quality team. Vanderbilt's a quality team. They're going to make runs at us. Depth is always a concern. Fatigue is always a concern. As you know, we don't play a lot of people. Those are the things that sometimes causes teams to make runs at us. But both nights they've done it, we've held them off. We've made plays when we've had to make plays to win the game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. See you tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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