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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2011Festus EzeliKevin StallingsJeffery TaylorATLANTA, GEORGIA LSU: 50 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Vanderbilt. We'll start with an opening statement by Coach Stallings. COACH STALLINGS: I thought that it was a really hard fought game. I thought LSU played really hard. I thought our guys played really, really hard. I was really proud of our effort on the boards, particularly Jeff and Lance and Steve. They were terrific on the back boards. And that made a big difference in the game, obviously. Our defense, I thought, was outstanding. We didn't shoot it well, but when John doesn't play, we're probably not as good a shooting team. So we feel good about winning the game, we feel good about doing it without our leading scorer, and I thought guys really stepped up for us, including these two guys up here. THE MODERATOR: Take your questions for the student-athletes. Q. Jeff, did you feel any extra pressure to score given John's status today? JEFFERY TAYLOR: No. I view myself as a pretty capable scorer myself. So just tried to come out there and be aggressive, do what I can do, and it worked out for me. I made some shots, got fouled, went to the foul line, so it was good. Q. Can you talk about some of your defensive objectives and just how you were trying to defend, particularly against Turner. JEFFERY TAYLOR: Just tried to stay in front, contest all of his shots, just make it difficult for him to even get the ball. That's pretty much the way I go about every game, just kind of trying to deny and stay in front and contest every shot. Just make it tough on them, and then if they make the shots, they make the shots. Q. When did you guys find out that John wasn't playing, and kind of your thoughts when you heard. JEFFERY TAYLOR: It was a little bit before the game. But we have been dealing with injuries throughout the year, and it was the same thought process when we heard that John wasn't going to play. Other people had to step up. We have a very capable team, very capable players, so other people stepped up and chipped in and we got the win. Q. For both players, talk about attacking their 2-3 zone throughout the game and kind of finding some back-door cuts to build that lead. FESTUS EZELI: Start of the game we did a good job of finding Jeff and Lance at the back of the zone. Cutting, we just made good cuts and made good passes, made them play defense. Had a couple long possessions and just found dudes, found guys. JEFFERY TAYLOR: We were trying to attack it from the inside out, get the ball inside by the drive, the pass, or by post feeding it to Festus, also with the ball screens at the top of the zone. And fortunately for us, we have really good passers at the top, and they found guys like me, Lance, and Festus at the bottom of the zone. Q. Festus, if you could think back to the first meeting with Mississippi State and kind of what's the key against them in the post? FESTUS EZELI: Well, in the post, I remember Mississippi State, they trapped a little bit in the post. But it's a lot of one-on-one as well. So I don't know. It's going to be a big battle because they have a really good post player over there, so it's going to be a big game. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for coach. Q. LSU having the kind of season they have and of course you guys built that lead up to about 20 points. Obviously you don't expect a team to give up, but could you just speak to the fight they showed down the stretch? COACH STALLINGS: I said that earlier in the season when we played them at their place. I just really am impressed with the job that Trent and his staff did with that team, because it's hard to keep a team together and energetic and playing hard when you lose a lot. At one stretch, I think they had 10 losses in a row, and then they got a big road win, and that was actually just before we played them. So I was very impressed with the job that they did. And you watch them on film, they play extremely hard and they play together, and you can tell they have got a plan. And he's just got some young guys, and when those guys grow up and grow older they're going to be a lot tougher to deal with. Q. Talk about the extent of John's injury and his status for tomorrow? COACH STALLINGS: He could have played today if we gotten in a situation where we felt like we had to have him, and so we'll see. We'll have shoot around tomorrow and go and look and see how he's feeling, and see if he's any better than he was today. And so his status at this point would be questionable or uncertain. I don't know. This is not the NFL or anything, but we're hopeful that he's a little better tomorrow than he was today. Q. How comfortable were you with some of the uncommon lineups you had out there in the second half? COACH STALLINGS: Well, offensively at times not overly comfortable. But defensively, heck, I thought they played with great passion and great energy. We hit that lull there in the last four or five minutes of the game and one of my assistant coaches said in the huddle, he said, If they don't score again, they can't beat us. And I think from that point forward, and I mean there was four or five minutes to go, I think, and from that point forward, I think they only got two points. And so we were fortunate that our defense was where it needed to be. We worked hard on it and our guys really executed tonight. Q. You sort of touched on it, but how would you rate your defense tonight compared to how you played this season? COACH STALLINGS: Well, it was better tonight. Now again, guarding LSU's different than guarding Florida, that's for sure. And I don't mean that in any way disrespectfully towards LSU. But I was pleased with the effort and the energy and we were locked in real well to what the plan was and what we had encouraged them to do, and they did it. It was good to see. Q. What were you able to do against their zone, early in the first half especially? COACH STALLINGS: I thought we got pretty good shots against it. Obviously, we didn't shoot the ball well from three, but that didn't concern me because we got to the line 25 times against a team that basically played the entire game in zone. So that's a good thing. So we were able to get penetration. When Andre is up there at the point of the zone, he can see into it, and he's an excellent passer. So we were getting the ball inside to Steve and Festus, and we got Jeff down on the baseline a few times. And I thought Kyle Fuller penetrated the zone and gave us a good look against it, too, because he was able to get inside of the zone and kick out or see people in there and that was real helpful also. Q. Your thoughts on the rematch with MSU and the way they have been playing lately? COACH STALLINGS: They have been playing well. Obviously, you get to this point and you're just happy to still be playing. And they have got a very good team, very good, very talented, and really made a nice run there at the end of the season. And so we know it's going to be tough game. They knocked us out of the tournament last year, and so we'll have to be very ready to play. And we'll have to play well and we'll have to play better than we did today. Offensively, we'll have to be a little better than we were today, but defensively I hope that we're as good. And I hope that we do the same kind of job on the back boards. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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