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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2011Riley BenockRaven JohnsonKevin StallingsATLANTA, GEORGIA MISSISSIPPI STATE: 81 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Mississippi State. We'll start with an opening statement from coach. COACH STALLINGS: Well, we didn't win the game, that's very obvious, but I'm awful proud of the way our kids played. I'm not for sure we could play much better. You look at the stats, we shoot over 50 percent from the field and we out-rebound them 10, have 17 assists and 10 turnovers. So you got to give a lot of credit to Vanderbilt. Jenkins, I think he goes four for six from the 3-point line in that second half. And Taylor, those two guys made some huge shots. And like say, two of them we fouled, one was offensive rebound, and then we fouled Jenkins with the tied game late. I'm not sure how much time was left, three to four minutes, but we fouled him on a 3-point shot, and it was a huge play. But again, give Vanderbilt a lot of credit. Like I say, I'm not for sure what else we could have done differently to guard Jenkins differently when he steps up and makes some huge shots. So again, give him credit. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Riley, about a minute 34 left on the foul, just what exactly happened there? What did you feel when you were going up to him there on the court to try and defend that shot. RILEY BENOCK: Went inside, I think to Ezeli and, all night I hadn't held him for some reason. Just I turned inside, and I looked back, and Jenkins had moved up to the court, and so human nature, just contest as hard as you can a great shooter. And just a little bit of contact, and he sold it well. He's a great scorer, he knows how to draw contact and everything like that. So he sold it well and it made a big play for them. Q. Ravern, take me through that first half. You got all your bigs getting in foul trouble. Just how did that affect the guards mindset in that first half? RAVEN JOHNSON: We got a lot of people come off the bench and played big for us tonight. I know the bigs went down, but we had people come off the bench like Brandon and John, Shaun, come off the bench, they played hard the whole game until the second half, until we got Kodi back. Q. Ravern, you were hitting some big shots and decided to drive to the basket a little bit. Did you just feel like there in the later part of the second half, about 10 minutes left, that you just felt like you had to take over a little bit? RAVEN JOHNSON: I knew they was going to come out and contest 3-pointers, so they were rushing out, and I basically get by them. And every time I drove, the big man helped, and I dropped it off to my teammates for an easy basket. So basically the whole mindset in the second half was to try to drive it home and create for somebody else if I couldn't. Q. For all three of you, just talk a little bit about your careers and ending it this way. I know you guys been to the semifinals every year. I know it's got to leave a little bit of a sour taste in your mouth. KODI AUGUSTUS: Yeah, it sucks. I mean it's been great here at Mississippi State. This loss hurts. RILEY BENOCK: Yeah, I mean, obviously the careers we had here and stuff, we're used to making noise in the SEC tournament. And I think coming into this year, we had the same mindset. We felt like we had the team to do it. We were playing well coming in. So I think that makes it stink a little bit more, just knowing the team we had, what we were capable of, just hoping we would be able to put it together at the right time, and just didn't work out that way this year. RAVEN JOHNSON: This one hurts. My last, maybe my last game here with Mississippi State, and we have been here every year. We always make a run at SEC tournament time. Everybody, the same mindset coming in, I know we been through a lot this year, but we just pushed past all after that, came together as a team and was hoping we was going to make this run. Like coach said, they made big shots this game in the second half and all we can do is say we played our hearts out this game and we just came out on the wrong end of it. THE MODERATOR: Take questions now for coach. Q. When you get through the first half with Augustus sitting out 14 minutes and Sidney 18 and a half, and you lead by two, did you kind of feel like you weathered a big storm? COACH STALLINGS: I think it's very obvious you felt like you weathered a big storm. You knew the game was far from over. But I think we were happy to be at that point, considering the way we had to get that point. Sid doesn't play but one minute and Kodi played three or four, I'm not sure what it was now. But we played guys, and guys and lineups and matchups we haven't played all year. But we had a great -- our guys were playing with a lot of will and heart. It wasn't no question which team had the most will and heart on that floor, and that's why we were in that position. Got a bad start to the second half. Sid had two turnovers right off the bat against that zone, and I think they went on a 9-0 run to start the second half to take a five-, seven-point lead, whatever it was. I'm not sure. Then we comeback and go back up five, and fought back in it. And again, you reflect back right now, I'm not for sure what we could have done different except keep Jenkins from scoring. How you do that, I'm not for sure. He made some huge shots. Taylor made some huge plays. And again, I don't want to take anything away from what Vanderbilt done. I'm not sure we could have played much better in some areas. So give them a lot of credit. Q. The free throw disparity, and I know that was kind of the theme early on, but that make it's tough, I guess. COACH STALLINGS: Well, it does. That and again, we're right there. I think they shoot 20 for 22. I think we go 8 for 8. Is that correct? Q. Yes. COACH STALLINGS: 8 for 8. That's 12 points difference right there. And there's always situations in every game that you look back and say that was a huge play at that moment. And there's several of those huge plays, when it's a one-possession game, there's a lot of huge possessions in that game that some of them didn't bounce our way. But again, I'm awful proud of our guys effort. Vanderbilt's a really good basketball team. They were one of those teams. If you want to draw up who you don't want to play, they were one of them, I can promise you. And when they play like that, they're going to be hard to beat. Now, do they consistently make shots like that? You know one of the areas we were really concerned in tonight was Ezeli. I thought we did about as good a job you could do on him. Two for three, eight points, three rebounds. That's probably a low for him for a long time, and that was a huge concern. We just weren't planning on Jenkins jumping up and getting going the way he got going in that second half. Q. How about the play of Wendell Lewis, especially in the first half? COACH STALLINGS: Man, those guys, hey, they were giving me everything they had, plus a little bit more. I think he had six points? Six rebounds? He's having to play through fatigue. I'm trying to rest him a little bit with John. And Brandon Bolen comes in and gives us a couple two, three good minutes, tough minutes right there. But Brian Bryant came in and played really good in that first half for us. Both of those guys had good stats, too. Brian's six and four, six points, four rebounds; Wendell, six points, six rebounds. And they were the reason that we were able to keep that lead in the first half. Q. Talk about the job your upperclassmen have done and kind of an unfamiliar setting for you guys to be losing in this second round? COACH STALLINGS: It is. These three guys, I guess it's the first time they have been a part of something they haven't won a championship. They have won three different championships in their three different years, and this is the first year they're leaving without some sort of a championship. Again, they have done a lot for our program. They have all come a long way. I'm proud of the development, not as players, but as people. Two of them are right on time to -- Riley was SEC scholar athlete of the year. Kodi gets his degree in April, and Ray's two classes short. So proud of that for them. And again, you hate to end on this note. And you're right, we didn't come here to go home tonight. We haven't done it lately, and it's a different feeling. But again, take nothing away from Vanderbilt. It would have taken a very good, really good basketball team to have beaten them tonight the way they shot that ball, and we wasn't quite good enough. Q. Renardo, I know he had those two early turnovers you talked about in the second half. He also had 22 points in 18 minutes today. COACH STALLINGS: After that, he went to war, yeah. They changed, went to a zone, and he was a little bit too aggressive in it, and he got to change the thinking a little bit there, and don't try to force some things. But after that point, we kept him out of some positions where he couldn't do that. But he went to war in that paint that second half. Made some threes, too, and he was better. Is he perfect? You guys know the answer to that, he's not. Is he better than he was? I think there's no question about that. He has gotten better. So his next step, we'll see how good he'll become, what he was able to do from March to, October and that will be the next huge step for him. And if he keeps making the progress he's made, then he's got a chance. Q. Do you feel you have a shot at a post-season tournament the NIT? COACH STALLINGS: I don't know. I don't know. I've never had to campaign for the NIT, so I'm not going to campaign for it. I've campaigned for NCAA several times, but I don't know where it lies. Seems to be a lot of upsets going on, and I don't know who in our league -- we did finish second in the west and we have got a 9-7 in the west, and I think it's very obvious. Forget what we were November, December. We're a different team right now. I'll say this, don't matter if we make it or not, we will be as good as a lot of those 32 teams in it. I don't think anybody would disagree with that. And I think if you want to take the eye test and get the 32 best teams, I don't think there would be any argument for nobody, we would be one of those 32 best teams. Now does that make it or not? We'll see. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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