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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2012John JenkinsKevin StallingsJeffery TaylorNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Vanderbilt – 71 CLAUDE FELTON: We're joined by Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings and student‑athletes Jeffery Taylor and John Jenkins. We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH STALLINGS: I say this a lot, or not a lot, but when I think it's appropriate, but if you didn't care who won, that was a great college basketball game. Kentucky, they set the bar. They set the bar nationally this year. They set the bar in our league almost every year. They certainly did this year. They have got a great team. So we're proud to have beaten them. Proud to have won a SEC championship. I couldn't be happier for my players because this season has had its ups and its downs and we have been the target of much criticism, and to my players' credit, they never let that get to them, they never let it create a seam in our squad or let it create any division in anything that we did. They stayed with us as coaches, they stayed with each other as teammates. This is the result of that sticking together. As far as the game today, we battled, they battled. We had a little bit of a better plan, we felt like, going in this time. The stat sheet at halftime, I don't, I haven't really seen the stat sheet since the game's been over, but they had taken 16 threes at half and that was what we wanted. We wanted them to beat us from outside. Then they made their runs, and we had responses and we made a run, and they had a response. And it kind of went back and forth a little bit. And then at the end, we have talked for a long time about wanting those last three or four minutes again because we got it to that point in the first two games and they outplayed us at the end of both games to win the game. We wanted one more shot to see if we could do it. And today we played better than them in the last few minutes. I couldn't be prouder of these guys. It's to their credit. They deserve all the credit. I'm most happy for them and for our fans that have waited a long time to see us win a SEC tournament championship. CLAUDE FELTON: All right. We'll take your questions for the student‑athletes. Q. You guys are such a veteran team, is that why you guys don't seem to get rattled when Kentucky makes that run and you don't get flustered and let the game get away from you. JEFFERY TAYLOR: Yeah, we have been in these situations before. We played a really tough non‑conference schedule. We went away and played road games in front of huge crowds. So when Kentucky made a run, they made a couple of them in the game and we just kept our poise and we battled back and we made key plays down the stretch. JOHN JENKINS: Basketball's a huge game of runs, and we knew they were going to make their runs for sure. Our thing was just to stay poised and that's what we did down the stretch. Q. I think Kentucky went without a field goal the last 8:04 I think. Can you explain how it happens? JEFFERY TAYLOR: We just played really solid defense all game. The coaches came up with a great defensive game plan for us, and I think for the most part we did a really good job of following that. Also you have to be a little bit lucky. I think they missed some open looks, but I think we did a really good job of contesting shots and really making it tough for them. And they did that to us the first two games. We went for a long time without scoring. So I felt like it was our turn. JOHN JENKINS: What he said for sure is perfect. Coach did a great job of calling zone and we made that call, and it was kind of a game changer for us. We were able to rebound out of it and get fouled. Q. When the game was over, you were kind of lying on the court there for a few minutes. Can you talk about just the emotions that were going through your mind as time expired. JOHN JENKINS: I had a tough week with my grandmother dying last week, so that's what all that emotion was coming from. It's been really tough for me. So just being out here with my teammates and the coaches has been kind of an outlet for me. So to win the championship after 60‑some years is incredible. Q. A lot of people thought you guys would be a dangerous NCAA tournament team anyway, but what does winning a title here over obviously a very good Kentucky team do for you guys moving forward? JEFFERY TAYLOR: It's a huge momentum. It's something that we want to build on. We were coming off of our first SEC tournament championship in 62 years, so it's huge momentum for us. Huge confidence lift to beat the number one team. I mean they won some 20‑some games in a row. So for us, we feel really good about ourselves. We're going to go practice and feel a lot more confident. JOHN JENKINS: It's huge confidence builder for us and we're going to go practice and get ready for the NCAA tournament now. CLAUDE FELTON: All right. We'll excuse you and take questions for coach. Q. John said after the game that at halftime, he said to his kids, There you go again. You've given a team hope. I was curious the last two minutes of the second half, it felt like there was kind of a significant sway in momentum in y'all's favor. I wondered if you felt like getting into the locker room on a surge was a significant factor in the game. COACH STALLINGS: Certainly we had gotten the lead in the first half, and then they made that run and came back and got a five‑point lead. And that just is how good they are. They can take your eight‑point lead and turn it into their five‑point lead in about three minutes. Might have been the biggest, one of the biggest parts of the game, because we were able to come back and score five straight to close the half and get the game tied. And I thought that was a big momentum shift. But there were momentum shifts in the second half, too, and even though the numbers don't bear me out, I did not think that the first ten minutes of the second half that we defended as well as we had defended in the first half. Now the last eight minutes, I think that's correct. I think they went without a field goal. We did obviously do a great job on defense. I thought the zone was a big factor in the game there at the end. We used our zone in the first game against them, and it allowed us to get back into the game in the second half at our place. Then at their place, we tried to use it, and they scored four out of the first, I don't want to say four out of the first five, but it was four out of the first five. We ran it. We used it, and we didn't use it any more because they were killing us. And I thought if we could get the game at the end, we could go to the zone, because they do a lot of lobbing and things against zones and those lob passes get a little more tense in the last three minutes of the game than they do in the first 37. Especially if it's a tight game. So now they're not quite as willing to throw that, or those 3‑point shots get a little bit tougher to make right there at the end. And I was hoping we would be in position to use our zone in the last few minutes and fortunately we were, and even more fortunately it worked. Q. Did you use anything that Kentucky's two previous opponents in this tournament used defensively? Did you use any of it? COACH STALLINGS: No, not a thing. I know that the LSU game was very physical game. The Florida game was a very fast game. We thought because of those two things that we wanted fatigue to be an issue because obviously they don't play a lot of guys and so we wanted the ball game going fast as much as we could make it fast, in hopes that fatigue would be a factor. Whether or not it was or not, I'm not sure. But that was our goal and something worked, I'm not sure what did work, but something worked. Q. There's some guys today who played the way you thought they could always play this year, and you can point to this next week in tournament and say, This is the way you need to play. I mean for us to be good, you have to play this way. COACH STALLINGS: Our team is like that proverbial box of chocolates. You just don't know. I would like to say that I know and I would like to say that they're the pillars of consistency, but they're not. And so that was the same Festus Ezeli today that went scoreless yesterday. And the same Jeffery Taylor that scored two points yesterday. So good for them that on an occasion like this they could rise up and give us a great game. Good for them. And I don't know if they just kind of decided when they think we need it, I doubt if that's what they do. But anyway, if that's what they do, I hope that they feel like we need it on Thursday or Friday. Q. Yesterday Billy Donovan was talking about how one of the more remarkable things he found about Anthony Davis was that he can block all those shots and he has such body control that he stays out of foul trouble despite that. The fact that you got him into some early foul trouble, he admitted that this isn't something he's used to dealing with. How much do you think that might have changed the game? COACH STALLINGS: Well, it didn't seem like he was out for very long, so he played 34 minutes. So it's not like ‑‑ I don't know if it affected his play. I mean it certainly didn't affect the amount of time that he played. Q. He said he was real self‑conscious. COACH STALLINGS: Okay. Well, I don't know if there's a formula for beating Kentucky, because basically nobody's beaten them. But if there is, if you can get the best player in the country off the court, you got a better chance. And if you can get him playing in a different way you have a better chance. Because he's the darnedest thing I've ever seen. What a terrific player. What an unbelievable, unbelievable player that kid is. Wow, is he good. And great demeanor. Great disposition. Wow. He is the real, real deal. Q. Going all the way back to SEC Media Day when you talked about these veterans coming back, you said something along the lines that they deserved success. Talk about what this veteran group has meant to you and obviously moving forward. COACH STALLINGS: They have done things today, it's just‑‑ today is just another thing. But they have done things for Vanderbilt basketball that have never been done before. They have raised the awareness of our program. They have raised the status of our program. They have made us relevant on a national level. And all anybody wants to talk about is the last two years, last two first round losses, and they deserve a lot better than that. I'm sure today will help alleviate some of that nay saying. But they deserve better than that. They have done everything for our program and they have done it while being absolutely model human beings, and you couldn't ask for a better group of young men. They're great every day. They're great to coach. They're great to be around. So because of their character and their work ethic and maybe the last thing putting up with me for four years, they deserve success.  And I'm glad they got it today. Q. The first two games were decided in the last couple of minutes, and when they kind of shut you down. Today it was the opposite, you get to the last two or three minutes, you're tied and then it was Kedren Johnson I think, who scored and put you ahead for good. Just wonder if you could talk about, A, Kedren's play there and that sequence of possessions in which you guys scored and you kept them from scoring. COACH STALLINGS: Well, one of the biggest plays in the game, Fes had a tip‑in, didn't look like the prettiest tip‑in in the world, but he had a tip‑in of Lance's missed shot, and then Kedren had that layup that I think that might have given us a three‑point lead. But when that happened, now I think we're inside of two minutes. And now the pressure is squarely on their shoulders now. And that's the position that you want to be in. It's hard enough playing in Rupp Arena south, but when all of a sudden you get that lead, and there's a little time left, and now they're not playing very well against a zone, now you got some things going. I knew if we could just get rebounds, which I wasn't sure that we could, but I knew if we got rebounds, we would be good. I congratulate John and Kentucky. Those guys have been absolutely dominant, dominant like I haven't seen before in all my years in college basketball. Dominant in our league this year, and nationally, too. But in our league. They won the league by six games, for goodness sakes. And we played them two tough games, and I thought that we were the team that had the best chance to beat them. I thought that all season long. But Kedren made several big plays for us at the end of the game and came up with a loose ball and got fouled. Made the and‑one. He made some big plays for us going down the stretch. CLAUDE FELTON: All right. Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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