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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2013Kyle FullerRod OdomKevin StallingsNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE VANDERBILT – 64 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to continue on with Vanderbilt. In a bit, we'll ask Coach Stallings for his general thoughts on the game and take questions for the two student athletes and excuse them back to the locker room. Coach, if you'll begin. COACH STALLINGS: Well, I think every season we begin by saying we would like to be playing our best basketball at the end of the year, and I think it's safe to say this team is doing that right now. And I couldn't be any more proud of our players, because we were not a very good team two, three months ago, and that team that I watched play tonight looked like a pretty doggone good team to me. And they deserve every ounce of the credit because they have stayed with each other, they've continued to believe in themselves at a time when at times earlier in the year -- I mean, we got beat, we got held to 33 points by Marist down in Orlando. Okay. So, there was a point this season where we really weren't very good, and now to watch that tonight, to watch us on the defensive end, and then to watch the execution offensively and the confidence the guys have to jump up and make shots and to make plays for each other, it's very gratifying. I think the most satisfying thing you can have as a coach is to get your team to play as close to their potential as they possibly possess, and I felt like tonight we came very close to playing to our very fullest potential, and that is -- I don't care if it's a veteran team, an experienced team, an extremely talented team or a young team or what, your job as the coach is to try to make them as good as they can be and help them become as good as they can be. And tonight we got really close to that, I thought, and I couldn't be any more proud of this group, and this was a terrific night and, like I said, they deserve every ounce of the credit. THE MODERATOR: We'll take your questions for either of the student athletes. If you'll raise your hand and we'll get a microphone to you. Q. This is for both you guys, there were a lot of Kentucky fans in there tonight. Talk about playing with that atmosphere. ROD ODOM: We knew from last year when we played that there was going to be a lot of blue in there, and it's always more fun that way. That's kind of why you play the game for an environment like that. It made the environment more fun for us. KYLE FULLER: To be honest, I was kind of surprised, I thought there might be a little more Vandy fans. Like I said, it was really fun just to like hear that crowd, hear all those people like not a say a word. All you could hear is our Vandy fans. It was just great to be there, it was great to feel. Q. For both of you guys, yesterday you discussed how last time against Kentucky you really didn't come back and throw punches at them. Just describe how the mentality of punching back really played a part in this game. KYLE FULLER: It was just all the team effort. We just did not stop, and there was a time when like they got on a run and Coach called a timeout and brought us in to say we need to calm down and play our game, relax, and we went back out there and Dai-Jon hit some good shots, big shots, and everybody started playing hard again, and it was just good to see the maturity in us. ROD ODOM: First couple of games with them, I think they came out, hit us in the mouth pretty good and we tried to make a point of going out there and competing from the beginning of the game, and I think that did a lot for us today. Q. There were times your offense flowed so well that it almost looked effortless. Was it actually tougher than it looked? ROD ODOM: Yeah. They're a great defensive team, got great guys at the rim protecting the rim. It was tough. We tried to stay with it. We just tried to stay with it and make plays with each other is probably why it looked that way. KYLE FULLER: It was definitely harder than it looked. I just feel like we've been in the gym with Coach Richardson and like the different coaches and been working on our jump shot and just been working on execution, and I'm just really happy and kind of paid off today. Q. Kyle, how gratifying is this for you? You played a lot as a freshman, kind of fell out of rotation last year. Now up on the podium after a big win like this. KYLE FULLER: It's kind of one of the best feelings I've had. I'm trying to hide my emotions until I get back to the locker room, but it's just a good feeling to like know that your hard work is paying off and just the fact that, you know, we started out not as good and then now we're all playing our best ball, everybody is playing their best ball, and it's just a great feeling to see that every single one of us are grown up. Q. For either Kyle or Rod, you've been talking about one day at a time. You now get to play on Saturday in the semifinals. ROD ODOM: It's a great feeling. That was our goal coming into this game to play tomorrow. It's great to accomplish that goal again. Like Coach says, each day the games get more fun. It will be a great opportunity and experience for us tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: One more question. Q. Kyle, last night the poise kind of went down the stretch. Tonight you guys kept it together the whole time. What was the difference? Because both teams really got after you defensively. KYLE FULLER: Just like I said before, we have a really good player, Kedren, he really knows how to take heat and calm everybody down. I felt like me and him both did that. We tried to run our team the best way we could. Just the fact that our teammates follow us and really follow our lead was really good to see. THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll excuse the student athletes. You can return to the locker room. Thank you. We'll continue on with questions for Coach Stallings, if you'll raise your hand. Q. Coach, Kyle talked about how one of the hardest things to do is have a buy and play a hot team that played the day before. How much do you think it helped you guys to play yesterday and get some momentum and comfort zone going in? COACH STALLINGS: I think, and I said this in our locker room before I came in here, I don't know who to, but I think sometimes it can be an advantage to play. You run out of advantages at some point if you play, you know, Saturday or Sunday with somebody that's playing their third game and you're playing your fourth game, your advantage sort of runs out. I do think in the second game like today, and I think he's right, it can be a disadvantage to have the buy and to play someone who is playing well. If you play someone who is not playing as well or they just kind of snuck through or whatever, then that might not be the case, but obviously we're playing decently right now, and so I would agree with what John said about that. I think that that's -- can very well be the case, and, you know, they're coming in and they haven't experience tournament atmosphere yet. They've got a lot of young guys. Even though we have a lot of young guys, we had experienced it and played a game in it, and a very competitive game no less. And so there probably was some advantage to start the game for us in that regard. Q. Coach, it's your 400th win with Vanderbilt. How does it feel to reach that milestone with such a big game? COACH STALLINGS: I didn't know that that was the case. I don't think it's my 400th win at Vanderbilt. It might be 400th win overall. Even if it is, I didn't know that either. I just know I haven't been there long enough to win 400 games. I've been there long enough to lose 400, though (laughter). I feel like I have. You know, I don't know. I guess it will be a memorable 400th win and -- but I never think about things like that. So I'm always caught off guard. I didn't know it was 400 until you just said it. So, that's the best I can do with that question. I'm sorry. Q. Kevin, which is more satisfying for a coach, to have a team like you had last year with a lot of expectations appear and then you win this tournament or a team like this year, as you mentioned it, was not playing well and now here at the end of the year you feel like you are playing your best basketball. COACH STALLINGS: I think that the most satisfaction comes from whichever team you feel like you got the closest to their playing potential, and obviously to beat that Kentucky team that we beat last year in the championship game, we had to play very close to our potential, because that's one of the best college basketball teams I've seen in many years. Having said that, I'm very, very proud and I don't remember -- it's been along time since I've been as proud of a team as I am this team here. I'm very, very proud of this team. I'm very proud of this season, and we're 16-16. It's the first time we've been 500 in about five months and -- but, you know what? I wish it was better than that, but very proud of them. Q. Coach, you play one of two teams next, Ole Miss or Missouri. Talk about those two teams and whether or not you have a preference on an opponent. COACH STALLINGS: I'm going the stand up here -- I thought for sure one of you guys would ask our players, who did you prefer to play? So I'm going to sit up here and say we prefer to play -- maybe not so much. We got rammed at Missouri. We got taken to the woodshed there, and we had a very competitive game against Ole Miss at our place, a game we felt like we should have won, but I'll probably prefer to play whichever team loses. That's probably my answer. (Laughter). Do you think you can work that out for me? They're both really good teams. In my mind, they're both NCAA Tournament teams and I would anticipate it being a great game but both extremely talented and extremely big and physical inside, which has been a little bit of an issue with us this season. It will be a big challenge for us regardless of which one we play. Q. Coach, you only had two guys go over 30 minutes and Kedren you held to 27 minutes. How do you feel from a stamina standpoint? COACH STALLINGS: I feel fine (laughter). I could coach three more games right now. We'll get them back, try to get them to bed, and we obviously won't know who is going to win for a couple of hours and so it won't do us any good -- last night when we left here, we went back, we ate, we already had the scouting report done, the clip tape down. We watched film, we went over the scouting report, we went out on the court, walked through some stuff and sent them out about 11:15 and brought them back in today and did it again. After they got finished with class and -- you did know they're still going to class? All right. You got to try to get a brownie point with your boss every now and then. But, tonight we don't know who's going to win for awhile. We'll send them home as soon as we get back. We'll bring them in in the morning and either prior to pregame meal or right after the pregame meal, we'll do the scouting report and walk through the things we need to do. Q. Kevin, one point late when Kentucky was trying to make a run, Kedren kind of talked to everybody out on the court and helped settle them down. How much has he helped along with the maturation of the rest of the guys? COACH STALLINGS: Kedren really likes to win. He has as unselfish a spirit when it comes to playing and winning as just about anybody I've ever seen, because if I get mad and take him out and sit him over there for an extended period of time, he has the exact same personality when I put him in as if I play him for 35 minutes. And our team sees that and they feed off of that because there's not -- he does some ill-advised things. Last night, for whatever reason, he thought he could continue to drive in there and jump into their defender and draw a foul and throw up bad shots. Then he would take his mouthpiece out and look at the official while Arkansas was dribbling down and laying up on us. There were some things I'd still like to get modified with him, but his spirit and his attitude and his leadership and his toughness, I mean, that kid's shoulder came out last night again. The first five shots he takes at shoot-around today, he can barely get them up to the rim. How is your shoulder? He said, kind of tight, but I'll be okay. He just keeps playing. So, I think our team really feeds off of him and he's an innately confident kid. He's a very confident basketball player and our team has needed his confidence all season long. THE MODERATOR: One more question. Q. You obviously won the tournament last season in New Orleans. But talk about the difference in being on the road and then being more or less in your home city for the tournament, what you'll do after the game and just the normalcy for the players. COACH STALLINGS: I'll go home and hug my wife, sleep in my own bed, but I'm glad it's Friday, because honestly I felt guilty making my players go to class, especially today. I didn't feel guilty making them go yesterday. I felt guilty making them go today. They still went. But it's almost better -- people -- it didn't feel like a home game. I don't know if you noticed out there (laughter). I'm not sure if you noticed, but the go Big Blue thing sounded a little louder to me than some of stuff our fans had going. I'm very appreciative of the fans that were here. I'm glad we gave them something to cheer about, but it's almost better to be away because now you have them confined, you can limit the distractions, you can limit all the stuff. And I could have put them in a hotel, but we're trying to save some money to go on a trip this summer, and so we're having them sleep in their own beds to save money. I'm kidding. But -- kind of. But, it's almost easier just to be away. It really is. I love having the tournament here, it's my favorite place, because honestly I'd rather be at home than anyplace in the world. That's my favorite spot on earth is my house. And so, anyway, it is what it is. We're happy to be playing tomorrow, and hopefully we'll play well again. Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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