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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2014Marshall HendersonAndy KennedyJarvis SummersATLANTA, GEORGIA Ole Miss – 78 THE MODERATOR: We'll take an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH KENNEDY: Tale of two halves. Thank goodness the game is still 40 minutes. Mississippi State was outstanding out of the gate. Really reminisced of the way they played last night. Made a lot of shots, were playing with an a lot of confidence. We were a little bit back on our heels, but it test our guys' resolve. And I challenged them at halftime that if we want to make a change, let's make the change. If not, we're going to go home. Our guys don't want to go home yet. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student‑athletes. Q.   Marshall, you're searching and then finally you get one and they start to fall for you. It seemed like that was a real spark. Did it just take a little bit for you. Did you start to feel it eventually? MARSHALL HENDERSON: Yeah, I was feeling it there in the first half. There was like three or four that rolled in and out, and the most roll‑in‑and‑outs I've ever had. But they were there. Then missing some, so work it around. Then it was coming, it got to crunch time and it was time that shots had to be made. Q.   For Marshall, you had a couple possessions where you forced a turnover. Do you think your defense helped change the course of the game in the second half? MARSHALL HENDERSON: Maybe some. (Laughter.) COACH KENNEDY: Some. Yeah. (Laughter.) MARSHALL HENDERSON: Normally the other way around. No, just trying to make a big play somewhere else. That's what coach emphasizes. Coach always says players make plays, and a lot of times we get to thinking that that's only on the offensive end. They're always trying to reiterate to us you can make a big play on defense if you want to. Q.   Marshall, what do you remember about that game in Athens against Georgia, and are you eager to get another shot at them? MARSHALL HENDERSON: Oh, yeah, definitely ready to play them again. They got us. What I remember is Gaines had a really good game. Shot the ball well. We had our chances, had a couple bone‑head mistakes that hurt us in the end. But we're excited for the opportunity to play them again. Q.   Marshall and Jarvis, they were up 51‑38 with 16:42 in the second half, and then y'all wore them down. Did you sense that y'all were just continuing to wear them down and they just had nothing left eventually? MARSHALL HENDERSON: Yeah, that's our prime position, being down with, like, halfway through the second half, being down by 10 or something. But for some reason, I don't know what it is, but when we're there, you better watch out. That's our spot. JARVIS SUMMERS: We just had to try to finish it out. They came out, they were aggressive with us. We had to come back. Really we're just not a first half team. We come out being sluggish and all that. But second half we just made plays and got the win. Q.   Jarvis, it looked like in the second half there was more of a concerted effort on your part to drive to the basket. Looked like they were having a hard time staying in front of you. Is that something you were concentrating on? JARVIS SUMMERS: Not really, I was just trying to make plays for my team. Coach told me just to stop driving on the ball with my head down and just man‑up and make a play. So that's basically what I was trying to do. Q.   Marshall, did you notice a change in Fred Thomas' demeanor as game went on? Could you tell he was getting tired? Were you getting more open at that point? MARSHALL HENDERSON: Yeah, definitely you could tell that. I know that's pretty much how it is a lot of games. At the beginning of games, teams are like real anxious to guard me, so running around. But one thing, I got on them and I just never stop running. COACH KENNEDY: Or shooting. MARSHALL HENDERSON: Or shooting, so... Q.   19 threes, is that an SEC record? COACH KENNEDY: Can't be. Q.   I think it is in attempts? COACH KENNEDY: 19 attempts. That's a record, congratulations. (Laughter.) Q.   For both of you, you guys have been obviously struggling with your shot the last few weeks, and finally some of them started dropping in the second half. Was it just a sense of relief for some of those shots to start falling for you guys? And kind of I guess you're never short on confidence, Marshall, but I guess kind of get some of that confidence back? JARVIS SUMMERS: We just got to keep playing. We're not going to make every shot. We are the leaders on the team, so our confidence got to stay up. We got to make plays either on offense or defense. That's basically all we got to do. MARSHALL HENDERSON: Yeah, it would be nice if we could make some more instead of, like, in clutch situations. But something kicks into gear. I know in Jarvis' mind and in my mind when there's about 10 minutes left to go in the second half, for some reason, it's like our sense of urgency goes up a lot more and the focus becomes more effective and whatnot. So I don't know. THE MODERATOR: All right. You can return to the locker room. We'll take questions for coach. COACH KENNEDY: My sense of urgency kicks in at about 9 a.m. takes them another 12 or 13 hours, but eventually the message gets there. Q.   Down 51‑38 with 16:42 to go, and then shots start falling. You finished the game outscoring them like some crazy number, 40 to 10 or 11? COACH KENNEDY: You know what is funny, I've been doing this a long time, and when you make shots, it's amazing how much energy you have. When you miss shots, that energy goes away quickly. First half, they were making shots, they were hopping all around the gym. We couldn't make one. I was just trying to stay in the game. Let's just stay in the game. Stay in the game. The script got flipped in the second half. Second half we start making them. They were struggling a little bit. We were zoning them and gaping them. We were doing a better job on the glass. We were down six or seven on the glass in the last 10 minutes, and it end up around even. We turned them over some, which allowed us to make some plays in the open floor. Then we were determined to try to get Jarvis in some ball‑screening action and put some pressure on the rim as opposed to just settling, settling, settling from the perimeter. Marshall is going to do Marshall, but we can't all fall in love with jump shots. We got to drive the ball. And once we started making shots, I felt like we had a lot more energy down the stretch. Q.   Did you think Marshall had more space as the game went on with Thomas chasing him around? Was there some fatigue that set in there? COACH KENNEDY: Again, to my earlier point, I think they were struggling some, missing shots. They could feel the momentum start to turn. They were in complete control up 15 minutes, and really were in control for probably 30 of the 40 minutes. But then we kept coming, kept coming, and you look up, we went from being up 2, to being up 8, to being up 12. That's when they got slower. That's when Marshall had an opportunity to put down a couple of daggers and he did. Q.   Sort of a two‑fold question. I know Marshall takes a lot of shots and that kind of thing‑‑ COACH KENNEDY: Yes, he does. (Laughter.) Q.   Did you feel like in the second half, though, that more of those were in rhythm shots? And then along those lines, in the second half, did you think as a team you guys were maybe more disciplined in terms of shot selection? COACH KENNEDY: Well, again that sense of urgency. These are two all‑league players and they have to make the players. We design everything for them to be in a position to make a play. You've seen us all year. Marshall was right. I thought in the first half, he had two or three looks that were right there, and they kind of rattled out. And then States going down and knocking them down. Knocking them down. I thought his looks were probably, until I see the tape, pretty similar. We changed a few angles because of the way they were guarding. They were downing balls screen. You know what that means. They weren't letting us adjust. We had to adjust. They were guarding Marshall, which was unconventional, which is what a lot of people do. They were guarding on the opposite side of the basket. Usually people always keep the defender between the guy they're guarding and the rim. They weren't they decided to get on the other side so they could chase over the top, so we adjusted some angles. Q.   Early in the game, you were looking for some production in the front court. Demarco he goes in, you gave him some quality minutes? COACH KENNEDY: No question. I went to the Mississippi guy early, you know. Sometimes we can say, Hey, this is a rivalry. You know, when you're playing, and if you lose, the season's over, which is in essence what we were doing tonight, then you would hope that would be all the motivation that you need. It's all the motivation I need. But sometimes when you're 18 years old and from another continent, you don't quite understand that. So I wanted to go with the guys from this continent that understood, especially that Mississippi State, Ole Miss, you know, hopefully that would motivate Bear, and so I went to him early and he responded. Q.   On along those same lines, Anthony, 10 points, had a couple key threes? COACH KENNEDY: Huge for us. Q.   For them to get out to a big lead‑‑ COACH KENNEDY: He made some big shots. We played him at the three and at the four. He played heavy minutes because I was trying to spread him all over. We got in foul trouble. We got in early foul trouble. Coleby picked up two quick ones. A.J. picks up two quick ones, so I was playing him a lot at the four, and then based on our rebounding deficiencies. I played him more at the three in the second half. Q.   You guys had a lot of chances to win at Georgia, missed shots down in the paint and free throws. What do you remember about that game? What do you think of the matchup tomorrow? COACH KENNEDY: Well, it's going to be a rugged game. Mark Fox has done a great job of righting that ship and making the necessary adjustments. His team has figured out who they are and they have embraced hard. It's what I'm trying to get my group to do. You got to embrace hard. It's hard to win. I don't care who you're playing or where you're playing, it's hard to win. So I think his group embraced hard, and they're really playing. They developed an identity. It was a knock down, drag out. They were up, we get back the lead, couldn't finish it, missed some crucial free throws, and then Charles Mann made a winning play. Shot fake, I think, under 2 seconds to play, wins the game by one. So we know it will be a battle. We're back on their home turf. They have earned that. We were in that position last year. We've got to come out with that same sense of urgency that we played with in the last ten minutes. It's probably the best half of basketball offensively we have played in a long time. When you see 56 percent from the floor, we out rebounded them, we have positive assist‑to‑turnovers. Marshall and Jarvis made some shots and we got contributions from a number other of other guys. It's probably the best half offensively that we played in a while. Q.   You alluded to Georgia's similar trajectory to what you guys did last year. Does that extend to on the court, too? You guys kind of being similar in the way you play and their being similar in the way you guys went about it last year. COACH KENNEDY: I'm not sure that's case because there's only one Marshall Henderson, and the guy shoots 19 threes in a game. I mean, come on. I'm not sure they will shoot 19 in this tournament. So, yeah, it's a little different. We had big, rugged post guys in the Holloway and Buckner. That's really where they have changed their identity. They have gotten really physical and really strong on their front line. Charles Mann's had an all‑league type year, and then I think Gaines has really evolved into a guy that is a dependable scorer. So they got a good basketball team. It's going to be a hard matchup for us. There is one advantage. I think Mississippi State showed that early tonight, when you get a win in this building, I think it helps you initially. Did they get a little tired at the end? I think again it was because they weren't making any shots. It's easy to lose your momentum when the ball doesn't go in. But I think tomorrow early we should have a little bit of an advantage because we've seen the ball go in the basket for us, most especially in the second half. So hopefully we can take that approach. Q.   Why do you think it is that it takes you guys so long to get going? COACH KENNEDY: Honestly it's not. It's just like when we talk about Marshall's in a shooting slump. No, he's a 35 percent shooter. That's what 70 games have taught me. We have had some great first halfs, and we have had some terrible first halfs. It's easy to say, you know, we all want to be down 14 with eight to play, I don't, for the record. But if that's what he thinks, then that's what he thinks. Maybe it will help him again. I hope we don't have to test that theory again tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. COACH KENNEDY: Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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